I
Abstract
Writing is one of the most important means of communication with increasingly frequent contact between different cultures. Writing in foreign language is widely needed in various fields in China. How to develop good writing skills and write successfully across cultures has become the major problem for Chinese English learners.
During the last few decades, the influence of learners’ L1 (First Language) on their L2 (Second Language) writing has being a key issue in the field of second language acquisition. It is still controversial even though it has been discussed for a half century. This thesis aims to answer tow questions: 1) Does Chinese culture still affect English writing of Chinese students? 2) How are the influences revealed in their writing? The author makes analysis of 63 argumentative essays of Chinese English majors in the forth year study in Shaanxi University of Technology. The research is made up of three parts. The first part and the second part are the influence of Chinese culture on students’ writing and a questionnaire respectively. The last part is interviews with 20 subjects to complement the data analysis. The results demonstrate that Chinese culture still exerts strong effect on students’ writing.
Key words:culture, thinking patterns, argumentative, influence
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中文摘要
写作是不同文化之间交流联系的最重要的方式之一。中国的很多领域中都要需要外语写作。如何提高写作能力以及如何跨文化写作已成为我国英语学习者的主要问题。
在过去几十年中，二语写作一直是二语习得领域中一个重要的研究课题。即使已经被研究了将近半个世纪，它依然值得探讨。本文旨在回答下列两个问题：一，母语文化对中国大学生英语写作还有影响吗？二，它是如何影响的？笔者对 63 名陕西理工学院英语专业大四学生的作文进行了分析研究。这份调查共有三个部分：第一部分和第二部分分别依据被调查者的作文以及调查问卷对母语文化的影响进行了分析。第三部分是以访谈形式对该影响进行进一步的分析探讨。结果表明,母语文化对大学生英语写作依然产生一定的影响。 关键词：文化，思维模式，议论文，影响
III
Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... I 中文摘要 ......................................................................................................................................... II 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Current Situation of Chinese Students? English Writing ..................................................... 1 1.2 Research Orientation ........................................................................................................... 1 2. Literature Review ......................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Interrelationship among Language, Thought, and Culture .................................................. 3
2.1.1 Language and thought ............................................................................................... 3 2.1.2 Thought and culture ................................................................................................... 3 2.1.3 Language and culture ................................................................................................ 4 2.2 Differences in the Thinking Patterns of the Chinese and Native Speakers of English ........ 5
2.2.1 Subjective thinking pattern and objective thinking pattern ....................................... 5 2.2.2 Concrete thinking pattern and abstract thinking pattern ............................................ 5 2.3 Theories of L2 Writing ........................................................................................................ 6 2.4 Language Transfer ............................................................................................................... 7 3. Analyses and Discussion .............................................................................................................. 8
3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 3.2 Research Methods ............................................................................................................... 8
3.2.1 Subjects ..................................................................................................................... 8 3.2.2 Data collection ........................................................................................................... 8 3.2.3 Research questions .................................................................................................... 9 3.2.4 Data analysis procedures ........................................................................................... 9
4. Results and Discussions ............................................................................................................. 10
4.1 Findings in the Introduction, the Body and the Conclusion of the Essay .......................... 10
IV
4.1.1 Way of opening the topic in the introduction .......................................................... 10 4.1.2 Techniques of argument in the body .........................................................................11 4.1.3 Raising a new or irrelevant argument on the conclusion ......................................... 12 4.2 L1 Use in the L2 Writing ................................................................................................... 13
4.2.1 Pre-writing stage ...................................................................................................... 13 4.2.2 While-writing stage ................................................................................................. 14 4.2.3 After-writing stage ................................................................................................... 15 4.3 Main difficulties in L2 Writing .......................................................................................... 15
4.3.1 The lack of expressive vocabulary .......................................................................... 15 4.3.2 Grammatical errors .................................................................................................. 16 4.3.3 Difficulty in generating ideas and unfamiliarity with English organization ............ 17
5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 18 Notes ............................................................................................................................................... 19 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 21 Acknowledgement .......................................................................................................................... 22 Appendix Questionnaire ............................................................................................................ 23
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