Multilingual Identity in Schools: A Q Methodological Study with Chinese LOTE-as-L3 Learners in International and Public High School Contexts

Abstract

In language learner identity research, there is an underrepresentation of LOTE-as-L3 learners in instructed foreign language learning contexts. This study addresses this gap by exploring the multilingual identity profiles of Chinese high school LOTE-as-L3 learners in two school contexts and seeks to understand how the schools may influence students’ multilingual identity development. Q sorting activities were administered with 35 international school and 22 public school students who were in their first year of Japanese study using newly developed Q instruments. Five archetypical identity positions emerged and one student from each group was interviewed on their Q sort decisions. We argue that the school environment plays an important role in students’ multilingual identity negotiation. The schools’ ethos, curriculum arrangements and pedagogical goals for language learning, along with the schools’ social dynamics emerged as salient factors that concomitantly shape learners’ experience, evaluations and emotions as multilingual learners and users.