Writing Groups: Cross-Cultural Issues.

Abstract It may appear that writing groups, used in many English as a Second Language (ESL) composition classrooms, would be familiar to ESL students from collectivist cultures where group work is common in school both as a means of knowledge acquisition and as a vehicle for reinforcing the group ethic. However, writing groups may be problematic for students from collectivist cultures (e.g., Japan, the People's Republic of China) in at least three ways. First, writing groups, as used in composition classes in the U.S., function differently than groups in collectivist cultures: instead of functioning for the good of the collective, writing groups more often function for the benefit of the individual writer. Second, as a result of the dynamics of ingroup relationships in collectivist cultures, ESL students may be concerned primarily with maintaining group harmony at the expense of providing their peers with needed feedback on their composition drafts. Finally, the dynamics of outgroup relationships for ESL students from collectivist cultures may result in behavior that is hostile, strained, and competitive—behavior that is likely to work against effective group interactions.

[1]  K. Bruffee Social Construction, Language, and the Authority of Knowledge: A Bibliographical Essay , 1986, College English.

[2]  Stephen Doheny-Farina,et al.  Public Discourse and Personal Expression , 1990 .

[3]  R. Frager,et al.  Conformity and Anticonformity in Japan. , 1970 .

[4]  M. Janda,et al.  Collaboration in a Traditional Classroom Environment , 1990 .

[5]  M. Bond,et al.  Hofstede's Culture Dimensions , 1984 .

[6]  Harvey S. Wiener,et al.  Collaborative Learning in the Classroom: A Guide to Evaluation. , 1986 .

[7]  T. Kuhn,et al.  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. , 1964 .

[8]  Daniel Pratt,et al.  Conceptions of self within China and the United States: Contrasting foundations for adult education , 1991 .

[9]  H. Triandis,et al.  Collectivism v. Individualism: A Reconceptualisation of a Basic Concept in Cross-cultural Social Psychology , 1988 .

[10]  R. Brislin,et al.  Cross-cultural training across the individualism-collectivism divide , 1988 .

[11]  Terry Santos,et al.  Ideology in composition: L1 and ESL , 1992 .

[12]  Harry C. Triandis,et al.  Individualism-Collectivism , 1986 .

[13]  K. Watson,et al.  The Japanese Educational Challenge , 1989 .

[14]  Marshall R. Singer Intercultural Communication: A Perceptual Approach , 1987 .

[15]  K. Bruffee Collaborative Learning and the “Conversation of Mankind” , 1984, College English.

[16]  H. Triandis The Self and Social Behavior in Differing Cultural Contexts , 1989 .

[17]  John M. Murphy,et al.  An L2 writing group: Task and social dimensions , 1992 .

[18]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  Guided, Cooperative Learning and Individual Knowledge Acquisition , 2018, Knowing, Learning, and Instruction.

[19]  Tsukasa Nishida,et al.  Attributional confidence in low- and high-context cultures , 1986 .

[20]  J. Sinha The Hindu (Indian) identity. , 1982 .

[21]  The Value of Belonging to a Group in Japan , 1983 .

[22]  Joan G. Carson,et al.  Becoming biliterate: First language influences , 1992 .

[23]  A. Kimball Romney,et al.  Variations in value orientations. , 1961 .

[24]  William B. Gudykunst,et al.  The influence of individualism‐collectivism on perceptions of communication in ingroup and outgroup relationships , 1987 .

[25]  Anne Ruggles Gere,et al.  Writing Groups: History, Theory, and Implications , 1987 .

[26]  H. Triandis,et al.  Three cross-cultural studies of subjective culture. , 1968, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[27]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values , 1980 .