大学生海外留学文书写作话语分析及优化—以申请TESOL专业为例(英文)

大学生海外留学文书写作话语分析及优化

——以申请TESOL专业为例

摘要

本文试图以TESOL为例，从PS文书结构，中西方文化差异，以及TESOL专业中的批判性思维来对申请文书的撰写进行研究。本文先是通过背景调查发现目前留学读硕处于上升趋势，而大部分申请者因为文化差异和专业知识匮乏存在不少问题。为了解决这一问题，本文首先罗列了文献中其他作者对这一现象的研究，其中包括介绍PS的三个要点：字数限制，文章框架结构，以及几点原则；从宏观和微观的角度分析个人陈述的体裁；从批判性思维入手分析个人陈述中应体现的思辨能力。接着，收集了中外学生的个人陈述并做了对比，从宏观和微观两个方面，研究和分析了个人陈述撰写的语步和语言特征；并通过访问对正处于TESOL专业学习的学生的思辨能力进行了分析和研究。最后，总结了研究结果，提出了对大学生海外留学文书写作话语的优化有帮助的建议。本文旨在借此探索，为今后的申请文书写作提供借鉴和参考。希望中国学生能够用地道且优美的英语表现自我，从而实现留学梦。

关键词：申请文书；文本类型理论；写作建议

Abstract

This paper attempts to take TESOL as an example to study the writing of application documents from the perspective of PS document structure, cultural differences between China and the west, and critical thinking in TESOL. Based on the background investigation, this paper finds that currently, the number of overseas master's degree programs is on the rise, and most of the applicants have many problems due to cultural differences and lack of professional knowledge. In order to solve this problem, this paper firstly lists the research on this phenomenon by other authors in the literature, including three important points about PS: word limit, article frame structure, and some principles; Analyze the genre of personal statement from macro and micro perspectives; Analyze the critical thinking ability in personal statement from critical thinking. Then, this paper collects the personal statements of Chinese and foreign students and makes a comparison. From the macro and micro aspects, it studies and analyzes the language steps and language features of the writing of personal statements. The critical thinking

1

ability of TESOL students was analyzed and studied. Finally, it summarizes the research results and puts forward some helpful Suggestions for the optimization of college students' writing discourse. The purpose of this paper is to explore and provide references for the writing of application documents in the future. The author hopes that Chinese students can express themselves in authentic and beautiful English so as to realize their dream of studying abroad. Key words:application documents; text type theory; writing advice

Contents

摘要 ........................................................................................................................ I

Abstract................................................................................................................... I I Chapter One Introduction. (3)

1.1 Research Background (3)

1.2 Task Description (4)

Chapter Two Literature Review (5)

2.1 Requirements and Principles of PS (5)

2.1.1 The Basic Framework (5)

2.1.2 A Few Principles of PS (7)

2.2 Structure of Personal Statement from Macro Level (8)

2.2.1 Theoritical basis (9)

2.2.2 Integration with the TESOL Discipline (9)

2.3 Linguistic Features of Personal Statement from Micro Level (10)

2.4 Critical Thinking (10)

Chapter Three Research Methodology (12)

3.1 Analyze the Structure of Personal Statement from Macro Level (12)

3.2.1 The Research Questions (12)

3.2.2 The Reasearch Designs (13)

3.2.3 Participants (13)

3.2.4 Move Structure (13)

3.2.5 Frequency Comparison of Verbal Steps (14)

3.2.6 Use Language Steps with Large Differences in Frequency (15)

3.2 Analyze the Linguistic Features of Personal Statement from Micro Level16

3.3.1 Linguistic Features (16)

2

3.3 Trend of Critical Thinking Disposition of Chinese TESOL Postgraduates18

3.3.1 The Research Questions (18)

3.3.2 The Research Designs (18)

3.3.3 Participants (18)

3.3.5 Instruments for Quantitative Research (19)

3.3.6 Instruments for qualitative research (19)

3.3.6 Ethical Issues (20)

Chapter Four Results and discussion (21)

4.1 Discussion about the Result and Some Suggestions (21)

4.3 Suggestions about How to Show Uniqueness (21)

4.3 Suggestions for Chinese TESOL Students to Develop Critical Thinking22

4.4 Summary (23)

Conclusion (24)

References (24)

Chapter One Introduction

TESOL means that teaching english to speakers of other languages, which has the topic of exploring the teaching methods and theories of English, in order to standardize the method. TESOL students, are mostly engaged in English teaching in primary schools, middle schools and universities after graduation, and teachers make an important role in influencing the development of students' critical thinking ability. When applying for TESOL major, foreign students must figure out their learning objectives, explain their understanding of the course, and explain their value for research and communication. The writing of the application documents is an important part for these applicants to apply for studying abroad, and according to these, the university that the applicant wants to attend can know and examine the applicant's learning motivation, English level, expression ability and thinking ability. Therefore, the application documents are extremely important.

