When Traditional Chinese Culture Meets a Technical ...

Applied ResearchWhen Traditional Chinese Culture Meetsa Technical Communication Program ina Chinese University: Report on TeachingTechnical Communication in ChinaDaniel D. DingAbstractPurpose: This article examines specific manifestations of the generalizations identified byliterature in pedagogy in a Chinese university.Method: Five open questions were asked of the university’s five technical communicationinstructors in a 90-minute focus-group interview session to identify the important areasin pedagogy as conditioned by Chinese culture. The 300 students were surveyed toreveal their understanding of technical communication as it existed in China. Features asconditioned by Chinese culture and as manifested in the 300 students were also identifiedthrough my teaching and observing their performance in class.Results: The five instructors taught the same lessons and the same course contentdetermined by the university. They focused on teaching professional terms and phrases.They administered examinations throughout a semester to help students memorize theterms. The 300 students generally thought that technical communication was aboutscience and technology. The general audience of technical communication, for them, wasbasically their country, and the purpose was to serve their country and society. In class,these students often studied through collaboration in groups; they memorized almosteverything from their professor; and they preferred a broad thinking style to tacklingbroad issues.Conclusions: Technical communication pedagogy is governed by Confucianism andthe test-oriented Chinese society. In class, students were motivated by the collectivismChinese culture stresses. Students’ rote learning approach was influenced by theirtraditional way of learning, and the broad thinking style was a textual mechanism forstudents to complete assignments while upholding patriotism.Keywords: technical communication, Confucianism, rote learning, collectivism, broadthinking style34 Technical Communication l Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011

Applied ResearchA Technical Communication Program in a Chinese Universitytechnical communication. Ding (2003) argues that YiJing, completed in 500 B.C., is the earliest technicalcommunication work in China that championeda philosophy that underlies Chinese technicalcommunication practices—unity between contexts andobjects (such as a document) to be used in the contexts.Barnum and Li (2006) have contrasted Chinese andAmerican cultural values that govern the ways technicalcommunication is practiced in the two differentcultures, pointing out that Chinese culture orientspage design in China. Ding (2006), after studyingConfucianism and technical communication in China,points out that Confucianism is the driving force ofthe indirect style of Chinese technical communication.Its three core principles—ren (human heartedness),yi (righteousness), and li (proper conduct code)—shape the way a document is developed and createdin Chinese culture. Yu (2009) has studied Chineseculinary instructions in the context of Chinese culture,suggesting that culinary instructions in China have ahistory of 2,000 years. Ding (2010), after studying thefirst comprehensive technical communication book inChina, On Technological Subjects, argues that influencedby Confucianism, using names (nouns) for the titles ofinstructions is a striking feature of Chinese instructionalmanuals, thus making clear one difference in stylebetween Chinese and American instructions.The above studies have revealed the followinggeneralizations about technical communication inChina: First, its practices are highly influenced byConfucianism. Second, they are highly contextualizedso that audiences are expected to have much pertinentknowledge when using a technical communicationdocument. Third, technical communication employsan indirect style in business correspondence andbusiness negotiations because it often combines personalinformation and stories with business information tohelp establish harmonious relationships between authorsand audience. Fourth, it has a long history, as it has beenpracticed for more than 2,000 years.Many other researchers and practitioners haveaddressed technical communication education inChina, an issue that is more relevant to this article.Ding and Jablonski (2001), for example, point outthat Chinese universities, given their cultural and socialcontexts, emphasize vocabulary-building skills in theirversion of a technical communication course, ESP,arguing that such a course is built on the assumptionthat technical communication is done by scientists forother scientists. Barnum, Philip, Reynolds, Shauf, andThompson (2001) tell us that “the Chinese classroomis very different from the Western classroom” (p. 400)and that rote learning helps Chinese students learnthe language and build a good relationship betweenteachers and students. Duan and Gu (2005), twoChinese instructors of technical communication,share their experiences of teaching a Chinese versionof technical communication—English for