8.1　Introduction

This study aims to explore the ways in which Chinese students in a UKbased university in China construct disciplinary identities in the developmental participation and language use in the mediated process of group membership affiliation.An explanatory and analytical framework integrated with social and linguistic dimensions is proposed for exploring the multiplicity of identity construction in individual, linguistic, historical, situated, and social contexts.The idea of group membership affiliation delaminates the tension between individual and context, enabling a more dynamic interpretation of disciplinary identities construction in both interpersonal and intrapersonal interactions.