1.1 Research Background

In the last 30 years, Chinese just had limited approaches to go abroad because of poor transportation conditions and complicated intermediary procedures. It was difficult to imagine

3

the life of another country. However, the living condition of China consistently improved which let studying abroad more affordable to most of the people, as the dramatic development of China’s economy after reform and opening-up policy carried out in 1978. Additionally, the developed network and education’s prosperity which sharply improved citizens’ English ability made Chinese have a better understanding of the whole world. What’s more, some English-speaking countries are regarded as English-language centers of education and research by lots of English majors and teachers, which increasingly let the number of people who go there for postgraduate studies. Due to the professionalism and practicality, TESOL has become one of the most popular fields of study. However, due to some factors such as non-English majors lack English writing skills and domestic applicants know little about the requirements of foreign universities, they will copy some templates to produce low-quality documents. As the result, they will not impress professors at foreign universities with appropriate translation skills.

1.2 Task Description

This thesis involves five parts.

The first part is the introduction which concludes the background of this research from the perspective of social development, higher education policy and the current situation of Chinese students’ study tendency, and then the reasons for doing this research are listed. The structure of the thesis is stated at the end of this part.

The second part is literature review which focuses on requirements and principles of personal statements, the theoretical basis of personal statement from macro and micro level, the need of critical thinking around TESOL majors students with some related researches of critical thinking abroad and at home, and knowledge gaps.

The third part is research methodology which is applied to analyse the structure and linguistic feature of personal statement from a comparative study and gain the critical thinking which the foreign universities prefer learning experiences of participants through quantitative and qualitative method. It covers research questions, research designs and ethical issues.

The forth part is the conclution of these two research, showing the results and discussion in which the data is analyzed and the comparison is showed with the above literature. Suggestions rise from the conclution about how to write a perfect personal statement are collected and a sample is showed as well.

4

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Requirements and Principles of PS

2.1.1 The Basic Framework

Firstly, the number of words and format.

Although most schools do not have a rule on the number of PS words, generally the number of written PS words in the 800-1200 is appropriate, too much will let the school teachers lose patience, while too little will let the teachers feel that the applicants are not very serious. Admissions officers at British universities have talked of being bored with lengthy PS sessions during the peak application season, when they typically spend only two or three minutes reviewing a PS file in the face of a mountain of paperwork. Admissions officers read a lot of applications every day, and only simple, powerful, focused essays can impress them. Study abroad document is the advertisement of applicant individual actually, the advertisement of deep impression which is not concise and powerful? Chinese applicants tend to tell admissions officers about their strengths regardless of their priorities, which can lead to a blurry overall impression of you.

Secondly, focusing on the basic framework.

The reason you prefer this major:

Use 50 to 100 words to explain the origin of your interests, the influence of your family background and atmosphere on you, and provide a small example of your interest in the major or field. Generally speaking, it is easier for teachers to see a student's academic potential when applying for an undergraduate degree. If the major you are applying for is not your undergraduate major, then please elaborate on your motivation, purpose, and interest in the origin of the process, and to be able to complete the study, to use specific examples, not empty talk.

Take TESOL as an example. You can write about who influenced you to be interested in pedagogy, or about one of your volunteer teaching activities that made you interested in it. Experiences are best experienced in the last few years, not too far away, which is more convincing. If none of this is available, you can also write about how you taught your slides in class presentations in other disciplines, and what inspired you to become interested in TESOL.

5

Undergraduate Study Prformance and Ability:

Applicants can write about excellent performance in class, such as strong understanding ability, quick response, and quick acceptance of new knowledge. You can also include presentations, projects, and experiments that performed well. This is not a straight talk, it is better to include the difficulties encountered, the solution process, the ability to highlight the ability to develop. Generally one or two specific examples can be proved. Then write down your contributions or achievements in your major and your certificates. If the major is not the applicant's college major, then explain his efforts in this field and his self-study experience in this field (reading books, attending lectures, attending training, obtaining certificates, etc.).

For the TESOL major, the applicant can list the outstanding speech experience in a certain class, the experience must be specific, such as what things reflect the applicant what excellent qualities, the certificate can list the teacher qualification certificate, speech contest certificate, etc.

