6.3　Summary

This chapter has presented how advice-givers dynamically choose and construct their identities in academic advising sequences by discussing identity modification and identity shift. It has been found that advice-givers may dynamically modify their default expert identity and make salient one of the aspects of an expert in the dynamic process of academic advising interaction. It has also been found that advice-givers may make identity shift in the dynamic process. Compared with identity modification, identity shift is more complicated, so the major patterns of identity shift have been worked out, which are summarized as follows:

The identity shift in an advising sequence is classified into three types,that is, the identity shift with a clear sequential order, the shift between two identities indicated by their alternate construction in an advising sequence and the shift of identities indicated by the construction of one identity embedded in another. For this last type, it is found that the construction of the identity of a collegial researcher is embedded within the construction of the identity of an amiable expert, and the construction of the identity of a teacher is embedded in the construction of that of a researcher. The second type of identity shift is achieved by the use of personal pronouns. It is found that in the sequence of advising performance, which composes an advising sequence, advice-givers may alternately constructs the identity of an expert and a virtual advice-receiver realized by the alternate use of the singular form of the first person pronoun “我” (‘I’) and the singular form of the second person pronoun “你” (‘you’). In addition, advice-givers may alternately constructs the identity of an expert and a collegial researcher realized by the alternate use of the plural form of the first person pronoun “我们” (‘we’) and the singular form of the second person pronoun “你” (‘you’). The first type of the identity shift is more complicated. It is found that the clear shift of identities can happen in an advising sequence, which composes at least the pre-sequence or the post-sequence in addition to the sequence of advising performance, and the clear shift of identities can also happen in an advising sequence, composed only the sequence of advising performance. In this subtype, various patterns of a clear shift of identities have been found. For example, advice-givers may construct the default identity of an expert, and then shift to the identity of a teacher, the identity of a layperson, and the identity of a researcher. In most cases, advice-givers may make identity shifts for several times in an advising sequence, which composes at least the pre-sequence or the post-sequence in addition to the sequence of advising performance.

Zimmerman (1998), after discussing the identity shift in emergency calls,finds that the identity shift from caller/called to citizen-complaint/call-taker establishes the context for the display of current activity (i.e.,“identity-as-context”). The identity shift in the present study is driven by satisfying different communicative needs. In this respect, the present study can contribute to the understanding of motivations for identity shift in academic advising interaction. Yuan (2011a) finds that in medical phone-in programme interaction, the consultants’ making the shift from expert identity and peer identity to sales representative identity is driven by their communicative goal of sales promotion. In his study, the identity shift happens in the whole process of the interaction, which is a genre, but the present study has found that the identity shift can also happen within an advising sequence, which actually is an advising act, one of the activities in a genre.Thus, this study may contribute to the understanding of identity shift in a pragmatic act. In addition, advice-givers often make identity shift around their default expert identity. This indicates that the deviation is temporary in this institutional community of practice.

However, what drives advice-givers to construct different identities and to make identity shift in the dynamic process of academic advising interaction?What drives advice-givers to dynamically modify their default identity of an expert? Chapter Seven attempts to answer these two questions by probing into the communicative needs to be satisfied and the contextual correlates to be adapted to in identity construction.