Cultural Thinking and Discourse Organizational Patterns Influencing Writing Skills in a Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) Learner

Writing patterns of a Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learner were analyzed as a case study from linguistic, pragmatic, and psycholinguistic perspectives. Alternative assessments were used by American pre-service teachers and a Taiwanese EFL instructor for rating linguistic developmental problems referring to format, style, syntax, and grammar. In addition, researchers conducted deeper linguistic analyses of discourse organization and cultural thinking styles. The case study also presents patterns found, some conclusions, and theoretical and practical educational implications. Objectives and Purpose This is a psycholinguistic case study of writing skills of an English-as-aforeign-language (EFL) undergraduate student, who comes from a Chinese background, speaks Mandarin as a first language, and majors in English at a Taiwanese university. The objective of the case study is to understand from a cognitive perspective the role of linguistic, cultural, and educational factors influencing writing patterns in an EFL adult learner. It is the theoretical purpose of this paper to contribute to the conceptual understanding of cognitive developmental processes reflected in cultural thinking and discourse organization patterns in Chinese EFL writers. The three co-authors were instructors for a junior-level course on second language learning and development at a large research-based state university in the Southwest region of the United States. As such, the researchers also had as their applied purpose the integration of educational technology (i.e., electronic mail) to content training, and practical experience in English-as-a-