1Zhaoying Ren Faculty of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Kunming
University of
Science and Technology
Influences of Chinese Cultural Patterns of Thinking on Discourse
Organisation
in English Dissertation Writing
University of Portsmouth
Conclusion
2
Compare discourse organisation of native Chinese English majors and
native English speakers
Explore cultural thought patterns embedded in the discourse
organisation of Chinese English dissertations with regard to the
placement of the thesis statement, and subjective consciousness (a
sense of subjectivity)
Identify influences of cultural thought patterns on discourse
organisation
3
Background of Study
Native-Chinese EFL learners: undergraduate English majors at the
Kunming University of Science and Technology (KMUST): 6 Y in high
school + 4 Y (specializing in English as a Foreign Language).
Two main English writing courses: a. Basic Writing by a native
English-speaker teacher; b. “Graduation Thesis Writing” is taught
by a native Chinese teacher.
10 available dissertations of the first or second draft written in
2007, 2008, 2009
4
The dissertation . In this paper: a long essay of around
4,000-5,000 words
usually excluding references, bibliography and appendixes written
by an undergraduate English major who wants to obtain the BA
Under the supervision of instructors
Defended before a panel of 3-5 assessors
When? In the final academic year after the completion of most of
the teaching courses, especially “Graduation Thesis Writing ”
5
Previous Studies
Much research (e.g. Silva & Matsuda, 2001; Wang & Wen,
2002; Lee, 2003) has been done to analyse the similarities and
differences between the texts produced by EFL students and native
English speakers in terms of lexical choices, syntactical
expressions, grammatical structures and organisation
patterns.
Wang and Wen found that Chinese EFL learners “were more likely to
rely on LI when they were managing their writing process,
generating and organising ideas…”
6
7
Closely interrelated Cultural background →Language, thinking
pattern →discourse organisation of writing Bennett (1993:16):
language does serve as a tool for communication, but in addition it
is a “system of representation” for perception and thinking.
“writing is the representation of language in a textual medium
through the use of a set of signs or symbols (known as a writing
system).”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing)
Definition of Pattern of Thinking
“a reasoning process of thinking during the period of long-term
practice from repeatedly recognizing objective things, producing
concepts in the brain and then using concepts to make judgments
finally to reason out” and “mainly composed of ‘eight elements:
knowledge, concept, method, intelligence, emotion, willingness,
language and habit that “interplay and form a dynamic, organic and
complicated system”. (CHEN Xinxia, et, 1988 504)
88
Kaplan’s Cultural Thought Patterns
“The English language and its related thought patterns have evolved
out of the Anglo-European cultural Pattern.” “The thought patterns
which speakers and readers of English appear to expect as an
integral part of their communication is to sequence that is
dominantly linear in its development…” Here it can be interpreted
that English tends to be a linear type.
99
The “Oriental” pattern an inward turning spiral
“Some Oriental writing …, is marked by what may be called an
approach by indirection. In this kind of writing, the development
of the paragraph may be said to be ‘turning and turning in a
widening gyre.’ The circles or gyres turn around the subject and
show it from a variety of tangential views, but the subject is
never looked at directly…” “Oriental here is intended to mean
specifically Chinese…” (1966: 10). Chinese tends to be a spiral
type.
1010
Chinese Cultural Thinking Patterns and Influences on Discourse
organisation
Spiral Thinking and Inductive Pattern Chinese traditional world
view of “Oneness between man and
nature” stressing “general harmony and social cohesion” circular
thinking in an indirect structure inductive pattern of discourse
organisation: from general to
specific, developing the central idea through seemingly unrelated
ideas
“judgments are made based on the backgrounds or relevant conditions
and the main or key idea is given as a summary at the end of the
development”. (Li Changyin, 2009)
12
Scollon (2000): different organisational patterns are used by
Chinese and English writers only because of their use of inductive
and deductive rhetoric strategies respectively.
Kirkpatrick (1995): deductive argument usually entails the topic
being introduced at the beginning of the discourse and then minor
or supporting arguments are presented afterwards, while inductive
argument means that the minor points of the argument are placed
first and then the main point, as a conclusion, is derived from
those arguments.
13
As proposed by Kaplan (1966), discourse organisation is a
reflection of language and culture, cultural patterns of thinking
are embedded in different patterns of discourse organisation.
Indirectness is the key of the Chinese spiral pattern of thinking,
which is revealed in the inductive pattern of discourse
organisation in a roundabout way that can be demonstrated by the
placement of the thesis statement at the end or in the middle of
the introductory part.
