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Examining the native speakers’ understanding of communicative purposes of a written genre in modern standard Chinese
- Source: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, Volume 20, Issue 1, Jan 1997, p. 133 - 149
Abstract
This study aims to examine the different attitudes of the native speakers in understanding a written genre of Modern Standard Chinese—sales letters. The examination mainly focuses on the use of formulaic components as they appear in real Chinese sales letters and to compare these with the prescribed advice given in textbooks. To do this, 100 business students and 100 managers were surveyed for their views on appropriate business writing. The divergence of the views of these two groups of native speakers indicates that there is a gap between business teaching and business writing practice. The managers had a good understanding of the communicative purposes of the sales letters, while the students lacked this kind of understanding, which indicates the gap between business teaching and business writing practice.