Culture Roots and Academic Writing:

1
Culture Roots and Academic Writing

• Potential Factors that Influence Chinese
  International Students Academic Writing at
  University of North America
• Presented by Lan Zhong
• Faculty of Education
• University of Windsor

2
INTRODUCTION

• CHALLENGE
• Academic level
• Conflicts leading by cultural, educational and
  linguistic differences
• INFLUENCE
• Stress
• Lower self-confidence
• Low academic achievement
• ACADEMIC WRITING
• Course writing assignment
• Proposal for the thesis or dissertation
• THREE POTENTIAL FACTORS
• Culture
• Education
• Language

3
Culture

• Kaplan's (1996) graphic model
• "Oriental" pattern -- inward turning spiral
• inductive, indirect, and circular approaches to
  the topic
• Anglo pattern --- linearity, which shows direct
• - Rich Studies (e.g. McLoughlin, 1995 Mohan
  Lo, 1985 Wang, 1994 Yu, 1996 Wierzbicka, 1990)
  
• Chinese Culture
• - Confucianism -- social harmony (collectivism,
  self-discipline)
• - Taoism -- harmony between human and nature
  (wholeness connected)
• Two main features of Chinese writing system
• - Using long sentence
• - Putting the key words and ideas to towards the
  end of sentences or paragraphs

4
Education

• Critical Thinking / Values
• Exam-based education
• Grammar analysis
• Reading
• Teacher-centered
• The roles of teachers and students
• Classroom activities
• Text-bound
• Authority
• Receive knowledge

5
Linguistic Differences

• Different language families
• Sino-Tibetan vs. Indo-European
• Pronunciation
• Vocabulary
• Chinese character -- ideograph, meaning-based
  language
• English language -- sound-based, called
  alphabetic writing
• Grammar
• Chinese grammar depends mainly on different parts
  of speech to realize its syntax
• English grammar -- changes of the words
• Usage
• Chinese
• English

6
CONCLUSION

• Administrators
• Educators
• Teachers
• or Vs.
• International Students