Extracurricular Activities:

Academic activities, competitions or student union activities during the undergraduate period to demonstrate the applicants' comprehensive abilities, such as competitiveness, leadership, teamwork and ability to bear pressure. Use specific examples, such as the name of the competition, the role (for example, captain), what you are responsible for, and so on. Write about at least one competition or academic or extracurricular activity that has had a significant impact on you, such as participating in a student union or student association.

Social Practice:

Social activities and practices, internships, and work experience to demonstrate the applicant's practical ability or job potential. Write the name, time period and place of the practice unit. Not only that, to write the practical work process, including the job position and responsibilities: such as the project done, encountered difficulties, solutions, whether the independent solution and innovation ability, best reflect the difference between others (team work ability, leadership and organization ability, communication and coordination ability, technical ability); Achievement and evaluation of work. If there is a foreign study, work, exchange of information, written will give the applicant a lot of grace. TESOL major pays special attention to teaching experience, which will make their own writing more competitive.

School Selection and Planning:

6

Applicants should write down the reasons for choosing the school. Check out the school's website to find out what kind of talent the school is looking for. Speak your own opinion and try to avoid stereotyping. Then talk about their plans, choose to study in the school of this major will have any role in their future growth or career, you can also write about their career plans. Be realistic and don't brag, unless the applicant has been accumulating for a long time. [3]

2.1.2 A Few Principles of PS

Everyone is unique. There are no two identical people in the world. Each person's understanding is determined by his natural aptitude, family background, books he has read, people he has met, places he has been, preferences and experiences. So there is no need to imitate others too much, everyone is a beautiful scenery. School teachers have to see the unique side of their students. So, applicants should never look for other people's experience from the internet, or copy the experience of previous applicants, which may be old or be used for many times? to leave a bad impression on the teacher.

Authenticity and Relevance:

Applicants should not try to find their own unique points, or even make up some strange things, the results are often in the opposite direction, many Chinese applicants tend to write long paragraphs about some irrelevant personality, in the eyes of the admissions, it is completely irrelevant. The purpose must be clear. PS is such a short article of hundreds of words is no place to say not to seek understanding, strict in clear. In terms of vividness, in order to make literary works easy to understand, the vividness of scientific works can be increased under certain circumstances. The vividness of literary language should be mainly manifested in that it can make the dull into the active, the silent into the sound, and the boring into the interesting.

Be Specific:

Be specific, not abstract.

While it is important to tell the story of the applicant's own achievements, it is more attractive to explain how to overcome difficulties and face setbacks bravely. Then there is spiritual growth. The lessons learned from the difficulties encountered and the character honed. It's important to have a clear goal, but if it's flat out boring, it's best to be dramatic, like a Hollywood movie, where you go through a lot of obstacles and challenges to reach your goal.

Cultural Factors:

Many foreigners don't know much about Chinese culture, so don't use too many Chinese

7

English terms, such as China's Cultural Revolution. Unless these words do not affect the meaning of the text, keep them to a minimum. If you have to write this down, comment it out later. This can let the school teacher know better. Try not to write things that everyone knows. Because a lot of people will write something like that. A school teacher in the UK came to new Oriental and said that so many people wrote about the Wenchuan earthquake that when they read such articles, they were a little reluctant to read them.

The Language Itself:

Don't make grammatical mistakes, use concise, powerful language, be able to make things clear, and don't use obscure words. At the same time, the language should not be too gorgeous, too much decoration. Don't copy others' content. If the applicant is a liberal arts major, you can write beautifully, but don't affect the meaning of the expression. As for the sentence structure, do not be too complicated and do not use simple sentences. Fit is good.

Outstanding Ability:

After reading the PS, the teacher wants to see the following qualities or potential of the applicant. Academic potential, team spirit, innovation, imagination, maturity, leadership, communication skills, problem analysis and problem solving skills, passion to learn the major, career planning, critical thinking. A PS article can't bring out all the above traits, and an applicant can't stand out in all of them. Applicants just need to show a few things that give them an edge.

In a word, PS writing is a very important part of the application for studying abroad, which should never be written hastily or randomly. If PS writing is good, it can make up for the defect of low GPAL. If PS writing is not good, GPA is not an advantage, generally speaking, the application is difficult to succeed. Although there is no set formula or fixed content for PS, the above writing framework and principles can help applicants to write PS without bias. PS is an article, an article with a clear purpose, its purpose is to make unique people think that the applicant is a good enough person, since as an article, it has the structure and format of the article, there should be a center, that is, the theme. PS is also another form of argumentation, the need to demonstrate that the applicant has enough ability. The experience and the research are good arguments. The above principles chould be more referable to some predecessors model. Find out what topics the other applicants have chosen.(Wang, 2013:116+118)