1414
Subjectivity and Thinking of Unification between
Subject and Object In the Chinese cultural pattern of thinking, the
unification of subject and object is greatly focused on. Human
being is treated as the subject and considered as the centre of the
world. The importance of human being is highly emphasized. This
man-centered Chinese philosophy of thinking mode results in the
subjectivity through the use of personal subjects in Chinese
sentence patterns entailing the tendency for active voice.
In contrast, in Western pattern of thought, the separation of
subject from object is highly valued. The world is viewed as a
separate, objective world, different from man’s subjective world.
This pattern of thinking results in the objectivity in English
discourse with impersonal style, especially in academic
discourses.
The high frequency of using such subjects as “I”, “we” and using
modal verbs such as “must” and “should” shown in the English
dissertations written by the native Chinese EFL undergraduate
English majors express a strong sense of subjectivity influenced by
their deep-rooted Chinese cultural pattern of thinking – the
unification between subject and object, the man-centered Chinese
philosophy.
1515
In other words, differences between Chinese discourse organisation
and English discourse organisation are expressions of differences
between their cultural patterns of thinking.
16
10 dissertations written at different times were analysed.
60% of the thesis statements placed at the end of the
introduction
40% in the middle or implied in the text
none at the beginning.
1717
Example 1 Dissertation title: Tactics and Skills of Language in
International Business Negotiation
…Negotiation is a hot topic these days for a good reason We often
refer to trade between countries, or the other times huge
transactions among today’s multinational companies. However,
countries and companies do not talk to one another as people do.
Indeed, a fundamental activity of international commerce and
multinational business transactions is the millions of face-to-face
interactions between businessmen from different countries that take
place everyday. It is difficult to imagine a more vital managerial
skill than the skill of negotiating. Effective managers must be
superior negotiators. Without solid negotiating abilities, managers
will inevitably make serious mistakes in dealing with people at all
levels, both inside and outside their organisations. As
negotiators, managers must concern themselves with substantive
issues and their continuing relationships with people. If they push
too much, they may create hard feelings and a desire to exact
revenge. If they are overly concerned about getting along with
others, they may lose in many substantive areas, thereby negatively
impacting upon their department and their organisation.
18
Example 2 Dissertation title: Contrastive Analysis of the Animal
Words between English and Chinese
Linguistics becomes more and more important in today’s academic
studies. Lexicon as a part of linguistic naturally can’t be ignored
by researches. Lexicon has several designs of features. The paper
will give the definition of lexicon and its design of feature.
There are numerous animal words and idioms in both Chinese and
English. Chinese people and English people will have different
association when they come across the same animal word. The paper
has given some vivid animal word examples to illustrate it.
Meanwhile, it has given the causes of this difference from the
following aspectsfairy and history stories; customs and living
environments; cultural difference.
19
The given examples suggest the placement of the thesis statement
(in red) at the end or in the middle or implied is preferred by
native Chinese undergraduates, which follows the convention in
native English academic writing:
“..the thesis statement is usually the last sentence in the
introductory paragraph” (Oshima & Hogue, 1998, p103).
So, no significant difference. Both inductive.
20
As a matter of fact, the use of the indirect way, that is, the
inductive pattern, as manifest in the placement of the thesis
statement in Examples 1 and 2, is a common feature shared by the
remaining eight dissertations written by the Chinese writers.
The fact that these students unconsciously use the inductive
pattern to organise the introduction, moving from general to
specific, reveals that not only their fixed Chinese cultural
patterns of spiral thinking but also the teaching of EFL exert
great influences on their dissertation writing.
21
Subjective Consciousness
Subjective consciousness refers to “a state of consciousness, in
which a person is constantly aware of his or her self as well as
outside factors.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_consciousn ess).
Here: a sense of subjectivity, to be more specific, means that the
dissertation writer’s identity and stance are revealed by the use
of first personal pronouns and modal verbs such as “must” and
“should”.
