The Impact Of Cultural Thought Patterns Upon L2 Writing

Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are the four basic skills that the English learners are required to acquire. Chinese learners often complain that they are frustrated by the enormous difficulties in their English writing. For this sake, considerable attention has been paid to the research necessity and pedagogical value of L2 writing. As a matter of fact, L2 writing is a complex and dynamic process. In terms of macro approach, L2 writing research has been closely connected with a number of related fields such as second language acquisition (SLA), English teaching, cross-cultural communication, and discourse analysis. In terms of micro approach, L2 writing has been affected by individual learner differences such as language proficiency and the knowledge on the differences between English and Chinese writing styles. This thesis mainly discusses the impact of cultural thought patterns upon L2 writing.In the past when discussing the influence of cultural thought patterns upon language learning, most scholars conducted their researches in lexical and syntactical perspectives rather than discourse. This deficiency will be made up in this thesis. The author contends that cultural thought patterns have a marked influence upon L2 writing, which is reflected in L2 writing. To justify this, an empirical study has been conducted, in which thirty five participants were selected and each of them was11required to independently write one or four compositions with given topics. The author makes analysis of the fifty compositions on the basis of the following two criteria: first, the difference in the location of topic statement is regarded as a criterion to judge which rhetorical strategy was employed by participants, the inductive one or the deductive one; second, seven rhetorical devices and markers are identified as criteria to evaluate the objectivity and credibility of L2 writing. It is demonstrated that both inductive and deductive strategies are employed in participants' L2 writing so that an erroneous viewpoint can be corrected: inductive strategy is inherently Chinese and deductive strategy is inherently western. However, there are quantitative differences in the use of the two strategies between two cultures. Generally, Chinese are more inclined to employ inductive strategy in their English writing while Westerners deductive strategy. When we say Chinese often put the topic statement in the middle or at the end of the composition while Westerners often put it in the beginning, we don't deny the existence of individual differences and many exceptions among the people from the same culture so that we can avoid cultural stereotypes.The author explains this difference from two perspectives: the politeness system and the relation between reader and writer. Then the author goes on to elaborate on the objectivity and credibility of L2 writing. Owing to different rhetorical traditions, Chinese have differentviews on the notion of objectivity and credibility of writing. Consequently, Chinese L2 writings seem to Westerners less objective and credible so far as Western rhetorical philosophy is concerned.It can be concluded that in English teaching we should acknowledge the impact of cultural thought patterns upon L2 writing and teach students the knowledge of western rhetoric so as to achieve more success in written communication with natives.