2.2 Structure of Personal Statement from Macro Level

8

To explore the genre of discourse structure and the differences between Chinese and western thinking, as reflected in this article from a cross-cultural perspective, first through the "liberal education" to explore the genre of foreign articles, again with genre analysis theory, and from the aspects of macroscopic and microscopic contrast Chinese applicants and the applicant's personal statement in English in English countries, aims to help Chinese students to learn more about the genre structure of the personal statement and language points, improve the level of English writing.[[[[[1]]]]]

2.2.1 Theoretical Basis

Genre, as a classification of communicative events, is "a group of communicative events with a common communicative purpose". Genre involves a variety of factors, including the discourse itself, the people involved in verbal communication, the function of the discourse, the environment in which the discourse is produced and received. Swales pointed out that a text is composed of moves, each step serves a specific purpose in the text, and each step is composed of a series of steps(1990: 45-48). It is helpful for language teaching to analyze genre as a series of steps. On this basis, Bhatia makes a further interpretation, believing that the language step reflects the structure and organization of the genre(1993: 30-56). Each language step serves a specific communicative purpose, and each communicative purpose serves the overall communicative purpose of the genre. It can be seen that the move structure starting from steps and steps is a very important aspect of genre analysis, which can help the writer grasp the macro structure of the text.[2]

2.2.2 Integration with the TESOL Discipline

First of all, applicants need to read the writing instructions for the school they are applying to and understand the main points of the questions. Do not write unnecessary sentences, do not leave out the necessary information, and do it in the required number of words. The article should have a clear topic, do not digress, talk about something irrelevant. Materials need to be structured around the topic. It is advisable to focus on TESOL and write about your own experiences and research questions.

It is suggested to write in three modules: the first part, background introduction, the second part, reasons for choosing this university and this major, and the third part, the future study abroad research plan.

Successful statements never deviate from the simple self-introduction. These two topics

9

introduce themselves and describe their potential as a competitive candidate. Analyze their resume, personal history, and memories. Highlighting major accomplishments, turning points, and events that touch on the subject of the applicant's career.

2.3 Linguistic Features of Personal Statement from Micro Level

Bhatia analyzed 200 application letters from applicants in South Asia and found that many of the applicants used a self-advertising approach (1993: 30-56). The law of self-promotion consists of four forms: self-glorification, self-appraisal, self-degradation, Self-aggrandizement is to claim one's superiority without providing sufficient evidence. A self-assessment is an objective description of a candidate that is relevant to the project being applied for. The difference between self-boasting and self-evaluation is that self-boasting is only a feeling, a desire, without any objective judgment or support. Self-aggrandizing, therefore, often lacks credibility and is likely to be seen as a very subjective description. Bragging is an attempt to convince someone of your desire to work for you by complimenting them (the target base and the organization). Self-deprecation presents the gap between where the applicant is now and the institution to which he is applying. This approach elicits sympathy from reviewers and is a language tactic often used to apply for scholarships or jobs. Bhatia found that south Asian applicants in the corpus used more self-promotion and self-deprecation strategies. [2]

2.4 Critical Thinking

In recent years, the importance and necessity of cultivating critical thinking ability has been widely recognized as one of the basic goals of higher education in China, especially in English majors. However, the researchers found in this study that most of the current participants were Chinese English majors, and few TESOL international students from China. In general, the TESOL curriculum is designed to teach English to students from non-English-speaking countries. The main purpose of this course is to improve the level of English teaching. With the increasing demand for high-level English teachers in China, more and more Chinese students choose to study abroad. In recent years, TESOL major has more than half of the total number of Chinese students. After graduation, most TESOL students will be involved in English teaching in primary schools, middle schools and universities and teachers are important factors influencing the development of students' critical thinking ability. Therefore, the improvement of TESOL students' critical thinking ability is not only important for personal development, but also crucial for their future teaching work. Based on the above reasons and the personal interests of the

10

researchers, this chapter takes the critical thinking learning of TESOL postgraduate students in China as the research object in the UK. Critical thinking is also one of the most important qualities that applicants exhibit in essay writing.

