Intercultural Communication in Letters of Recommendation 英语专业毕业论文

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1、InterculturalCommunicationinLettersofRecommendationAbstract:Theletterofrecommendation(LR)asameanstocommunicateacrossdifferentculturesforthepurposeofapplyingforenteringauniversitycanbeproblematic.Usingcontrastiverhetoricanalyticframework,thispapercomparesLR

2、swrittenbyChineseandEnglishnativespeakerprofessionals.DiscussionofculturallysituatedinterpretationsoftheLRsisbasedoninterviewswithuniversityprofessorswhohavebeenontheadmissioncommittee.Thefindingsshowsimilaritiesinmacrodiscoursestructurebutdifferencesindis

3、coursecontentbetweentheLRs,whichsuggestthatsuccessfulinterculturalcommunicationinLRsrequiresmeticulousdialoguewiththe‘other’accordingtoBakhtin’stheoryofdialogism.Unequalpowerrelationshipbetweenwriterandreaderisalsodiscussedfromcriticaldiscourseanalysispers

4、pective.Keywords:Lettersofrecommendation;interculturalcommunication;dialogismIntroductionAsmoreinternationalstudentsapplyforadmissiontothecollegesanduniversitiesintheUnitedStates,theadmissioncommitteehastoreadmorelettersofrecommendation(LRs)writtenbyEnglis

5、hnon-nativespeaker(ENNS)writersthaneverbefore.Thelettersfunctionasamediumininterculturalcommunication(IC)betweenEnglishnativespeaker(ENS)readersandENNSwriters.However,"accordingtomanyeducatorsandemployers,toofewlettersofrecommendationtellrecipientswhatthey

6、reallyneedtoknowaboutacandidate"(Palmer,1983,p.1).Althoughthewriters’identificationisnotspecifiedhere,wecanassumethatICbetweentheENNSwriteroftheLRandtheENSreaderismoreproblematicthanthecommunicationamongthesamelanguagespeakersbecauseoftheculturalaswellasli

7、nguisticdifferences.TheproblemsinthisICresultprobablyfromthedifferentapproachestothediscourseconventions."Boutonshowsthatalthoughthespeecheventhascorecharacteristicscross-culturally,therealizationofthespeecheventvariesinbothformalandcontentschema"(Bardovi-

8、Harlig&Hartford,1995,p127).Thedifferencesmaycausemiscommunicationifthereaderfailstounderstandthediscourseconventionsofthewriterifthoseareunfamiliar.TheLRhasalonghistoryintheWesternworld,andcanbetracedtothemid