Making interview multilingualism visible: transnational Chinese language teacher identity construction

This study examines multilingual practices in research interviews, focusing on English lexical insertions in Chinese-language research interviews with teachers of Chinese in Australian secondary schools, and treating these code-switches as analytically meaningful rather than incidental. While interviews are widely used in language teacher-identity research, the multilingual nature of interview interaction is often rendered invisible, as code-switching within the interview itself is often sanitized in transcription and analysis. Drawing on data from 25 semi-structured interviews, the analysis focuses on ten frequently code-switched English terms, categorized into three thematic domains: (1) structural pressures and affective challenges, (2) classroom dynamics and teacher positioning, and (3) pedagogical approaches to language teaching. These code-switches reveal how participants position themselves as transnational professionals, balancing cultural affiliations and pedagogical orientations while negotiating their roles as teachers of Chinese. The study extends research on language teacher identity and demonstrates the value of systematically transcribing and analyzing code-switching in interview data. It also offers implications for teacher education programs that prepare teachers to reflect on their language use in negotiating identity and to support reflective and culturally responsive practice.