Recently, the research on critical thinking ability of English majors has made new progress. However, it has attracted great attention in the field of foreign languages. From a theoretical point of view, Huang (1998) first proposed that critical thinking ability of English majors in China is generally insufficient, which is mainly caused by the lack of critical thinking ability, that is, the lack of analytical, comprehensive, judgment, reasoning, thinking and discrimination ability of English majors. In addition, Huang (1999) clearly pointed out in several opinions on the reform that the undergraduate education was for foreign language major "namely English undergraduate education". The emphasis on imitation and memory in language skills training ignores the cultivation of students' critical thinking ability, innovation ability and innovation ability. Through empirical study, “Entry into the World Trade Organization and Foreign language Education ” group (Huang et. al., 2002) also criticized foreign language majors for not attaching importance to the critical thinking ability development for a long time and supported this conclusion with questionnaires. They surveyed 708 graduates in different majors. 31% of the students thought that the critical thinking ability of foreign language majors was weaker than that of humanities majors, and 45% thought that the critical thinking ability of foreign language majors was weaker than that of other applied arts majors. Among foreign language majors surveyed, 52 percent said their critical thinking skills were inferior to those of applied arts graduates. In order to find out whether the study of foreign language major restricts the development of students' critical thinking ability or promotes the development of students' critical thinking ability, Wen(2009) constructed a theoretical hierarchy model of critical thinking ability. Based on this theoretical framework, she and her team designed objective and subjective questions about critical thinking skills and revised the California critical thinking personality inventory. However, the research results of Wen (2010) and his team are different from the above results. After a survey of 2,189 students from 14 liberal arts majors from grade 1 to grade 3 in 11 colleges in China, they found that, overall, the thinking ability of English majors is significantly higher than that of other liberal arts students, but the gap is gradually narrowing with the increase of grades. The internal changes of critical thinking ability of both grade 1 and grade 3 students reached a significant level, but it was found that compared with other liberal arts students, the

11

improvement of critical thinking ability of English majors was small. [8]

In order to cultivate critical thinking ability of English majors, some researchers(Ruan, 2012; Fan &Wang,2017) have made much efforts. Ruan (2012) proposed atheoretical framework combining "Four-tier identity learning model", "Web 2.0e-learning environment", "Action learning theory" and "Blended learning theories" to cultivate critical thinking ability of English majors in China.

The application of dual-subject teacher-student relationship in this theoretical framework refers to the student-led, teacher-led, mixed learning theory, which means that teachers should pay attention to effective teacher-student communication and online learning to create a teaching environment that fosters critical thinking ability. On this basis, the theory of creative blending of the strategy of action learning every learning process "level 4 the identity of the learning mode", so that students can learn researchers and reflection in practice, at the same time, students can locate problems, analyzing problems, solving problems, and improve their ability of critical thinking as a text decoder, meaning the constructor and user text and text analyzer.

Fan and Wang (2017) suggested that the various sub-abilities of critical thinking ability should be integrated into each course module and be fertilized through teaching activities, specifically speaking, the language skill module should focus on the cultivation of logical reasoning ability; language knowledge module teaching can focus on training learning ability and innovative thinking ability; the language application course module teaching emphasizes the analysis and the problem-solving ability training; the cultural literacy course module teaching strengthens the comprehensive ability and the appraisal ability cultivation; the practice module teaching emphasizes the innovation ability, the research ability and the practice ability cultivation. The combination of the cultivation of students' thinking ability and the teaching of various courses is conducive to the formation and development of students' multidimensional ability.[8]

Chapter Three Research Methodology

3.1 Analyze the Structure of Personal Statement from Macro Level

3.2.1 The Research Questions

What is the difference between Chinese and foreign students in the choice of move

12

structure?

Why are there so many differences between the two groups?

3.2.2 The Research Designs

Firstly, this study collected 500 application documents of students from english-speaking countries and non-native countries respectively, and compared the personal application documents of the two groups of students by means of investigation. Through comparison, induction and summary, the answers and reasons of the research questions were obtained.

Secondly, this study also presents the necessary steps in previous studies: application reasons, personal information, personality characteristics, and future goals. In order to facilitate the analysis, the author reclassified the information related to the study at step 4, etc. are classified as step 5.

3.2.3 Participants

A total of 500 personal statements were collected, 250 from Chinese students and 250 from native English speakers. One of them is from my classmate, who has successfully applied to an ideal university in the UK.

The rest of the personal statements in English and Chinese is collected from the Internet. Due to the great similarity between TESOL major and English teaching and linguistics, the 30 personal statements collected by the author are all written for the applied English discipline, including three directions: linguistics, international English teaching and TESOL.

3.2.4 Move Structure

Both groups of students followed the writing conventions of personal statements when constructing discourse. Table 1 shows the seven steps of personal statements derived from the corpus of this study. First of all, some risky moves in the seven steps of Bhatia's cover letter did not appear in the corpus, such as asking for a reply and adopting pressure strategies. For students, they write to higher status admissions committees. Inequality in status prevents applicants from taking the risk of using aggressive verbal cues to pressure reviewers to make quick decisions.

