How does culture influence discourse style? Why do many ITAs struggle communicating even when they have a strong command of English grammar and vocabulary?

As ITA trainers, many of us often ask ourselves these questions. One common reason for communication difficulties is that ITAs may not understand the differences between their own discourse style and the style that a U.S. audience is expecting. Specifically, when presenting and writing at an academic level, many ITAs have difficulty (a) using clear organization, (b) incorporating the expected content, (c) communicating in a direct and explicit way, and (d) using appropriate citations.

In order to overcome these challenges, ITAs first need to become aware of the differences between their own discourse style and the style expected in the U.S. classroom. At the Intercultural Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon, we teach a two-hour workshop that focuses on helping students understand differences in discourse style. Exercises from the class help students identify common cultural variations in discourse style and reflect on how they might need to adjust their own discourse style in order to be more successful in their academic work.

HOW DOES THIS WORKSHOP RAISE AWARENESS OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN DISCOURSE STYLE?

• Students first read excerpts from a document entitled “Recognizing and Addressing Cultural Variations in the Classroom” (Eberly Center, 2011).
• Students then watch segments of a video, Writing Across Borders (Robertson, 2005), in which experienced international graduate students talk about the challenges they faced when first writing in a U.S. university.
• Students reflect on what they have read and heard by writing down their reactions in a journal writing activity.

WHAT QUESTIONS ARE ADDRESSED IN THIS WORKSHOP?

• What is the purpose of the writing assignment or presentation? What kind of content does a U.S. audience expect?
• How should you organize your ideas? Where should you state the main point?
• How direct and explicit should you be? Is it the writer’s/speaker’s job to communicate clearly, or is it the audience’s job to interpret?
• When do you need to use citations and how often? How is plagiarism defined in the United States? How can you avoid plagiarism?
  

SAMPLE ACTIVITIES FROM THE WORKSHOP

Note that the following exercises are taken from an activity that focuses on writing; however, these exercises can easily be adapted to address similar issues in speaking.

Exercise 1: Consider Organization

How should you organize your ideas in writing? Where should you put the main point of your writing?

In written work, US students are taught to state their main argument or interpretation directly and up front, then go on to support it with evidence. The focus in writing is to make one’s point obvious to the reader. Arguments are presented in a linear structure….In some cultures, students may learn a different rhetorical style. For example, students may be expected to begin a paper with background information and justifications and conclude with a thesis statement or argument, not the reverse. When international students apply their own culture’s rhetorical conventions to written assignments in the US, their writing may appear to lack a clearly delineated argument or concrete proof of a thesis. (Eberly Center, 2011)

Listen to a student from Ecuador talk about “going around the point”:

Clip from Writing Across Borders DVD: “Well, in Ecuador what we would like to do, what we sometimes tend to do is that we don’t present the main point right at the beginning. We go around it and around it until we finally get to the point, which is in the middle. It’s kind of like this idea of circularity”(Robertson, 2005).

Questions for Students

1. How does this student need to adapt her writing style to follow U.S. expectations in writing?
2. Do you need to make similar adjustments?

Exercise 2: Consider Writing Style

How direct and explicit should you make your writing? Is it the writer’s job to make the writing clear, or is it the reader’s job to interpret the writing?

In other cultures, students learn that sophisticated and subtle writing hints at a point, but leaves it to the reader to piece the ideas together. For students from cultures that value a less direct style of writing, the US rhetorical style can seem overly explicit and unsubtle. In written work, these students may be perceived as avoiding the point. (Eberly Center, 2011).

Listen to a student from Japan talk about “the job” of the reader in her country:

Clip from Writing Across Borders DVD: “In American writing, it is very important for you to make everything very clear. In Japanese writing, this is a bit different because readers are supposed to participate in the story much more than American writing” (Robertson, 2005).

Questions for Students

1. How does this student need to adapt her writing style to follow U.S. expectations in writing?
2. Do you need to make similar adjustments?

WHAT DO STUDENTS TAKE AWAY FROM THIS WORKSHOP?

Students are asked to write about what surprised them from the video and class discussion, and then think about what adjustments they need to make. Here are some examples of what some students have written [some quotes have been edited for clarity]:

About Content

“When I write an assignment, I usually make use of knowledge only taught by the teacher. But I realized today that adding what I learn outside the classroom is valuable and welcomed.” (Japan)

“Thai teachers usually suggest which book or which website we should refer to when she wants us to learn more by ourselves. It is quite different to the US teaching style, that we must know it is our responsibility to find some more outside data.” (Thailand)

About Organization

“After the training for TOEFL iBT and GRE, I know the principle to put the main idea at the beginning of the articles and paragraphs. But I don’t think I use this structure naturally. Actually, I don’t develop my idea smoothly with this structure and always concerns about the duplication problem and unconsciously introduce an extra irrelevant evidence.” (China)

“In China, one who puts the main point directly at the top of the article will be considered [to have a] lack of writing skills. Chinese students are trained to describe the details and backgrounds before pointing out the main idea. And this training lasts for many years. Just like the student from Ecuador, it will be very uncomfortable for Chinese students to go directly to the main argument in writing.” (China)

About Style

“To describe clearly and directly is mandatory for me. In Japanese . . . we highly depend on the context and expect readers to understand the actual meaning without mentioning [it] directly. . . . In order to convey my thought without misunderstanding, I should keep paying attention to saying [stating information] obviously in the classroom.” (Japan)

“In China, we do believe that subtle writing hints give the article more value to read. Because we believe that a good article or a good book must be something that makes the reader think a lot. But obviously in the US, it is not the reader’s responsibility to piece ideas together.” (China)

“From where I come [from], the complex emotional sentences form a great article. We always try to touch people’s emotions before we tackle their logic and because of that American people find my writing confusing. Even though I know I should be direct and explicit, I find myself writing in very emotional way.” (Saudi Arabia)

About Plagiarism and Citations

“I really got shocked after watching the last scene of the video—‘Considering Citation’. I’m from China and I know it is the truth in Chinese colleges that you can use the words of others, the graphics and numbers from organizations and even the whole article of other scholars without mentioning where the information comes from. However, it is regarded as plagiarism in the U.S.” (China)

“Citation is important among academic writing in Thailand, but not for informal writing. Sometimes, we just cut and paste a picture or a quote we find in the Internet into our report. Consequently, we have to give more attention to this topic and learn more how to cite properly.” (Thailand)

Overall, ITAs walk away from this workshop with a better understanding of some of the challenges that they face when communicating in the U.S. academy. For many ITAs this is also an aha moment. They begin to reflect on and understand past communication scenarios that went awry, and they begin to develop strategies for addressing similar challenges in the future.

REFERENCES

Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and The Intercultural Communication Center. (2011, April 6). Recognizing and Addressing Cultural Variations in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/resources/PublicationsArchives/InternalReports/culturalvariations.pdf

Kaplan, R. B. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education. Language Learning, 16(1-2), 1-20.

Cara Costello is a language development specialist in the Intercultural Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon University. She helps ITAs and other international grad students develop the language and cultural skills that they need for academic success. She has been working at Carnegie Mellon for 5 years, and previous work experience includes teaching ESL in Prague, Dublin, and New York City.