TechnicalCommunication—in China, especially their use of, intheir own terms, “a more Western style of teaching”(p. 445), testing skills, and use of labs. Dautermann(2005) discusses the difficulties she experienced intraining a group of Chinese business writers in a twoweeksession “in an authoritarian culture” (p. 156),where she encountered issues of resources, equipment,teaching environment, and politics. Barnum andLi (2006), while discussing challenges to technicalcommunication education in China in their contraststudy of American and Chinese cultural values, stressthat a major “impediment to the adoption of technicalwriting courses at the university level is the current focusin English classes on language acquisition and precisionin vocabulary and grammar, which leaves little roomfor teaching principles of technical communication”(p. 149). Golemon (2008) planned a technicalcommunication course for a Taiwan university, arguingthat such a plan must be based on three features ofChinese culture: power distance, uncertainty avoidance,and collectivism. Roberts and Tuleja (2008) report sixcultural challenges they encountered while teaching acourse of managerial communication in Hong Kong:Chinese students’ unwillingness to speak out in class,their difficulties with English, their unwillingness toask questions in class, plagiarism, their indirect style ofreasoning, and the Chinese approach to teaching (i.e.,one-way lecture from the instructor); thus they claimthat they “experienced considerable difficulty in shiftingfrom a student-centered approach to a teacher-centeredone” (p. 485). Ding (2010), after introducing anotherversion of Chinese technical communication course—English Relative to Individual Disciplines (ERID),claims technical communication courses (as we definethem) in China should be based on China’s historicaland cultural contexts, proposing that ERID can serve36 Technical Communication l Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011

Applied ResearchDaniel D. Dingas starting point to launch such courses. He also stressesthat ERID “focuses on language acquisition, disciplinaryvocabulary, and genre knowledge, and translation skills”(p. 314). In short, it is basically a language skill course.The studies cited above identify three general points:First, technical communication education in Chinawith its unique features is not technical communicationeducation as we would define it. Second, most Chineseuniversities, if they offer technical communicationcourses at all, offer the so-called ESP course, which isoriented toward building professional terms. Third,we should not simply graft our version of technicalcommunication programs onto China’s universities.Now the question is, given our understandingof the relationship of Chinese culture and technicalcommunication in China, what are some of thespecific features of Chinese culture made manifestin a particular technical communication program ata Chinese university, and by extension, in technicalcommunication education in China? For example,what do Chinese instructors teach in a technicalcommunication class, and why do they teach the waythey do? What pedagogical strategies do they employ?How do students learn technical communication? Thisarticle attempts to answer these questions. Some of thestudies mentioned above may have touched upon thesequestions, but in a very general fashion. For example,Duan and Gu (2005) report their experiences ofdesigning a technical communication course based onan ESP course, adapting a Western style of teaching totheir students. Golemon (2008) discusses how to planfor developing a technical communication course inChinese culture, arguing that Chinese culture shouldguide such a plan. Other studies are only suggestiveof an answer to some of these questions. For example,Roberts and Tuleja (2008), while discussing the sixchallenges they experienced in teaching, imply thatinstructors are the source of knowledge in class and thatstudents memorize course materials as a way of learning.This article addresses these questions more articulately.First, I report my informal research of interviewingfive technical communication instructors, focusingon how they teach technical communication. Second,I discuss my research of surveying 300 technicalcommunication students, attempting to explore theirperceptions of technical communication as it existsin Chinese universities. Then, I discuss my teachingactivities, focusing on the students’ performance vs. theclass size, their study habits, and the strategy they use incompleting technical writing assignments.Interviewing TechnicalCommunication InstructorsBefore I started teaching, I conducted informalinterviews to help myself understand how the Chinesetechnical communication instructors approachedtechnical communication pedagogy so that I could adaptmy teaching practices to the Chinese students.Interview MethodI used focus group interviews. Focus group interviewingis usually limited to a small group of about six “to permitgenuine discussion among all its members” (Stewart& Shamdasani, 1990, p. 10). Lewis (2000) suggeststhat focus group interviewing