Novice Teacher Professional Identity Formation in the College EFL Classroom: A Case in Mainland China

This study adopts the method of a case study to deeply explore how a novice college English teacher developed in her teaching practice, and how the teaching practice contributes to her construction of teacher identity. This is a longitudinal study, aiming to observe and record how a novice teacher feels and experiences in her first year of teaching. This research finds the formation of the novice teacher's identity and the change of her teaching practices are mutually influenced. Some suggestions are given as follows: developing a teachers' learning community which can play an important role in guiding and leading younger teachers in academic research and empowering teachers in decision making to raise their obligations and responsibilities for developing themselves with the whole group, so that they can know themselves better and make future plans for their professional development.