中英文求职信的体裁对比分析
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摘要
近二十年来,体裁和体裁分析成了语言研究领域里的热门话题,对不同类型的语篇进行体裁分析的研究层出不穷。然而求职信这类语篇没有受到应有的关注。相关文献也显示对求职信的体裁分析比较少见,中英文求职信的体裁对比分析研究更为少见,本研究试图弥补这一缺憾。
本研究对中英文求职信进行体裁对比分析,试图找出它们之间的相同点与不同点,以期帮助中国学生了解体裁的社会功能和交际目的,更好地掌握特定体裁的写作惯例,特别希望帮助中国学生提高英文求职信的写作水平。
本研究选择中英文各三十封共60封求职信作为研究的语料库。在对这60封中英文求职信进行体裁对比分析时,首先采用Swales的“话步分析”,以实现一定交际目的作为判别“话步”的依据。同时,本研究运用了Hasan的“体裁结构潜势”理论对60封中英文求职信进行体裁对比分析研究。
研究结果显示中英文求职信存在一些相同的体裁特征,但差异也是显著的。中文求职信共有八个不同的话步,英文求职信共有六个不同的话步。不同的话步在求职信体裁构成中的地位不同。研究结果揭示出同一体裁在不同的社会文化语境中具体的话步构成存在很大的差异。
在此研究的基础上,作者指出了本文对二语写作及写作教学的意义即学生在进行写作时,必须分析同一语篇在不同文化中的“体裁结构潜势”,进而在结构和语篇内容上做出相应的调整,只有这样才能最大限度地实现语篇的交际目的。教师可从体裁分析的角度分析大量的典型范文让学生了解求职信的体裁结构和社会功能,然后学生通过模仿所分析的范文提高英文求职信的写作能力。同时在写作教学中,除了英文求职信的写作,对于其他不同体裁的文章,老师也可以采用分析范文然后让学生讨论并模仿的体裁教学法指导学生写作。
In the past twenty years, genre and genre analyses have become the noticeable topics of the field of linguistic research and teaching, especially the second language teaching. Many genre analyses of spoken and written discourse have been carried out in academic and professional settings. However, there are limited genre analyses on the professional discourse---job application letter despite the fact that it is obligatory in seeking a job. What’s more, there have been even fewer contrastive studies of job application letters in English and Chinese from the perspective of genre analysis. Therefore, this thesis is intended to conduct the contrastive study of the letters in two languages via genre analysis to fill in the gap, hoping to gain some insights into the field that has been little touched; aiming at exploring the similarities and differences of the generic structures of the same purpose-oriented genre in Western and Chinese cultures; aiming at helping college graduates and other job applicants understand the social function and communicative purpose of genre and improve their awareness of the generic structure of English cover letter and its writing.
In this thesis, Swales’s Move-Step analysis model is adopted to analyze the generic structures of the sixty job application letters, which is randomly taken. They constitute two corpora in this research. One corpus is composed of thirty job application letters in English written by the writers of native speaker and the other one consists of thirty job application letters in Chinese. On the basis of the analysis of the communicative purposes, the moves (Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993) of the discourse structures of these letters in English and Chinese are identified and compared. In addition, Hasan’s Generic Structure Potential (GSP) analysis model is also adopted to describe the obligatory and optional components of the structures of English and Chinese job application letters in a linear sequence.
The results of this contrastive study show that some degree of variation exists despite a certain degree of homogeneity between the job application letters in Chinese and those in English. The generic structure of the letters in Chinese is more complex than that in English letters, with eight moves in Chinese letters and six moves in English counterparts respectively. A brief discussion of these differences suggests that native writers more closely reflect Swales and Bhatia’s model in their letters, while Chinese writers are less aware of the prototypical generic structure of English cover letters. The divergences may be the result of the influence of a number of the factors of social-cultural contexts.
On the basis of this research, some important pedagogical implications arise from the findings of this paper. Firstly, the structure and the content should be modified in writing according to the results of the genre-based analysis of the discourse to exert the greatest communicative purpose. Secondly, the prototypical generic structure of English cover letter in this study can be useful in the process of teaching English job application letters to college graduates. Thirdly, this genre-based teaching approach which is characterized by detailed generic analysis and imitation is quite important in the teaching of writing, especially that of ESP (English for Specific Purpose) or EAP (English for Academic Purpose).