is less directive andmore interactive because it allows all the intervieweesto participate in interviews that resemble a groupdiscussion. Glesne and Peshkin (1992) believe thatsome people, especially shy people, feel morecomfortable expressing themselves when others,especially their fiends, are also present. In otherwords, discussions may be more productive in a smallgroup of people who know each other well. Given asmall group of interviewees and the cultural assumptionthat individuals in Chinese culture are inclined not tospeak out, especially when a foreign professor is present,I believed this interview method would work well formy purpose.The department had five technical writinginstructors, and I interviewed all of them. Of those five,four had been teaching the course for two years, andone for one semester. All of them were teaching at bothgraduate and undergraduate levels, and one of them wasdirecting a student’s master’s thesis at the time. All fiveinstructors had master’s degrees; one was an associateprofessor and four were lecturers.I generated five interview questions based onthe following principles: First, the questions shouldhelp me understand the important areas of technicalcommunication courses these Chinese instructorswere teaching. I believe the important areas includeselecting course content, identifying and tacklingVolume 58, Number 1, February 2011 l Technical Communication 37

Applied ResearchA Technical Communication Program in a Chinese Universitypedagogical issues, developing students’ qualificationsfor employment, and connecting culture and technicalcommunication. Second, the questions should help melearn the instructors’ perceptions of the areas of technicalcommunication that the Chinese university wanted meto help with by giving a series of lectures to its faculty:culture and technical communication, workplace needsand technical communication education, and technicalcommunication textbooks. Third, Krueger (1988)recommends that focus group interviewing use aboutfive questions. Thus, I formulated the following fivequestions:1. How many years have you taught technicalcommunication?2. What do you teach in a technical communicationclass?3. What are some of the important current issues intechnical communication pedagogy?4. What does the workplace require your graduates toknow before they are hired?5. What role does Chinese culture play in technicalwriting and technical communication pedagogy inthe university?To collect data, I used a tape recorder assisted bynote taking, especially when background noises were tooloud. The entire group interviews took 90 minutes.ResultsTwo older instructors were more talkative than thethree younger ones, who, though they themselves wereinstructors, were somewhat bashful. Only after an olderinstructor started talking did they begin to answerquestions, but still their answers were often truncatedand sometimes not very articulate. Here I report theiranswers to all the questions except the first one, whichwas about the interviewees’ background.Question 2: What do you teach in a technicalwriting class? All of them explained that they taughtsentence-making skills, professional terms, andprofessional writing translation skills. One importantreason why they taught the same lessons, according toone instructor, is that they all used the same textbook,Business English: An English Course in Business Writing(Xian, 2002). Both the textbook and the course contentwere determined by the school, which followed theguidelines of the Chinese central government. In otherwords, what to teach and how to teach it were notcompletely up to the instructors to decide. What theseinstructors told me corroborates Dautermann (2005),who brought up the point of “highly regulated teachingenvironments” when she was listing the “institutionalbarriers that are likely to limit the use . . . interactiveteaching methods” in a Chinese university (p. 156). Thetextbooks, course content, and the lessons are regulatedby the central government, and the instructors areexpected to pass them on to their students.They believed that instructors were more importantthan textbooks, because knowledge came from theinstructors. They could impart their writing skillsand knowledge to their students. They took studentsthrough a text word by word, explaining points ofvocabulary and content along the way. Then they madesure that students learn the meanings of these words.One important approach they used was to have studentsuse new words or phrases from the previous lessonsin making up new sentences or in composing a text.Students who did well, they admitted, were those whohad memorized entire chapters and the definitions ofthe words and phrases they had learned. Thus, althoughtheir textbook contained lessons on using forms andrhetorical strategies such as buffers in bad news reports,these five instructors chose to focus on using language.They stressed that students could learn those strategiesby themselves in the workplace, but they could not learnto use correct words and phrases in the workplace.Question 3: What are some of the importantcurrent issues in pedagogy? The five instructorsbrought up two issues in their teaching practices. First,it was impossible to cover all the lessons in examinationsin a technical communication class (e.g., featuresof business report and contracts). Second, becauseexaminations could not cover all the course materials,these instructors were anxious that students would notlearn everything they taught. One instructor particularlyadded that in her class, she sometimes used multiplechoicequestions in examinations on features of businessreports and contracts and other nonlanguage skills.These examinations, though she realized that they did38 Technical Communication l Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011

