The Future of Education
Cross-Cultural Differences in Writing Styles of L2 Students of English
Roxanne Wong, City University of Hong Kong/University of Jyväskylä, Finland (Hong Kong)
Abstract
This paper will give details of a cross-cultural study conducted between students in the United States and Hong Kong. The author looks at the differences between language use, sentence structure and writing style between the two groups of students involved in the study. This study has more global implications in that the students come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and are not a homogeneous group.
In 2013 a study was undertaken in Hong Kong to develop a Diagnostic Writing system that could utilize automated essay scoring. A pilot was conducted with 1400 students. These students were asked to write a 500-word essay.
A further 540 students from the USA wrote essays using the same writing prompts. The two sets of essays from both Hong Kong and the United States were subsequently double scored using the same rubric.
The essays were analyzed for the differences in the writing styles, vocabulary and grammar. The author will show some of the major differences as well as provide some insight into the differences in general teaching styles between the two educational systems. The implications of the findings to a more global language testing community will also be presented.
