A Study On The Influence Of Chinese Thought Patterns In Argumentative Writings By English Majors

The study of Contrastive Rhetoric aims at improving the Chinese students' second language writing by avoiding the interference from L1 in L2 acquisition. It is a general problem that Chinese students who major in English do a relatively poor work in their English writing, especially for their argumentative writings. What caused this problem seems to be external factors, including the writing environment, the audience and internal factors, such as the transfer of mother tongue, the difference between cultures and conventions, the lack of appropriate vocabulary and expressions, and the abuse of connected ways, etc. As for the transfer of mother tongue, there are three general types of representative theories. The first one is the Contrastive Analysis (CA) and Contrastive Rhetoric (CR). It holds that mother tongue has a greater negative influence on second language learning than the positive influence (James, 1980) and the cultural thought patterns and knowledge will influence second language learner's writing organization (Kaplan, 1966). So this theory suggests that it is necessary to avoid the influence of mother tongue in second language writing. The second theory is the Creative Construction (CA), which emphasizes that mother tongue has no obvious influence on second language learning... Therefore, it holds that the influence of mother tongue can be ignored (Faerch & Kasper, 1987). The last theory is the Hypothesis of Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP), which says that mother tongue has a greater positive influence on second language learning than the negative influence. So the better the learner's mother tongue, the higher level his second language writing will be (Cummins, 1983). This thesis focuses on the first theory—Contrastive Rhetoric, stressing on the influence of the Chinese thought patterns on English majors' argumentative writing.Based on the research findings and the relevant studies of influence of the Chinese thought patterns on English writing home and abroad the researcher analyzes the Chinese thought patterns' influence on English majors' English writing in five chapters:Chapter one introduces the background as well as the aim and significance of the study. Besides, the researcher gives the definitions of some significant terms.Chapter two means the findings home and abroad of the research of influence of the Chinese thought patterns.Chapter three brings forward two research questions, and describes the research methods, stages and instruments in this research. The researcher adopts quantitative and qualitative way to discuss and analyze results of questionnaires, writing test and interview of this research.Chapter four obtains the findings of the study, and gives the discussion of the study. In this part, the researcher puts forwards three types of the main differences between Chinese and English thought patterns. They are Spiral Pattern & Straight-line Pattern, Integrated Pattern & Analytical Pattern, and Inductive Pattern & Deductive Pattern. Because of the Chinese thought patterns always occupied English majors' thinking they cannot write well and appropriate English compositions. However, it is possible for English majors to reduce the interference of the Chinese thought patterns and train English thought patterns in their writing process. After that, the researcher discusses the main differences between Eastern and Western thought patterns and the reasons that resulted in such a difference between the thought patterns.Chapter five is the conclusion of the study. This research helps to improve English majors' English argumentative writing, and learn to write English compositions with English thought patterns. It is also useful for English writing teachers to understand English major students' way of thinking in the process of writing and to further develop their teaching methods in English writing courses. In this part, the researcher suggests three ways to reduce or avoid the interference of the Chinese thought patterns and to train English majors to use the English thought patterns in English writings. And the researcher also concludes some suggestions for the present study.From the results of this research, it is clear that English writing teachers should not only depend on the traditional ways of training on writing, but also pay particular attention to the students' thought patterns. English writing teachers should try to improve the students' sense of English thought patterns during their writing process. With the training of English thought patterns, the students would feel that writing in English is an interesting activity. Therefore, it is important that the teacher should breathe the model of English thought patterns into the students' minds, and try to make them understand that English thought patterns is significant in their English writings. In this way, the students would see English thought patterns as a necessary factor in their writing activities, so that it plays the connective role of "teaching and learning" in the writing teaching activity.This part concludes that this research helps to improve English majors' English argumentative writing, and learn to write English compositions in the English way of thinking. It is also useful to English writing teachers to understand English major students' way of thinking in the process of writing and to further develop their teaching methods for English writing courses.