Applied ResearchDaniel D. Dingnot work well all the time because she knew memorizingthese features did not mean that students could usethem properly in written documents, proved verypractical, at least when she wanted her students to getfamiliar with these features.One instructor talked about using samples inpedagogy. He told me that the samples used in atechnical writing class should be model documents thatall students could emulate and use, but it was not easy tofind such samples in China. This lack of model samplesmade it very difficult for students to learn to writetechnical documents correctly.Questions 4: What does the workplace requireyour graduates to know before they are hired?The five instructors shared the view that Chinese jobmarket demanded more technical translators thantechnical writers, so many companies in China wantedtheir students to be well versed in both English andChinese. The workplace wanted their graduates towrite well, but more than 50% of them could not writewithout making many errors in their documents. Theseinstructors informed me that some graduates couldnot even write a paragraph in the workplace withoutmaking more than 10 major mistakes. So the universitystressed the importance of writing well. Writing well, formy Chinese colleagues, often means using words andphrases already memorized. These instructors felt thatthey had a responsibility to ensure that their studentsknow how to write. They firmly believed that they couldpass writing skills on to their students.One strategy they used was quizzes andexaminations. They anxiously told me that examswere an effective means to ensuring that their studentshad mastered what they had taught. All five instructorstold me that they administered a quiz every week,one midterm examination, and one final examination.The major purpose of these tests was to ensurethat students memorize the definition of terms andexpressions so that that they might use them in makingnew sentences or composing new texts. Often in thetests, they asked students to fill in a blank or to makeup a sentence by using a word, a phrase, or a sentencefrom their textbook.Question 5: What role does Chinese cultureplay in technical communication and technicalcommunication pedagogy in the university? Oneinstructor remarked that traditionally, China had a lotof technical writing examples. He cited two examples ofscientific and technological books from ancient China:Yellow Emperor’s Internal Channels, a book on traditionalmedicine from the Warring States period; and OnTechnologies, a comprehensive book on technology fromthe Ming Dynasty. In this instructor’s words, “Chinahas a long history of technical writing, and today’s taskis to further develop this tradition to let it serve China’smodernization drive.” All five instructors claimed thatthey had a responsibility to carry on the fine tradition ofChinese culture by transmitting it to their students.DiscussionThese professors’ remarks in the group interviewssuggest that technical writing pedagogy in this Chineseuniversity, particularly in terms of delivering coursematerials and lessons, is influenced by traditionalChinese culture. First, for thousands of years, texts ofstudy (i.e., Confucian texts sanctioned by the dynasticgovernments) were not to be altered or modified;interpretations were provided by the governmentstoo; these texts were just to be used (Upton, 1989).Mencius, who transmitted and developed the teachingsof Confucius and who was second only to Confuciushimself in creating the historical importance ofConfucianism, once remarked that he had transmittedthe Confucius’s wisdom simply by teaching his wordswithout adding any comments or interpretations (Waley,1977). The modern Chinese educational system seemsto have carried on this tradition, because the ChineseMinistry of Education must approve texts to be used;professors are not allowed to choose their own.Second, in Chinese culture, the teacher is theknowledge authority “whose message never deviatesfrom the textbook and who imparts the text’s correctinformation to the students” (Beamer, 1994, p. 16).Confucianism firmly believes that knowledge canbe transmitted from master to pupils; learning, forConfucius, is learning from masters (Lau, 1997). Toevaluate their mastery of the ancients, students oftentook exams which “were to a large extent a test ofstudents’ ability to memorize and internalize tremendousVolume 58, Number 1, February 2011 l Technical Communication 39