本研究对中英文求职信进行体裁对比分析,试图找出它们之间的相同点与不同点,以期帮助中国学生了解体裁的社会功能和交际目的,更好地掌握特定体裁的写作惯例,特别希望帮助中国学生提高英文求职信的写作水平。
本研究选择中英文各三十封共60封求职信作为研究的语料库。在对这60封中英文求职信进行体裁对比分析时,首先采用Swales的“话步分析”,以实现一定交际目的作为判别“话步”的依据。同时,本研究运用了Hasan的“体裁结构潜势”理论对60封中英文求职信进行体裁对比分析研究。
研究结果显示中英文求职信存在一些相同的体裁特征,但差异也是显著的。中文求职信共有八个不同的话步,英文求职信共有六个不同的话步。不同的话步在求职信体裁构成中的地位不同。研究结果揭示出同一体裁在不同的社会文化语境中具体的话步构成存在很大的差异。
在此研究的基础上,作者指出了本文对二语写作及写作教学的意义即学生在进行写作时,必须分析同一语篇在不同文化中的“体裁结构潜势”,进而在结构和语篇内容上做出相应的调整,只有这样才能最大限度地实现语篇的交际目的。教师可从体裁分析的角度分析大量的典型范文让学生了解求职信的体裁结构和社会功能,然后学生通过模仿所分析的范文提高英文求职信的写作能力。同时在写作教学中,除了英文求职信的写作,对于其他不同体裁的文章,老师也可以采用分析范文然后让学生讨论并模仿的体裁教学法指导学生写作。
In the past twenty years, genre and genre analyses have become the noticeable topics of the field of linguistic research and teaching, especially the second language teaching. Many genre analyses of spoken and written discourse have been carried out in academic and professional settings. However, there are limited genre analyses on the professional discourse---job application letter despite the fact that it is obligatory in seeking a job. What’s more, there have been even fewer contrastive studies of job application letters in English and Chinese from the perspective of genre analysis. Therefore, this thesis is intended to conduct the contrastive study of the letters in two languages via genre analysis to fill in the gap, hoping to gain some insights into the field that has been little touched; aiming at exploring the similarities and differences of the generic structures of the same purpose-oriented genre in Western and Chinese cultures; aiming at helping college graduates and other job applicants understand the social function and communicative purpose of genre and improve their awareness of the generic structure of English cover letter and its writing.
In this thesis, Swales’s Move-Step analysis model is adopted to analyze the generic structures of the sixty job application letters, which is randomly taken. They constitute two corpora in this research. One corpus is composed of thirty job application letters in English written by the writers of native speaker and the other one consists of thirty job application letters in Chinese. On the basis of the analysis of the communicative purposes, the moves (Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993) of the discourse structures of these letters in English and Chinese are identified and compared. In addition, Hasan’s Generic Structure Potential (GSP) analysis model is also adopted to describe the obligatory and optional components of the structures of English and Chinese job application letters in a linear sequence.
The results of this contrastive study show that some degree of variation exists despite a certain degree of homogeneity between the job application letters in Chinese and those in English. The generic structure of the letters in Chinese is more complex than that in English letters, with eight moves in Chinese letters and six moves in English counterparts respectively. A brief discussion of these differences suggests that native writers more closely reflect Swales and Bhatia’s model in their letters, while Chinese writers are less aware of the prototypical generic structure of English cover letters. The divergences may be the result of the influence of a number of the factors of social-cultural contexts.
On the basis of this research, some important pedagogical implications arise from the findings of this paper. Firstly, the structure and the content should be modified in writing according to the results of the genre-based analysis of the discourse to exert the greatest communicative purpose. Secondly, the prototypical generic structure of English cover letter in this study can be useful in the process of teaching English job application letters to college graduates. Thirdly, this genre-based teaching approach which is characterized by detailed generic analysis and imitation is quite important in the teaching of writing, especially that of ESP (English for Specific Purpose) or EAP (English for Academic Purpose).
