Page 161 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

Intercultural communication and communicative genres 139

Kotthoff’s (2002a) study of German–Russian academic talks (in Arts and
Social Sciences) also shows striking differences in dealing with seemingly
similar genres. German speakers tend to present some sort of orientation about
the topical structure of their talk at the beginning of their presentation. Further,
German speakers often explicitly refer to subtopics. Russian speakers usually
provide no such orientation. Whereas German academic talks are usually rather
focussed on one major topic, the thematic scope of Russian talks is rather wide
and resembles more what in German tradition would be a festive talk. Fur-
thermore, whereas German speakers explicitly quote ideas, theses, etc. from
other authors, in Russian talks it is difficult to figure out which are the speaker’s
own theses and which are ideas stemming from other researchers.
Cultural differences in the organization, patterning and further handling of
seemingly similar genres cannot be reduced to oral rhetorical tradition; studies
within academic discourse reveal profound cultural differences in the organiz-
ation of written genres, too. Kirkpatrick’s (1991) analysis of information se-
18
quencing in Mandarin and English ‘letters of request’ shows how similar com-
municative genres may vary in their discursive organization. Chinese letters of
request reveal a preference for providing reasons first, before the main point
(the request) is stated. The Chinese genre of request letters generally conforms
to the following schema: salutation, preamble (‘face work’), reasons, and then
the request itself. Thus, in contrast to English request letters, Chinese not only
produce extended face work which forms an integral part of the request, but they
also tend to place the reasons before the request itself:
This appears to be a formalized way of framing requests. That is to say, native speak-
ers are able to identify these requests as well-written, normal, and polite long before
they come to the requests themselves, because they are familiar with the structure of
requests and the sequence in which the parts of a request are ordered. … Changing
the order, by moving the request to the beginning, results in a letter or request being
marked as direct and possibly impolite.
Kirkpatrick 1991: 198

3.3. Different stylistic assessments of seemingly similar genres

In intercultural communicative situations there may be not only clashes of vari-
ous communicative genres, but also differences in the stylistic assessment of
particular genres. Knowing how to use these genres belongs just as much to
19
communicative competence as does knowing which genre is stylistically appro-
priate for doing particular interactional work.
Apparently identical genres may also have differing stylistic conventions,
they may be used in different social contexts or milieus or have a high prestige
in one culture and be associated with lower status groups in another culture. The
use of proverbs provides an example for the different assessment of seemingly