Interplay between Culture and Writing

Scholars suggest that writing is culture-embedded andL1 rhetorical norms and strategies transfer andinfluence L2 writing. The theoretical underpinningsbehind this premise, on the other hand, have beenincomplete and most research in this area has seriouslimitations. Following an overall picture of therecent developments in L2 writing and contrastiverhetoric fields, this book reports the findings of alarge-scope study, which examines whether writersfrom shared cultural backgrounds display commonrhetorical and process patterns, and whether thesepatterns differ while writing in L1 vs. L2. In thoseinvestigations, not only the written texts, but alsothe processes underlying the products were examinedthrough stimulated recall interviews, and thefindings were explained in relation to previouswriting instruction in L1 and L2, which served as the"small cultural context." The results revealed somecommon rhetorical and process preferences and theirbidirectional transfer. However, although mostpatterns could be traced to the educational context,various other factors, such as L2 level, topic, andaudience were also found to account for thesepatterns and their transfer.