Table 1 Move Structure of Personal Statement (" M "stands for " Move ",“S” stands for “Step”)

13

3.2.5 Frequency Comparison of Move Structure

Through investigation and statistics, the frequency of step 3 (explain the reason for application) and step 4 (determine the proof of study) is 100%, which are both necessary steps. The other five language steps are all selective language steps, and the two groups of students differ greatly in the use of the two language steps.

All the Chinese students and English native language students explain the reason of the application in the personal statement, such as showing interest in English subject or related field, the expectation of schools, classes, or universities' geographical position, expounding its gap between their own background or environment and their ideal goal, as well as the desire of the need to further study, or explanation for the motivation from their own or family.

As second language learners, Chinese students try to convince reviewers that the gap

14

between their own limited proficiency and the English teaching environment in China is the reason for their urgent need to further their studies in English-speaking countries. However, as native English speakers living and studying in an English-speaking country, the gap in self -deficiencies and background was not a strong reason to persuade the reviewers, only two native English speakers (13.3%) mentioned their deficiencies in educational background and existing knowledge of English. In addition, most Chinese students tend to use multiple types of causes simultaneously. Eleven Chinese students used three or more types of reasons at the same time to explain their reasons in various ways. Only two native English speakers used all three reasons, the rest being one or two.

Another important step in the personal statement, identifying credentials, is the applicant's main selling point, adding points to his or her performance and ability to impress the reviewer. Most of the applicants described their education, courses taken, and professional experiences related to the courses they were applying for, such as showing their language skills by introducing their roles in volunteer activities and campus activities. The most obvious difference was that 66.7 percent of Chinese students gave detailed examples about scholarships, awards, certificates and other honors were cited as evidence of their strengths, while only 13.1% of native English speakers mentioned past academic achievements.

Interestingly, although both the explanation of application reasons and the confirmation of study certificates are necessary language steps, 66.7% of Chinese students spend a lot of space on the language step of explanation of application reasons, which is much more space than that used to confirm study certificates. In contrast, all native English speakers focus on specific details of their qualifications, application advantages, and simply explain the reasons for the application.

3.2.6 Use Language Steps with Large Differences in Frequency

53.3% of Chinese students have a beginning, which mainly includes two methods. In the first paragraph of their personal statement, five Chinese students begin with their own stories, telling them their experiences in relation to the courses they are applying for, and laying the groundwork for further identification of candidates.

Example:

“Staggering of the muddle path towards the Hope Primary School, where I might spend the summer vacation with the students there, I was melting under the scorching sun. I started to

15

doubt whether I can get used to the adverse environment here. What a backward place! I was dragging my heels moving forward with great hesitations. When I arrived at school, which I did not recognize at the first sight, I was stricken again. There were only three classrooms with barely four walls, two creaking doors separately settled in the front and the end of one wall and a pair of broken windows in the middle. Each window was divided into four pieces of glass panes with one of them laid across on the top and the rest three vertically tiled below. Since there was no curtain, faded newspaper was pasted on the window to prevent the heating sunshine. Chairs and desks covered a thick layer of dust scattered in the middle of the dull classroom. I put my hand against the roughness of the desk surface, and it seems to tell me how hard teaching life would be here. Walking a long way here in a dog day without any shelter, I could not spare any energy to think more or made any extra decision. I went to my dormitory near the school and got settled. The facilities in the dorm were much better, although there was no tap water and internet. It is clean and neat with little wild flowers around.”

This is a typical beginning with a vivid story, which is more interesting, revealing the applicant's curiosity and yearning for the volunteer teaching experience in the hope primary school, thus eliciting his love for the education industry.

The second is the background opening method. Three Chinese students first describe the current English teaching environment in China, or the importance of English for China's foreign exchanges, economy and trade, and then summarize the background information to draw out their application goals.

In contrast, only two native English speakers wrote the opening, giving a brief account of their experience learning English. The remaining 13 native English speakers all explained their reasons for applying directly in the first paragraph, or started from personal strengths and emphasized that they were competent candidates.

In addition, although step 7 (polite ending) is not a necessary step in this corpus, we can still see the cultural differences from the comparison. In the end, the vast majority of Chinese students talk about their future plans and goals, and seven native English speakers (46.7%) used phrases such as "I would like to thank you for consideration of my application to your program."

3.2 Analyze the Linguistic Features of Personal Statement from Micro Level

3.3.1 Linguistic Features

16

It can be seen from the survey that both groups of students tend to use the language strategy of boasting about the other. The difference is that Chinese students tend to use self-deprecation and self-boasting, while native English speakers tend to use self-evaluation strategies.

