A Contrastive Rhetoric Analysis of Job Application Letters by Native and Non-native Speakers of English

Abstract

English job application letters (EJALs) are greatly needed by an increasing number of Chinese job applicants. To address possible difficulties faced by Chinese ESL students in producing professional EJALs, the current study examined the characteristics of conventions of EJALs in terms of moves and steps, and it also explored the factors influencing the ESP writing. The EJALs of 97 native English speakers, 39 Chinese graduate students, and 93 Chinese undergraduate students were analyzed. Results indicated that the conventions of EJALs written by native English speakers and native Chinese speakers shared similarities more than differences. The factors influencing these differences were negative transfer of Chinese literary conventions, effects of the hierarchical social system of China, annular thinking modes of Chinese, Confucian etiquette, local context of job application in China, classroom instruction of the compositions, and Chinese students` low English proficiency.