Abstract

Researches on cultural thought patterns indicate that the thinking modes of Chinese and Westerners bear a lot of differences. In 1966, Kaplan first proposed the contrastive rhetoric theory in which he claimed that the rhetorical organizational pattern was dependent on its corresponding linguistic convention and cultural thought pattern. Based on the theory of contrastive rhetoric, this thesis aims to find out the relationship between the Chinese way of thinking and the discourse pattern of Chinese EFL writings through a study of 60 argumentations written by three groups of EFL learners. A quantitative approach is applied to analyze the placement of thesis statements and topic sentences as well as the type of rhetorical organizational pattern in the total 60 samples. The results show that Chinese learners with different English proficiency demonstrate several rhetorical organizational dissimilarities.  This thesis concludes that cultural thought pattern is supposed to be the main reason. Firstly, the delay of thesis statements and topic sentences among lower-level Chinese EFL learners is attributed to the indirect thought pattern of Chinese. Moreover, the preference for inductive pattern among lower-level EFL learners is due to the typical particular-general Chinese thought pattern. Thirdly, the popularity of compound discourse pattern (general-particular-general pattern) among advanced Chinese EFL learners is a compromise between Chinese thought pattern and Western thought pattern. 

KEYWORDS:cultural thought pattern; EFL writing; discourse pattern

摘  要

关于文化思维方式的研究发现，中西方思维方式存在很多差异。1966年，卡普兰首次提出了对比修辞理论。该理论认为话语组织模式取决于与其相应的语言习惯和文化思维模式。本文以对比修辞为理论基础，通过对三组共60篇议论文的研究，意在揭示中国文化思维方式与中国学生英语写作中的话语组织模式之间的关系。本文将应用定量研究方法来分析全文中心思想句和各段落主题句的位置以及所有样文的语篇模式类型。研究结果显示不同程度的中国英语学习者在语篇模式的组织上呈现出一些差异。本文认为造成这些差异的主要原因是文化思维方式的不同。首先，水平较低的英语学习者之所以不开门见山地提出中心思想句和主题句，是因为受中国含蓄委婉的思维方式的影响。其次，水平较低的英语学习者对归纳型语篇模式的偏好是由于受到了中国传统的由具体到一般的思维方式的影响。第三，复合型话语组织模式（一般—具体—一般的模式）在高水平英语学习者中的普遍使用是中西方思维方式相互妥协的体现。

关键词:文化思维模式；第二语言写作；话语组织模式