Contextualising the temporal dimension in multilingual identity construction: A longitudinal Q methodological study with Chinese LOTE-learning public high school students

Multilingual identity construction is a diachronic, non-linear and constantly evolving process which is influenced by a complex range of contextual and temporal factors. Yet the temporal dimension seldom receives explicit empirical attention and remains under-theorised. Meanwhile, the dynamics of multilingual identity development are rarely explored at the cohort (i.e., wholeclass) level. Underpinned by complex dynamic systems theory, this study tracks the evolution of multilingual identity positions in a class of Japanese-learning public high school students in China using longitudinal Q methodology. Three rounds of Q sorting and Q-based interviews were administered over the course of one academic year. The findings testified the enrichment and concretisation of students' multilingual identity with the accumulation of their Japanese learning experience. A range of sociocultural factors with changing saliencies impacted the students' identity development, giving rise to group-level patterns of convergences and divergences at different timepoints. We argue that the temporal axis should be explicitly conceptualised in multilingual identity research. A temporal model of multilingual identity development is proposed to better contextualise and construe the continuity and shifts of multilingual identity at both individual and group levels.