Applied ResearchA Technical Communication Program in a Chinese Universityamounts of materials” (Upton, 1989, p. 21). In fact, thisemphasis on memorization in Chinese education datesback to ancient China, when students were taught torepeat Confucius’s teachings in order to memorize them(Beamer, 1994). Similarly, in modern China, the teacherplays the same role of imparting knowledge and thestudent plays the same of role of mastering it (Beamer,1994). Even the tradition of Chinese culture has to betransmitted by teachers to students so that it can “serveChina’s modernization drive.” In other words, a teacher’sresponsibility is still to disseminate the correct messagesfrom texts to students and then to ensure that they learnthem through memorization, while students’ role is stillto “master what has been imparted” (Beamer, 1994,p. 16). To assess students’ learning outcome, teachersadminister tests in which students are expected to repeatverbatim what they have learned from their teachers. Nowonder the five technical communication instructorsfirmly believed that they could impart the correctinformation from the textbook to their students and thatexams could effectively make students learn.Surveying TechnicalCommunication StudentsI also surveyed my Chinese students, 200 graduatestudents and 100 undergraduate (sophomore) students.One might argue that because the undergraduatestudents had not taken any technical communicationclasses before and thus they were not very knowledgeableabout the field of technical communication, theiropinions are probably not very significant. Thus, Idiscuss only the data obtained from the 200 graduatestudents.Survey DesignThrough the surveys, I wanted to learn the students’attitudes toward technical communication. In additionand more important, I needed to find out the students’perceptions of the main concepts I would focus onin class. To get to know the students’ attitudes, Iformulated five questions based the concepts most of thetechnical communication textbooks we use in the States(Anderson, 2010; Burnet, 2005; Lay, Wahlstrom, Selfe,Selzer, & Rude, 2000; Markel, 2001) cover in the firstchapter or part: definition of technical communication,role of technical communication in industry, technicalcommunication and your career, audience and purpose,and ethics. Thus, I generated the following five openquestions:1. How do you define “technical communication”?2. What role does technical communication play indecision-making?3. How do you see the relationship betweentechnical communication and your career?4. How do you define audience and purpose?5. What is “ethics” in technical communication?To learn the students’ perceptions of the concepts Iwould teach in class, I chose the following nine topicsto be rank-ordered by the students on the survey frommost important to least important, with 1 as the mostimportant and 9 the least important:1. Paragraph structure2. Sentence structure3. Audience analysis4. Writing purpose5. Correct spelling6. Correct diction7. Vocabulary8. Ethics in writing9. Document designI picked the above nine topics for two majorreasons: First, these were the topics that the universityand I had agreed that I would cover in my sabbaticalteaching. Second, they were the same concepts Ihad used on the surveys the first time when I taughttechnical communication in China, which would allowme to compare and contrasts the results, though thisarticle does not address the comparisons or contrasts.The 200 graduate students represented 45 programsin 19 academic colleges and departments, such asEnglish, chemistry, physics, materials, civil engineering,surveying engineering, business, medical science,Chinese medicine, pharmacy, nursing, electronics, law,hydraulics, geology, environment, biology, mechanicalengineering, and botany. All of them were working orhad working experiences, and all of them had takenat least one technical communication class before. Idistributed the surveys among all 200 graduate studentson the first day of class.40 Technical Communication l Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011

Applied ResearchDaniel D. DingSurvey ResultsThe students, when they were answering the surveyquestions, thought they were taking a test, especiallywhen they were working on the five open questions.Many indicated that they had not prepared for the test,so they were concerned that they would not be able topass. Given the Chinese education system, most of thesestudents had never taken a survey before, and manyof them looked for standard answers. Some of themeven openly asked me if I would grade their answers. Iexplained that it was not a test and that they should notidentify themselves. Upon hearing that, they wantedto know if they “have to” turn them in. I emphasizedthat it was on a voluntary basis, because it would notaffect their course grade; however, I stressed, the moreresponses I received, the more I would learn about thestudents, which would help me plan the course. Finally,I received 127 responses.Not all the 127 students who returned thequestionnaire answered all the five open