引文
Bhatia V.K. 1993. Analyzing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
Brian Paltridge.1994. Genre Analysis and Identification of Textual Boundaries. Applied Linguistics, 15(3):288-299.
Brian Paltridge. 1995. Analyzing Genre: A Relational Perspective. System, 23(4):503-511.
Brown, G & G. Yule.1983. Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Caolin. 2000. English Business letters. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Dudley-Evans, T.1994. Genre analysis: an approach to text analysis for ESP in M.Coulthard(Ed). Advances in Written Text Analysis. London: Routledge.
Dudley-Evans, T & St John.M.J. 1998. Developments in ESP: A Multi-disciplinary Approach . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Duncan Macintosh. 1997. English for Business. Guangzhou:Guangdong Economy Press.
Eggins, S.1994. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Pinter Publishers Ltd.
Grahame T Bilbow. 2000. Write for Modern Business. London: Longman.
Hu Wenzhong.1999. Indirectness revisited on the communicative style in two types of Chinese letters. In Hu Wengzhong(Ed). Aspects of Intercultural Communication. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Hyme & Dell. 1974. Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Halliday,M.A.K & Hasan,R. 1985. Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Victoria L Deakin University Press.
Hyon & Sunny. 1996. Genre in Three Traditions: Implications for ESL. TESOL Quarterly, (30):693-722.
Joyce Lain Kennedy. 1999. English Job Application Letters. WenHui Publishing Press.
Kay, H. & T.Dudley-Evans. 1998. Genre: what teachers think. ELT Journal, 52 /4:308-14.
Kirkpatrick, A.1997. Contrastive rhetoric and the teaching of writing: seven principles. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. Supplement 14:89-102.
Kaplan R. 1996. Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-cultural Education. Language Learning, (16):1-20.
Matin , J. R. 1984. Register and Genre. In F. Christie(ed). Language studies: Children’s Writing: Reader. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
Marshall. S. 1991. A genre-based approach to the teaching of reporting writing. English for Specific Purposes,10:3-13.
McCarthy, M & R.Carter. 1994. Language as Discourse: Perspectives for Language Teaching. London: Longman.
McCarthy, M. 1991. Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Miller,C.R.1984. Genres as Social Action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70:151-167. Nunan, D.1993.Introduction to discourse analysis. London: Penguin Books.
Paltridge.B.1996. Genre, text type, and the language learning classroom. ELT Journal 50/3:237-243.
Ryan, Robin. 1997 .Winning Cover Letters. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Samovar,L.A.& R.E. Porter. 2002. Communication between Cultures. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Shery Lindsell-Roberts. 2004. Writing Business Letters for Dummies. China Machine Press.
SwalesJ.1990. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales.J. 1990. Genre Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scollon,R.& S.W.Scollon.1995. Intercultural Communication—A Discourse Approach. Oxford:Blackwell.
Ulla Connor. 1996. Contrastive Rhetoric: Cross-Cultural Aspects of Second Language Writing. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Ventola, E. 1987. The Structure of Social Interaction: A Systemic Approach to the Semiotics of Service Encounter Interaction. London: Pinter.
蔡基刚. 2000. 英汉写作对比研究[M]. 上海:复旦大学出版社.
方琰. 1997. 浅谈语类[J]. 外国语(1)..
高恩光,苏陶. 1997(2):30-33. 语篇分析述评: 从语篇描述到体裁解释[J]. 外国语.
刘丽艳. 2002. 英文求职信写作教学的比较研究:体裁教学法与网上训练[J].
那乌兰. 2004 英文求职信的信息分布特点及其教学意义[J]. 内蒙古工业大学学报(2).
秦秀白. 1997 “体裁分析”概说[J]. 外国语(6):8-15..
秦秀白. 2000 体裁教学法述评[J]. 外语教学与研究(1):42-46..
孙晓娥,张萍. 1999 体裁分析与英文求职信[J]. 陕西师范大学学报(1)..
姚文俊. 2003 体裁分析在英文求职信中的应用[J]. 山东外语教学(4)..
张德禄. 2002 语类研究概览[J]. 外国语(4):13-22..
张德禄. 2002 语类研究理论框架探索[J]. 外语教学与研究(5):339-344..
张世耘. 2004. 英语交际实用写作[M]. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社.
