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1.2Theculturalfactorinacademiccommunication
19
1987),andintheprimaryresponsibilityforeffectivecommunication,which
canresteitherwiththespeakerlwriterorwiththelistenerlreader(Hinds,
1987).Suchdifferencesareparticularlystronglymarkedinacademiccommu-
nication,which,aswehaveseenintheprevioussection,involvesinteractants
representingvariousspeechcommunities,tryingtodescriberesearch,pre-
sentfindings,proposeclaims,argueintheirfavour,andpersuadethereaders
toacceptthem—inotherwords,interactantswhostrivetomaketheirpoint
inawaywhichisintelligible,acceptableandpersuasivebeyondtheirownlin-
guisticandculturalcontexts.
Intheopeningpassagesofherstudyintoculturaldifferencesinacadem-
icwrittendiscourse,Mauranen(1993b)observesthatacademicwriterswho
needtopublishinaforeignlanguagemayproducetextswhicharerhetorical-
lyineffectiveforthefollowingreasons:
(a)becausetheydonotknowhowtomanipulatetheresourcesofthetarget
language(usuallyEnglish)totheiradvantage,duetoaninadequatecom-
mandofthelexis,grammar,andtextualstructuringofthelanguage
(b)becausetheirbeliefsaboutwhatconvincingrhetoricislikemaybediffer-
entfromthatofthetargetculture(usuallyAnglo-American),ortheymay
beunawareoftheexistenceofsuchdifferences.(Mauranen,1993b:1)
Theculturallybasedbeliefsabouteffectiveexpositionandargumentation,
whichunderliethesecondgroupoffactorsresponsibleforafailureinproduc-
ingasuccessfulacademiccontributioninaforeignlanguage,areoftenroot-
edintheintellectualtraditioninwhichthetextoriginates—inspecificatti-
tudestowardsknowledge,writing,theresearcherandthereader,whichare
prevalentinthisculture.TheWesterntraditionofcriticalthinkingisfound-
edontheSocraticmodelofrationalinquiry(Walton,2007)and,asnotedby
Strevens(1987)inhisdiscussionofusociety)sultimatemyths”thatmouldour
discoursestrategies,shapedbythephilosophicalthoughtofthe17thand18th
centuries,withitsattitudestowardsfacts,hypotheses,theoriesandclaims.
Asaresult,inWesternculturesacademiccontributionislikelytobeevaluat-
edonthebasisofthecogencyoflogicalargumentation,whileothercultures
mayattachimportancetootherproperties,suchas,e.g.,theaestheticmerits
ofthetext(Strevens,1987).
Variationintheorganisationofacademictextsandpreferredrhetorical
patternswhichderivesfromdifferentattitudestoknowledgeiswell-exempli-
fiedbyClyne)s(1987a)studyintodiscoursestrategiesadoptedbyEnglishand
GermanacademicswritinginEnglish.Theresultshavedemonstratedthatthe