Self-deprecation and self- appraisal are two language strategies used in step 3 (explain the reason for applying). Their dual function is to lower the status of applicants and raise the status of reviewers. Dissatisfaction with 73.3% of Chinese students to China domestic English teaching: emphasis on grammar, and ignore the communication ability, lack of authentic language environment and advanced teaching idea, the shortage of the environment caused by the deficiency of the own English level, the paper itself or the gap between environment and ideal goal, expressed the hope that need further study. Thus, self-deprecation reflects a relationship of asking questions and solving problems (applicants have problems -- only the schools and programs they apply to can help them solve problems and improve the status quo), highlighting gaps and inequalities.

For example,“ Today, English study has become one of the most important tasks for every Chinese student. In spite of that, we consider it regrettable that there is unformed yet any scientific and effective English education system in China. ... Apart from the historical and cultural reasons, we ascribe this unsatisfactory phenomenon to the lacking of a completely scientific English education system. The old English education system paid little attention to practicality and so for most of the students it was sheer learning and not using at all ”.

In addition, both groups seized the opportunity to praise the influence of the schools to which they were applying, the attractiveness of the curriculum, and the fact that Chinese students specifically cited geography (the English-speaking environment or the location of the school) as a sign of their eagerness to be accepted. The difference is that Chinese students are more direct and visible, commonly used superlative adjectives, or some qualifier to decorate, also therefore show play drama, such as "your esteemed/prestigious university", "one of the best", "your who education ranks the first throughout the world", etc. In contrast, native English speakers will choose more indirect languages to weaken the effect of boasting and make the reviewers more receptive, such as "particularly interested in", "your program offers this kind of flexibility and flexibility" and so on.

Self-appraisal and self-evaluation are widely used in the fourth step of language learning. By praising their academic achievements, professional experience and other relevant experiences,

17

applicants demonstrate their superiority and superiority over other competitors.

Statistics show that self-boasting is the main language strategy of most Chinese students in this language step. When demonstrating their advantages, 66.7% of Chinese students use specific numbers to indicate grades, rankings or specific adjectives, such as top-ranking, top-level, complete success, first-class, the best, excellent, outstanding, outshone, excellent, etc.

In contrast, native English speakers use more self-assessment strategies. 60% of English native language students has made a more objective evaluation to their own potential, multi-purpose on selected words expressing ability of words, such as be able to, be responsible for, responsibility, skilled, have an introductory knowledge of and so on. Compared with the persuasive and assertive self-boasting of Chinese students, the self-evaluation of native English speakers is informative and objective.

3.3 Trend of Critical Thinking Disposition of Chinese TESOL Postgraduates

3.3.1 The Research Questions

1.Is there a change in the critical thinking disposition of Chinese TESOL postgraduates after twelve month (two terms) of studying in the UK as compared with previous undergraduate studies in China? If so, what are the characteristics of the changes?

2.What factors influence the trend of critical thinking disposition of Chinese TESOL students ?

3.What are some relevant suggestions for Chinese TESOL postgraduates to cultivate the critical thinking ability while studying TESOL in the UK?

3.3.2 The Research Designs

According to socio-cultural theory—the application of intermediary tools in literature review and teaching influences the changing environment and factors of Chinese students' critical thinking. Graduate students in the UK are likely to come from four areas: language, classroom patterns, academic reading and term paper writing.

Therefore, applicants can specifically describe their expectations from the aspects of language, classroom mode, academic reading and term paper writing, and how to make full use of their advantages to study in TESOL.

3.3.3 Participants

This research is conducted at a graduate school of a public university in England who are all

18

my college and friends. There are seven academic schools in this university, namely Applied Sciences, Art, Design and Architecture, Computing and Engineering, Education and Professional Development, Business, Human and Health Sciences, Music, Humanities and Media. TESOL majors belong to the Education and Professional Development. In this research, in order to protect the university's privacy from disclosure, the university's name would be H university in the whole research.

In terms of participants selection, the purposive sampling is employed. Firstly, since the goal of this study is to study for Chinese students majoring in TESOL, they need to have undergraduate experience in English majors in China, with which their education experience in the UK can be compared. Second, participants had better come from different gender, age, work experience which will assist researcher to get a more comprehensive picture of their critical thinking disposition. At last, because of the small number of Chinese TESOL postgraduates enrolled in the same period, this study selected 270 Chinese TESOL postgraduates enrolled in spring and autumn respectively as the research participants. There are 190 males and 350 females in the participants, with more than 60% female. The number of participants under the age of 25 is 34 more than the number of those over the age of 25, accounting for 63% and 37% respectively. In the category of undergraduate universities, the number of participants from common university in China is 295, and the number of participants from key universities is 205, which account for 59% and 41% respectively. In terms of work experience, 260 had work experience and 240 had no work experience, accounting for 52% and 48% respectively.