Brian Paltridge.1994. Genre Analysis and Identification of Textual Boundaries. Applied Linguistics, 15(3):288-299.
Brian Paltridge. 1995. Analyzing Genre: A Relational Perspective. System, 23(4):503-511.
Brown, G & G. Yule.1983. Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Caolin. 2000. English Business letters. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Dudley-Evans, T.1994. Genre analysis: an approach to text analysis for ESP in M.Coulthard(Ed). Advances in Written Text Analysis. London: Routledge.
Dudley-Evans, T & St John.M.J. 1998. Developments in ESP: A Multi-disciplinary Approach . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Duncan Macintosh. 1997. English for Business. Guangzhou:Guangdong Economy Press.
Eggins, S.1994. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Pinter Publishers Ltd.
Grahame T Bilbow. 2000. Write for Modern Business. London: Longman.
Hu Wenzhong.1999. Indirectness revisited on the communicative style in two types of Chinese letters. In Hu Wengzhong(Ed). Aspects of Intercultural Communication. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Hyme & Dell. 1974. Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Halliday,M.A.K & Hasan,R. 1985. Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Victoria L Deakin University Press.
Hyon & Sunny. 1996. Genre in Three Traditions: Implications for ESL. TESOL Quarterly, (30):693-722.
Joyce Lain Kennedy. 1999. English Job Application Letters. WenHui Publishing Press.
Kay, H. & T.Dudley-Evans. 1998. Genre: what teachers think. ELT Journal, 52 /4:308-14.
Kirkpatrick, A.1997. Contrastive rhetoric and the teaching of writing: seven principles. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. Supplement 14:89-102.
Kaplan R. 1996. Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-cultural Education. Language Learning, (16):1-20.
Matin , J. R. 1984. Register and Genre. In F. Christie(ed). Language studies: Children’s Writing: Reader. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
Marshall. S. 1991. A genre-based approach to the teaching of reporting writing. English for Specific Purposes,10:3-13.
McCarthy, M & R.Carter. 1994. Language as Discourse: Perspectives for Language Teaching. London: Longman.
McCarthy, M. 1991. Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Miller,C.R.1984. Genres as Social Action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70:151-167. Nunan, D.1993.Introduction to discourse analysis. London: Penguin Books.
Paltridge.B.1996. Genre, text type, and the language learning classroom. ELT Journal 50/3:237-243.
Ryan, Robin. 1997 .Winning Cover Letters. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Samovar,L.A.& R.E. Porter. 2002. Communication between Cultures. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Shery Lindsell-Roberts. 2004. Writing Business Letters for Dummies. China Machine Press.
SwalesJ.1990. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales.J. 1990. Genre Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scollon,R.& S.W.Scollon.1995. Intercultural Communication—A Discourse Approach. Oxford:Blackwell.
Ulla Connor. 1996. Contrastive Rhetoric: Cross-Cultural Aspects of Second Language Writing. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Ventola, E. 1987. The Structure of Social Interaction: A Systemic Approach to the Semiotics of Service Encounter Interaction. London: Pinter.
蔡基刚. 2000. 英汉写作对比研究[M]. 上海:复旦大学出版社.
方琰. 1997. 浅谈语类[J]. 外国语(1)..
高恩光,苏陶. 1997(2):30-33. 语篇分析述评: 从语篇描述到体裁解释[J]. 外国语.
刘丽艳. 2002. 英文求职信写作教学的比较研究:体裁教学法与网上训练[J].
那乌兰. 2004 英文求职信的信息分布特点及其教学意义[J]. 内蒙古工业大学学报(2).
秦秀白. 1997 “体裁分析”概说[J]. 外国语(6):8-15..
秦秀白. 2000 体裁教学法述评[J]. 外语教学与研究(1):42-46..
孙晓娥,张萍. 1999 体裁分析与英文求职信[J]. 陕西师范大学学报(1)..
姚文俊. 2003 体裁分析在英文求职信中的应用[J]. 山东外语教学(4)..
张德禄. 2002 语类研究概览[J]. 外国语(4):13-22..
张德禄. 2002 语类研究理论框架探索[J]. 外语教学与研究(5):339-344..
张世耘. 2004. 英语交际实用写作[M]. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社.