雅思写作中的应试作者身份构建——雅思培训中心案例研究

Construction of Competent Writer Identities for IELTS Trainees: A Case Study from an IELTS Training Center

摘要: 尽管已有充分的研究证实作者身份对重大英语考试意义非凡，雅思考试环境下学生作者如何构建自身应试作者身份这一问题仍有待探索。本案例研究旨在解决这一研究空白，在四个月中探索了两名中国雅思培训学生如何在案例环境下，构建自身的雅思应试者作者身份。本研究以后结构主义的身份理论为指导框架，同时也延伸涵盖了Hyland作者身份研究中的元话语互动模式，使用三种研究方法收集数据并互相佐证：自传式写作、研究对象雅思作文文本分析(学术类：任务2)、及刺激回想式采访。研究发现，两名研究对象的应试作者身份构建既在三个方面有所重叠，又存在明显的差异。就重叠而言，在自传式自我(Autobiographical self)层面，两名研究对象的应试作者身份构建都体现出明显的家庭和应试导向；在文本自我(Discoursal self)层面，两者都未充分使用模糊限制语(Hedges)及自我提及语(Self-mentions)，尤其是第一人称。就差异而言，研究对象A是一位被动的教师支配型作者，且在雅思写作实考时的思想冲突中，体现出了作者身份构建决策的矛盾性。相比之下，研究对象B展现出明显的主动学习者能动性，但同时也有意地隐藏其对考试及分数的关注。再次，虽然B在研究中展现出较强的作者自我，但此种自我并未必然地引出良好的雅思写作表现，这也隐示着在构建成功的雅思应试作者身份时，还存在某些颇具影响的社会文化因素。

Abstract: Albeit many studies have shown that writer identity is of significance to the quality of high-stake English exams. It remains elusive how learner writers construct competent writer identities in IELTS context. To address this gap, the current four-month case study explored how two Chinese IELTS trainees developed their competent writer identities in the case. Under the umbrella of post-structuralist identity theory, expanding to incorporate Hyland’s interaction model in writer identity, the study draws on three methods to collect data and triangulate with each other—literacy autobi-ographies, analysis on trainees’ writing samples of IELTS (Academic: Task 2), and stimulated-recall interviews. As concluded, though the construction of IELTS competent writer identity of two subjects overlapped in three aspects; salient discrepancy was identified as well. Specifically, with respect to similarities, both two subjects’ writer identities featured explicit family and exam orientation from the perspective of autobiographical self. In addition, hedges and self-mentions, particularly the use of the first pronoun, were inadequately represented in two subjects’ discoursal self. By contrast, pertaining to discrepancy, the subject A can be considered a passive teacher-situated writer, who also presented a paradox of writer identity’s construction when en-countering mental conflicts in the IELTS exam room, while the subject B showed the active learner agency yet with her conscious concealing of the exam-related concerns. The data also unveiled that her strong writer self was obvious, but such a self did not necessarily elicit the competent writing performance, implying some influential socio-cultural attributes in constructing the competent writer identity in IELTS training context.