questions,probably because they were open questions and thustook longer to complete, or because they were morechallenging than simply rank-ordering the nine topics.Only 121 students defined “technical communication,”78 discussed the role technical communication playedin decision-making, 137 answered Question 3, 140defined “audience and purpose,” and 98 defined “ethics”in technical communication. Table 1 summarizes thedistribution of answers to the five questions. If ananswer was given by fewer than five students, I includedit in the category of “other answers.Table 2 illustrates the results of rank-ordering of thenine topics by the 127 graduate students. The numberswith which students rank-ordered these topics are addedand averaged. The more points a topic received, the lessimportant it is. The average for each topic was obtainedby dividing the sum of the numbers with which studentsranked the topic by the total number of responses (127).The averages were then ranked to indicate which topicswere viewed as most important to least important.I include the averages in the table because they arerelatively small numbers and as such, readers canmore easily see the ranges within the data set byfocusing on them than on the raw points. The ninetopics appear in the table in the same order as theyappeared on the survey.DiscussionStudents’ answers to the five open questions indicatethat although these students had taken at least oneTable 1: Distribution of answers to each of the five open questionsQuestionsQuestion 1: Definition of technical communicationAnswers34: “Very Technical,” 21: “About Science and Technology,” 19:“About Anything,” 19: “I Don’t Know,” 16: “Written by Technicians,”12: “Other Answers”Question 2: Role in decision-making 24: “An Important Role,” 19: “Not Sure,” 21: “Not Important,” 13:“Somewhat Important,” 11: “Other Answers”Question 3: Technical communication and career 53: “Helps My Career,” 36: “Somewhat,” 13: “Not Sure,” 35:“Others Answers”Question 4: Definition of audience andpurpose44: “The Country and the Society and to Serve Them,” 30: “TheTeacher and to Graduate,” 21: “Recruiters and to Find a Job,”17: “Boss and to Get Promoted,” 28: “Other Answers”Question 5: Ethics and technical communication 41: “Socialist Ethics,” 36: “Good Morality,” 9: “I Don’t Know,” 12:“Other Answers”Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011 l Technical Communication 41

Applied ResearchA Technical Communication Program in a Chinese Universitytechnical communication class before, they definedtechnical communication in a narrow sense. For them, itwas about science and technology, and the writing itselfjust used many technical terms. One student stated thatshe had learned many such terms in a technical Englishclass she had taken the previous semester so that nowshe could confidently write about technology throughemploying these terms. Another student noted thattechnical writing was “done by scientists and techniciansfor other scientists and technicians, and unless you area scientist, you cannot understand it.” Although 53students thought that technical communication plays“an important role,” none elaborated on this role; only6 students commented on its role by claiming thattechnical communication could help the governmentdevelop a better and a harmonious society for thepeople. It is apparent from my survey that studentshad rarely thought about technical writing as havingrelevance to the workplace in a more general sense.However, as Table 1 shows, 53 students believedthat technical communication helped their own careers.For them, technical writing was addressed to theirteachers, job recruiters, or bosses in order to graduate,find employment, or be promoted. It seems that theythought technical communication served their personalinterests, but if we examine this question in conjunctionwith their answers to Question 4, we realize that theultimate audiences are their country and society. That is,in the short term, technical communication served theirpersonal interests because it could help them graduateand find a job, but in the long term, it helped themserve their country once they found a job. So of the140 students who defined “audience and purpose,” 44answered explicitly that the audience was their country,and the purpose was to serve their country; 41 believedit could help them graduate and find a job. Only 17thought it would help them get promoted, thus servingtheir personal interests.The fact that 44 students defined “audience” astheir country and society and the purpose to servetheir country and society strongly suggests that, forthese students, technical communication becomes anTable 2: Nine topics rank-ordered by graduate students (N = 127)Topic (Total Points) Average Rank Listed as Number 1in ImportanceListed as Number 9in ImportanceParagraph structure (657)(sstruxtureStructure5.17 7 ------ -----Sentence structure (582) 4.59 5 7 -----Audience analysis (441) 3.47 3 16 11Writing purpose (276) 2.17 1 61 9Correct spelling (701) 5.52 8 7 -----Correct diction (630) 4.96 6 8 -----Vocabulary (413) 3.25 2 16 -----Ethics in writing (569) 4.50 4 8 16Document design (991) 7.80 9 ----- 7842 Technical Communication l Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011