22
acting as the subject of sentence
6 of 10 dissertations use the first personal pronoun “we” over 10
times and one uses it up to 21 times in the whole dissertation,
including 6 times in a single paragraph
23
Example 3 below is a typical paragraph with the use of the first
person pronouns, namely:
- six uses of “we”,
Example 3 Dissertation title: Influences of Cultural Difference on
International Business Negotiation
“As far as I am concerned, business negotiation is communication,
not only business, not only negotiation, not only a meet. It is
like a cultural communication, thinking communication, even country
communication. Actually, when we am concerned, business negotiation
is communication, not only business, not are first time to see a
person, we often according feeling to know him, maybe one words,
one behavior, a smiling face to know him or feel him, then we can
truly understand him, this is so called first impression, if this
impressions are very good, we can talk about fluency, but if the
impression not very good, we can not interest in the negotiations,
this decides a good start or bad start, but also determines the
success or failure of negotiations, how to give a good impression
depends on whether have common hobbies, common values and common
culture, which I think is more important. Whatever, it is in the
negotiations, or in international exchanges, we should respect each
other's cultural differences, respect for cultural differences not
only her personal respect, but also a culture of respect on both
sides, it is reflects our sincerity in the negotiations, progress
of the negotiation can smoothly.”
25
This suggests that there may be a higher frequency of personal
pronouns used in dissertations written by the native Chinese EFL
undergraduates, especially first person pronouns, which might be
avoided by native speakers of English in order to achieve greater
objectivity in their academic writing.
26
Higher frequency of using modal verbs such as “should, must”
Modal verbs are “used to express ideas such as possibility,
intention, obligation and necessity. ”
(http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/modal- verb.html) “Whenever
instructions are given, a modality enters the relationship between
forms in English but the presence of modal verbs is particularly
significant. ” (Carter, Goddard, et al. 2008:p115).
27
In this study, modal verbs are used extensively in 10 dissertations
to convey to a great degree subjective meanings, resulting in
subjective and potentially arrogant statements. The use of “should”
and “must” ranks first and second respectively, which expresses a
“mode of control”. (Carter, Goddard, et al. 2008: p117).
28
Dissertation title: The Culture Introduction in Senior School
English Teaching
“Culture introduction plays an important role in senior school
English teaching and more attention needs to be paid to this
aspect. To teach well, the teacher should introduce the English
culture in teaching, compare the English culture with our own
culture and find out the differences. There are many methods to
introduce English culture. But in the English teaching, we must
make sure that culture introduction serves the target language
teaching. All in all, culture introduction is a useful tool in
English teaching, yet we need to manage it properly.”
29
Example 4 is the last paragraph of the conclusion of a Chinese
native English major’s dissertation with four modal verbs used,
which seems to convey a very firm action call, as well a very
strong sense of subjectivity, which should possibly be avoided in
dissertation writing.
30
In terms of subjective consciousness, the frequent use of first
pronouns and modal verbs “should” and “must” seems to reveal a
stronger sense of subjectivity rather than objectivity, which
contrasts with the academic features of English dissertation
writing.
31
Conclusion To sum up, Chinese cultural patterns of thinking have
great influences upon Chinese EFL majors’ dissertation writing in
English. English dissertation writing is a very important way of
assessing Chinese EFL majors’ language competence and performance,
which includes not only the English language itself but also
cultural connotation implied in the English language, such as basic
concepts and values, patterns of thinking and the like. It might be
very helpful to teach Chinese EFL majors how to write their English
dissertations in a ‘culturally appropriate manner’.
32
Bibliography
Bennett, M. J. (1993). How Not to Be a Fluent Fool: Understanding
the Cultural Dimension of Language. The Language Teacher, 27(9).
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introduction to language analysis, 3rd edition, Routledge Taylor
& Francis GROUP, London and New York, International Standard
ISO 7144: Documentation — Presentation of theses and similar
documents, International organisation for Standardization, Geneva,
1986. Kaplan, R. B. (1966). Cultural Thought Patterns in
Inter-Cultural Education. Language Learning, 16, 1-20. Kirkpatrick,
A. (1995). Chinese Rhetoric: Method of Argument. Multilingua, 14.
Li Changyin (2009), English for Academic Communication in Cross
Culture. Science Press. Oshima, Alice et. al., (1998). Writing
Academic English-3rd ed. Longman. Silva Tony J. & Matsuda P. K.
(2001). On Second Language Writing. Routledge. Schollon, R &
Kirkpatrick , A. (2000). Contrastive Discourse in Chinese and
English: A Critical Appraisal. Foreign Language Teaching and
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September, 2010 35
Slide Number 1
Definition of Pattern of Thinking
Kaplan’s Cultural Thought Patterns
The “Oriental” pattern an inward turning spiral
Kaplan’s Diagram
Slide Number 13
Slide Number 14
Slide Number 16
Example 1
Example 2
Subjective Consciousness
Higher frequency of the first person pronouns “I”, “We” acting as
the subject of sentence
Slide Number 24
Higher frequency of using modal verbs such as “should, must”
Slide Number 28