8.2.3　Methodological implications

The present study also has some methodological implications for the study of identity construction and advising.

For one thing, the present study adopts the discourse-analytic method in analysis, which can be realized by three types of linguistic variables, i.e.,linguistic forms, discourse contents and discourse styles. These linguistic variables have been used to analyze identity construction in academic advising interaction and it has been found that a detailed description of identity construction can be arrived at by examining these variables. Therefore, this study may contribute to the study of identity construction by providing these three specific modules for the discourse-analytic method.

For another, the method used to identify and extract advising acts can provide a referential model for the study of advising in institutional interactions and in interlanguage and cross-cultural pragmatics. To examine advising acts means to examine both advising head acts and general context of the occurrence of advising acts.