The Impacts Of Thought Patterns On English Compositions By Chinese And Native English Speakers

The relationship between language and culture has been a hot topic in linguistic field. Thought pattern is the cornerstone of each culture. Different thought patterns constitute different cultural systems, the differences between Chinese culture and Western culture lie in the different thought patterns. (Ji Xianlin, 1998:48) Writing is a kind of linguistic activity, as well as a thinking process. Thought pattern is one of the fundamental parts in cultural study, and it's meaningful to research on the impacts of thought patterns upon writing. English writing is essential both to English learning and English teaching. Chinese teachers and Chinese students have made great efforts in English acquisition, but the English compositions by Chinese students are not well satisfied. Their English compositions are nearly free from grammatical errors, however, those are commented as "out of focus", "lack of cohesion", "implicitness in meaning", etc. by native English speakers. Therefore, it is necessary for Chinese students to sharpen their skills in English writing. It is not easy for most Chinese students to write English in the English way since they are used to writing English in the Chinese way. Only if Chinese students get to know the native English writing style, would they communicate effectively in English compositions. Thereby, there is a need to make a comparison on the differences between the Chinese writing styles and the English writing styles. Based on the input of knowledge on those differences, it is hoped that Chinese students would improve their English writing skills and their intercultural ability.Language and thought are in mutual impacts. The thesis reviews three theories concerning with the relationship between language and thought: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which holds that the language we speak determines or influences the way we think. Piaget's theory, holding the view that the way we think determines the use of language. Vygotsky's theory, which proposes that language and thought are independent to some degree. The thesis introduces different thought patterns between Chinese and westerners, that is, synthetic thought and analytic thought, image thought and abstract thought, subjective thought and objective thought, cyclical thought and linear thought, group-oriented thought and ego-centric thought. Also, it introduces the main research achievements on the relationship between thought pattern and English writing.The thesis aims at studying how thought patterns impact Chinese students and native English speakers in English writing.The thesis clarifies the research motivation and its significance and puts forwards the research questions. Based on the theories on the relationship between language and thought, the author set the process of the empirical study in terms of the five different groups of thought patterns and the problems about Chinese student's English compositions mentioned above. Participants were chosen from several universities in Xi'an, including Chinese college students and foreigners or international students who are English speakers. 20 English compositions by Chinese students and 20 English compositions by native English speakers were colleted with the same designated title. Qualitative analysis is employed on the differences between Chinese and western thought patterns. In the stage of data collection, the author employs the quantitative analysis to study the 40 sample compositions in the perspectives of sentence structure, discourse pattern, use of transition words, subject, and the placement of topic sentence as well as the use of "I" or "we". It discusses how thought patterns impact English writing.It is indicated in this research that the synthetic thought pattern drives Chinese students to write more paratactic sentences while the analytic thought pattern drives native English speakers to write more hypotactic sentences, moreover, the two thought patterns make Chinese tend to employ the correlative discourse pattern while native English speakers employ the detached discourse pattern; the image thought leads to the non-frequent use of transition words or phrases while the abstract thought pattern leads to the frequent use of that; the subject thought pattern exerts influence on Chinese students in writing quite a few the animate subject sentences, meanwhile, the object thought pattern makes native English speakers write many inanimate subject sentences; under the impacts of the cyclical thought pattern and the linear thought pattern, Chinese students are more likely to bring forward the topic sentences at the end of their English compositions while native English speakers prefer to put the topic sentences at the beginning of their English compositions; furthermore, owing to the group-oriented thinking and the ego-centric thinking, Chinese students usually use "we" to state their opinions in their English compositions but native English speakers use "I" to state their viewpoints.