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

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

2、rofessionals.DiscussionofculturallysituatedinterpretationsoftheLRsisbasedoninterviewswithuniversityprofessorswhohavebeenontheadmissioncommittee.ThefindingsshowsimilaritiesinmacrodiscoursestructurebutdifferencesindiscoursecontentbetweentheLRs,whichsuggestthatsuccessfulinterculturalcommunicationinL

3、Rsrequiresmeticulousdialoguewiththe‘other’accordingtoBakhtin’stheoryofdialogism.Unequalpowerrelationshipbetweenwriterandreaderisalsodiscussedfromcriticaldiscourseanalysisperspective.Keywords:Lettersofrecommendation;interculturalcommunication;dialogismIntroductionAsmoreinternationalstudentsapplyfo

4、radmissiontothecollegesanduniversitiesintheUnitedStates,theadmissioncommitteehastoreadmorelettersofrecommendation(LRs)writtenbyEnglishnon-nativespeaker(ENNS)writersthaneverbefore.Thelettersfunctionasamediumininterculturalcommunication(IC)betweenEnglishnativespeaker(ENS)readersandENNSwriters.Howev

5、er,"accordingtomanyeducatorsandemployers,toofewlettersofrecommendationtellrecipientswhattheyreallyneedtoknowaboutacandidate"(Palmer,1983,p.1).Althoughthewriters’identificationisnotspecifiedhere,wecanassumethatICbetweentheENNSwriteroftheLRandtheENSreaderismoreproblematicthanthecommunicationamongth

6、esamelanguagespeakersbecauseoftheculturalaswellaslinguisticdifferences.TheproblemsinthisICresultprobablyfromthedifferentapproachestothediscourseconventions."Boutonshowsthatalthoughthespeecheventhascorecharacteristicscross-culturally,therealizationofthespeecheventvariesinbothformalandcontentschema

7、"(Bardovi-Harlig&Hartford,1995,p127).Thedifferencesmaycausemiscommunicationifthereaderfailstounderstandthediscourseconventionsofthewriterifthoseareunfamiliar.TheLRhasalonghistoryintheWesternworld,andcanbetracedtothemid