Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: a handbook for Supervisors

Speaking across cultures
There is also potential for misunderstandings between students and their
supervisors in the kind of cross-cultural setting involved in supervising a
second-language student. The area of research known as cross-cultural prag-
matics looks at this in particular. Researchers in this area have looked at the
difficulties created by transferring one behaviour or rhetorical strategy into
another language and culture without realizing things may be done differ-
ently in that language and culture. It may be something as simple as
walking into someone’s office without knocking (because they saw the door
was open) or it may involve transferring the way of asking for something
from one culture into another without realizing the way of doing this is dif-
ferent in the other language and culture. A student may think, for example,
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Introduction

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that adding the word ‘please’ adds politeness to a request, which in some
ways it does, without realizing that sending their supervisor an email say-
ing ‘I’ve finished Chapter 3. Please check it’ is not sufficiently polite (in
most circumstances) for this kind of request.
Different views of cultural appropriateness, thus, can lead to misunder-
standings and prevent effective cross-cultural communication. This is