For the dynamic construction of Chinese students’ disciplinary identities in transnational institution, the roles of language and context in constructing multiplicity of identity remain unexplored. Based on the social and linguistic studies on identities construction, this study proposes the idea of group membership affiliation: a multi-faceted meaning-making process that mediates the relation between individual and context, in which the individual uses language to habitually engage in activities, construe positive imagination of the community and align her or himself with the other members in the groups and so gain membership. Systemic Functional Linguistics, Sociocultural theory, social identity theory and Hyland’s (2012) idea of proximity provide the theoretical and analytical frameworks for the study. The research applies an integrated methodology, drawing on lexicogrammatical and discourse-semantic approaches, as well as small amount of qualitative case study data. The findings of the study relate to two aspects: that is, situated cultures and developmental use of disciplinary language. The first aspect is an integrated sociocultural and systemic functional linguistic approach which analyses both the public and private documents. The subsequent results show that although a mixed global and local culture is promoted in the context, non-Chinese teachers and non-Chinese students hold different understandings and acceptances to the Chinese social and contextual culture as well, as to the Chinese students. Furthermore, the study shows that the Chinese students shape proximal past, current and future possible disciplinary selves along a developmental trajectory; in the meantime, they shape their own values in the context. The second aspect is a systemic functional linguistic approach to measure the lexicogrammatical and semantic performance and negotiation in classroom discourse texts from year one to year four. The increased use of certain ideational and interpersonal resources at individual and classroom levels reveals that there is a developmental trajectory of the Chinese students’ disciplinary identities construction in the use of disciplinary language.

The thesis explores Chinese teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning Chinese at Chinese complementary schools in Scotland. The teachers taught either Cantonese or Mandarin, the two main Chinese languages spoken by Scotland’s Chinese communities; teaching took place on a voluntary basis at weekends; the teachers were drawn from a variety of occupations; most of the pupils were of Chinese ethnicity, with in addition some non-Chinese children. The research mainly draws on phenomenography, a research approach that investigates variation in conceptions of different phenomena as these appear to particular groups of people – in this case, teachers of Chinese in Scottish complementary schools. The variation refers to the different conceptions of teaching and learning that were identified in the group of teachers as a whole. Semi-structured interviews with each individual teacher were devised, conducted and analysed according to phenomenographic procedures. From the group as a whole six key conceptions of teaching were identified, and likewise six key conceptions of learning. In addition, the research focused on a smaller number of teachers in order to identify individual profiles in greater depth. The teacher interviews also elicited the metaphors that the teachers considered represented good teaching and learning. The interviews also served to identify the factors that the teachers considered had most influenced their conceptions, and they were complemented by qualitative classroom observations designed to identify factors that would allow the researcher to better understand the context in which the teachers had formed their conceptions. The findings showed that Mandarin and Cantonese teachers had much in common, but that also there were clear differences in particular areas that seemed to be explained both by differences in culture between Mandarin-speaking Mainland China and Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong, and also by emerging differences in power and status, with Mandarin assuming a dominant role and Cantonese showing some decline in numbers and in optimism, with some parents switching their children over from Cantonese to Mandarin. More generally, the findings suggested that the teachers were dedicated, adaptable, and different from the stereotypical perception of Chinese teachers of the sort that emphasises examinations, rote-learning and authoritarian teaching style. The teachers in the present study generally understood their pupils had multiple identities and they sought to teach in a child-centred way, and to help their pupils preserve moral values and a Chinese component of their identity through learning Chinese language and experiencing Chinese culture.