标题：Paradox of placement policy: struggling EFL learners' negotiation of performance-based identity in China
作者：罗豪伟（清华大学外国语言文学系）、 余华（上海外国语大学语言科学研究院，上海国语大学中国外语战略研究中心）
摘要：Drawing on the concept of performance-based identity, this critical ethnographic study examines the complex interplay between university English placement test policy and the identity negotiation of first-year English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in China. The analysis reveals how placement test policy streams EFL learners into listening and speaking courses based on written-test performance, resulting in destabilization of their performance-based identities. Two distinct identity trajectories emerge: an “in-between identity struggle,” trapped between exemption unreachable and an unwillingness to game for an easier track, and a “self-directed identity adaptation,” marked by acute awareness of oral gaps and proactive recalibration of exam-oriented practices to meet university demands. Yet both trajectories reveal how the misalignment between entry placement and course assessment tends to (re)produce structural disparities by privileging oral competence while relying on written-only placement, systematically undervaluing “written-strong/oral-weak'' EFL learners. By introducing the concept of “performance-based identity” into language policy studies, this research enriches understanding of identity work within policy-mediated educational transitions. Future research could focus on transitional periods where new language policies alter performance evaluation standards, as these are critical sites where learner identities are revalued and renegotiated within power dynamics.
关键词：Performance-based identity； Language learner identity；Placement test；Language policy； EFL
来源：《Language Policy》2026, 25:39
欢迎引用：Luo, H., & Yu, H. (2026). Paradox of placement policy: struggling EFL learners’ negotiation of performance-based identity in China. Language Policy, 25(2), 39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-026-09797-3
