This article investigates the role of cultural assumptions in text interpretation by focusing on readers’ perspectives, a focus which has been lacking in Critical Discourse analytic approaches. It examines the influence of cultural assumptions by administering a reading comprehension questionnaire to two different cultural groups, Japanese and non‐Japanese. The results show the complex nature of readers’ text interpretation in that the respondents were influenced by the interaction of their cultural assumptions, prior knowledge and co‐textual information in interpreting a text. This points to the need for Critical Discourse Analysis to recognise variability in interpretation more and how this is affected also by cultural factors. The article then discusses possible implications of the findings for language pedagogy.
This paper investigates how one feature of conversational style -repetition -is utilized within the system of turn-taking cross-culturally, examining and classifying the immediate repetitions utilized at topic and subtopic boundaries of three different types of interactions: NSE-NSE (native speakers of British English), NSJ-NSJ (native speakers of Japanese), and NSE-JSE (Japanese speakers of English). Five interactional functions of repetition are identified: interruption-oriented, solidarity, silence-avoidance, hesitation, and reformulation repetitions. It is noted that the frequency of the use of different types of repetition varies across cultures, some being exclusively confined either to English or Japanese interactions. It is argued that the differences in the use of repetitions are closely related to the differences in the turn-taking mechanism of English and Japanese interactions and also to the socio-cultural values attached to their use.
This article compares and contrasts the discourse of whaling in British and Japanese newspaper reports. It investigates the ways in which pro- and anti-whaling discourses are formulated in the press by examining, in particular, the following features: (1) the use of specific lexis and syntactic structures, (2) the use of rhetorical devices, and (3) the control and organization of information at a discourse level. The article claims that British and Japanese news reports use very different strategies in expressing their anti- and pro-whaling stances; the former tend to use a more emotive and provocative tone, whereas the latter use a more restrained and factual tone. The article also claims that the issue of whaling tends to be discussed under different cultural assumptions and values in the respective discourses; and thus, suggests the possibility that readers may be influenced by the cumulative effects of these different discourses.
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