Applied ResearchDaniel D. Dingideological tool to show their patriotism. “Ethics,”for 41 students, is “socialist ethics,” and for 36 otherstudents, it is “good morality.” When I asked them toexplain to me what “socialist ethics” and “good morality”consisted of, some pointed out that “socialist ethics”was rich in content and referred to the spirit of helpingothers and sacrificing oneself for the interests of thecountry and others, and “good morality” entailed thesame values as “socialist ethics.”The results of rank-ordering the nine topics areconsistent with the results of answering the five openquestions. As Table 2 indicates, writing purpose camein first and vocabulary came in second, followed byaudience analysis. The results suggest that studentsfocused on the importance of purpose, but to them“purpose” often meant, as Table 1 indicates, serving thecountry or getting a good grade so that they could learnmore to serve the country. Vocabulary came in secondbecause without knowing a lot of words, students statedin their responses, they would not be able to read andwrite. Audience analysis closely followed vocabulary.Actually both vocabulary and audience analysis werelisted 16 times as number 1 in importance. Studentsexplained to me that audience ranked third because itwas very important to ensure that what they wrote waswhat their motherland needed to know. In this way,their writing could better serve the country. In otherwords, their motherland was their ultimate audience.In a nutshell, the survey results suggest that first, formy students, audience and purpose could be separatedfrom each other, and second, audience and purposewere often clear without being analyzed and identified.That is, most often the purpose of writing is to servethe country, and the audience is their motherland. InChina, audience and purpose are rarely discussed incollege writing classes. As Duan and Gu (2005) pointout, “Chinese English instructors refuse to recognizethat . . . audience analysis… [is] related to the teachingof English” (p. 439). Instead, Chinese universitiesand schools encourage students to study for theirmotherland, and teachers specifically tell studentsthat everything they are doing in a class is to servetheir country after graduation. As a result, most of thestudents think the only purpose of writing a paper in aclass is to prepare themselves for the job of serving theircountry after they graduate. The emphasis in definingaudience and purpose as serving the country has a lotto do with traditional Chinese culture, which givespriority to the collective. Research has established thatChinese culture stresses the collective and deemphasizesthe self (Ding, 2006; Huang, Andrulis, & Chen, 1994;Winfield, Mizuno, & Beaudoin, 2000;). When definingaudience and purpose in terms of the collective, thesestudents seemed to try to conform to this tradition ofChinese culture.It is also noteworthy that vocabulary ranked second.Clearly, it was very important to the students. This canbe explained by the fact that in Chinese universities,teaching writing has always stressed the importance ofmemorizing words and phrases and then using themin formulating new sentences and paragraphs. Indeed,as my interviews with the technical writing instructorsrevealed, vocabulary building was a major part of theircourse content; students had learned to view vocabularybuilding as an essential skill in a technical writing class.This stress on vocabulary is clearly conditioned bythe traditional communication pedagogy in Chineseuniversities, a pedagogy championed by Confucianism,which emphasizes memorization (Beamer, 1994). Mysurvey results regarding vocabulary are consistent withRoberts and Tuleja’s (2008) observation that in China“[m]odern teaching still adheres to this practice (ofmemorization)” (p. 481).Table 2 also indicates that not a single student listeddocument design as number 1 in importance. On thecontrary, 78 students listed it as ninth in importance.Also, the range within the averages does not seem tobe large, except, perhaps, for document design. Forexample, the average for writing purpose, ranking firstin importance, differs by 3.35 from that for correctspelling, ranking eighth in importance; however, itdiffers by 5.63 from that for document design, rankingninth in importance. This large range suggests thatdocument design is still a new territory for Chinesestudents. My discussions with the technical writinginstructors reveal that none of them has even broughtup that topic in any of the technical writing classes. Nowonder document design came in last in the surveyresults. Ethics came in fourth, though it is rarely taughtin a technical writing class in Chinese universities. ButChinese students have a different perception of ethics;for them, the term usually means “conforming tosocialist ethical viewpoints.”Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011 l Technical Communication 43

