Academic Identity Construction in Writing the Discussion & Conclusion Section of L2 Theses: Case Studies of Chinese Social Science Doctoral Students

Abstract

There has been an increasing interest in studying thesis writing genre in the past two decades, however, the study on how social science doctoral students construct their academic identity in l2 thesis writing still remains underexplored to date. This paper attempts to fill the gap by examining the ways in which a cohort of Chinese social science doctoral students constructed their academic identity in the process of drafting, revising, and shaping the Discussion & Conclusion section of their L2 theses. The study adopted multi-case approaches and in-depth interviews. It found that the process of the students’ academic identity construction was fluid and dynamic. These students gradually evolved from novice student writers at the initial stage to more skilled academic writers at the later stage. The findings generated from this study offer significant implications for L2 writing pedagogy in China.