Students' Perceptions of Foreign Lecturers' Bio-identities

Abstract

This study aims to explore students' perceptions of foreign lecturers regarding their bio-identities and the influence of their perceptions on classroom participation. Bio-identities are associated with primordial identities, self-grown identities, and assigned identities based on their connection with a person's life. We reviewed categories of identities and selected four theme-based identities, including professional, moral, ethnic, and cyber identities, regarding their commonality, prominence, and the current study scope. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to seek qualitative data from 33 participants at a university in Vietnam. Our findings illustrated that the more professional and moral foreign lecturers are, the more appealing they are to classroom participation. Moreover, foreign lecturers' ethnic identity was the first impression for students' enrolment. Nonetheless, foreign lecturers should reinforce their professionalism and morality to consolidate their competitive advantage. We hope that these results will assist universities and English language centers in better understand how students value foreign lecturers. Subsequently, they can make more appropriate requirements when recruiting foreign lecturers to their systems.