Reasons for Chinese EFL Teacher’s Role Anxiety in Teacher Identity Formation: A Comparative Analysis of Teacher Metaphors

Along with the development of information technology and its increasing application in foreign language teaching, English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers encounter new challenges from students and society. In the dynamic process of teacher identity formation, EFL teachers are likely to experience anxiety in role shifts. This article studies the interactions between the internal and external perceptions of Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ role through a comparative analysis of teacher metaphors. Metaphors written by EFL teachers represent pro-internal perceptions, and those extracted from research articles stand for pro-external perceptions. Within China’s socio-cultural context, the study aims to demonstrate the consistency and discrepancy between the internal and external perceptions of the EFL teacher’s role. Two groups of metaphors were first compared based on the conceptual themes and then categorized into four types: Learner-oriented, Social Order, Social Reform, and Cultural Transmission according to the metaphor-categorization framework. The consistency and discrepancy in teacher perception revealed by comparing two groups of teacher metaphors shed light on the possible reasons for Chinese EFL teachers’ role anxiety in identity formation.