3.3.5 Instruments for Quantitative Research

In this study, CTDI revised by Wen (Qiufang et al) is selected according to the characteristics and purpose of research aims. The advantage of questionnaire is that it can save time and manpower, and the results are easier to be quantified and analyzed (Creswell, 1994). But its drawback is that the findings are broad but not deep and meaningful enough and it is difficult to guarantee the quantity and quality of the questionnaire (Creswell, 1994).

3.3.6 Instruments for Qualitative Research

In the second stage, semi-structured interviews are selected according to the characteristics and objectives of the research purpose. Denscombe (2014) pointed out the appropriate condition to use interviews. It is when the purpose of the study is to gain insight into people's views, feelings, emotions, and experiences rather than repeating them in one or two simple words that

19

the interview will be employed. For example, research question No. 2 and No. 3 are to summarize some of the views, feelings, emotions, and experiences in critical thinking learning from Chinese TESOL postgraduates. As far as the semi-structured interviews, Denscombe (2014) considered in semi-structured interviews, the interviewer still has a certain list of questions to solve, however, the interviewer should prepare to think flexibly about the order of those, allowing the interviewee to express a wider range of opinions on the questions posed by the researchers. The answer is open-ended, with more emphasis on what the interviewee is interested in. Another benefit of the interview is that it is a beneficial experience for the participants. Compared to questionnaires, observations, and experiments, this approach tends to give people a rare opportunity to hear and record their ideas without being criticized (Denscombe, 2014).

This study divides the interview topic into four parts. In the first part, respondents were first asked to outline their study and work experiences at home and abroad. Then, they listed their understanding of critical thinking before going abroad, such as "did you ever hear the word 'critical thinking' before you studied in the UK?" If they say yes, they will be asked to give some examples. The second part is the respondents' understanding of critical thinking during their postgraduate study in the UK. For instance, “Please talk about the critical thinking learning experiences in UK.” and“ What efforts have you made to improve critical thinking ability during your study in the UK?”. Next, a semi-open question is "what are the barriers to critical thinking learning?" Some common barriers, such as language, lack of methods and strategies, or lack of practice, are listed as clues. This semi-open question serves as a reminder of whether the second language presented in the literature review has an impact on the development of critical thinking. In the first and second parts, the researchers adjusted the order and key points of some questions according to the participants' different critical thinking learning experiences. Before moving on to the third part, respondents were asked to define critical thinking in their own words, according to which the researchers could find out the differences in each person's understanding of critical thinking. The third part is the reason of the change of critical thinking tendency before and after studying in the UK. In this part, the researcher emphasizes the differences between Chinese and British educational environments, including teacher-student relationships, homework and reading requirements, and teaching methods. The questions in these sections correspond to the literature review. The last part is a collection of Suggestions for TESOL students from China to study in the UK in the future.

20

3.3.6 Ethical Issues

During the research, the researcher should give the detailed description about the aims, procedure and importance of this study to participants. Next, participants should not be pressurized to sign consent forms and they should be told that they have the right to quit at any time when they feel annoyed. The most important thing is that research should ensure the privacy and anonymity of participants to ensure that no harm is done to them. In addition, participants' consent is required for the use of the recording device. At last, in the stage of presenting the data, the researcher must be honest and ensure to show the true and reliable data and pseudonyms should be used to take care of participants' privacy.

Chapter Four Results and discussion

4.1 Discussion about the Research and Some Suggestions

From the above comparative analysis, we can see the similarities and differences between Chinese and English native speakers in English personal statement structure and language characteristics. The similarity is that both groups followed this type of writing convention when writing their personal statements, which consisted of seven steps: beginning, stating the candidate's identity, explaining the reasons for the process, determining the learning credentials, other personal information, future plans/goals, and a polite ending. The self-promotion method of Bhatia(1993) is used in the two necessary steps, the explanation of the application reason and the presentation of the study certificate. The difference lies in that, influenced by cultural factors. Chinese students tend to use the method of self-deprecation, spending a lot of time explaining the reasons for application in detail, and use a more subjective way of self-boast to summarize their own advantages when determining the certificate of study. Native English speaking students will simply explain the reasons for their application, but they are more inclined to demonstrate their advantages in detail through objective self-evaluation and express their thanks politely at the end. Through the discussion of personal statement, an important document for studying abroad, Chinese students can enhance their cross-cultural awareness, master the thinking differences between English and Chinese, and further understand the basic structure and language symbols of this genre. In this type of writing guidance, teachers can use type analysis and self-promotion to guide this type of writing, so that students can understand its laws, master

21

本文来源：https://www.bwwdw.com/article/ef24.html