Applied ResearchA Technical Communication Program in a Chinese UniversityIn summary, the surveys, though small in scope,represent a sample of Chinese instructors’ and students’views of technical writing in Chinese universities. First,students define audience and purpose in terms of thecollective: their motherland. Even when they werediscussing ethics, they seemed to think of ethics interms of the collective: the ethics of society—socialistsociety. Second, technical communication pedagogy—teaching vocabulary and emphasis on memorization—isconditioned by traditional Chinese pedagogy, whichfocuses on rote memorization. Finally, technicalcommunication is mainly done by professionals forprofessionals, so teaching technical communicationis teaching professional terms. In short, technicalcommunication in Chinese universities is heavilyinfluenced by Chinese culture.My TeachingThe interview and survey results helped me designgraduate and undergraduate courses. To myundergraduate students, I introduced the basic formsof technical communication, such as memoranda,instructions, descriptions, short reports, and proposals.In my graduate classes, students learned to manage anextended written project throughout the semester—anoperational manual, a procedure manual, an employeehandbook, a training handbook, or a technical report. Inaddition, students wrote a number of short supportingdocuments such as memoranda, proposals, progressreports, and treatments.In this part of my sabbatical activities, I was both aparticipant and an observer. I was a participant because Iwas the visiting professor teaching 300 students, directlyinteracting with them in class and during conferences ontheir papers. I was an observer because I often observedtheir behaviors, as when they were reading textbooks,course materials, or handouts in order to memorizethem. This part of discussion is based on the data Iobtained as a participant/observer.MethodI wanted to identify the features as conditioned byChinese culture and as manifested in the students,especially in the way they performed academically ina technical communication class. But first I needed todecide where to look for these features. My graduateclass syllabus divided a student’s course grade intofour components: two 2-page papers, one 6-pagepaper, one 15-page paper, and class participation. Formy undergraduate students, the syllabus had similarcomponents of course grade—written work and classparticipation, though the written work consisted of fiveshort papers. I was able to determine the following twoprinciples that governed my research as a participant andan observer:Strategies students used for completing papersStudents’ performance in classMy participatory/observational study took placeduring the entire 16-week semester at ZhengzhouUniversity. There were 300 students in six classes. Itaught each of the six classes for 2 hours a week: twoclasses on Monday, two on Wednesday, and two onThursday. I read a total of 1,560 drafts of papers by bothgraduate and undergraduate students. In addition, Iconducted a 3-hour conference with my students everyday of the week. My participatory/observation researchrevealed the following three features:Large class size is conducive to developing students’sense of collectivism.Memory-based study habits help students learncourse materials and succeed in examinations.A broad thinking style in their papers suggestsstudents’ sense of patriotism.DiscussionStudents’ sense of “collectivism” in large classes.In teaching 300 students in six classes, I met withtwo major challenges: conducting weekly one-on-oneconferences with students, and grading papers. Clearly,it was impossible for me to conduct conferences withall of my 300 students every week or to read and grade300 papers a week. However, it provided an excellentopportunity for me to observe more students than Ihad expected. But still I expressed my concerns to thedean, who told me immediately that I might choose toread and grade a sample of 10 papers from each classfor every assignment. I also suggested that we break thelarge classes into smaller ones, but the dean explainedthat such large classes were arranged on purpose, becausethey were conducive to developing students’ sense ofcollectivism, which was always emphasized in Chineseeducation.44 Technical Communication l Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011

Applied ResearchDaniel D. DingResearch suggests that Chinese culture highlyemphasizes collectivism while deemphasizingindividualism (Chen, 1997; Ding, 2006; Hofstede,1991). In the collective culture, people place a highvalue on harmony within a group in order to maintainorder in society (Ding, 2006). So “individuals tendto act primarily in accordance with the anticipatedexpectations of others rather than with internal wishes”(Zhong, 2008, p. 112). In class, Chinese students areencouraged “to seek guidance from others’ opinions suchas their colleagues” (Zhong, 2008, p. 118). Perhaps alarge class provides more and better opportunities than asmall one for students to learn to act according to others’expectations. Through the learning process, studentsmaintained harmony within the group (the class), thusfostering a sense of collectivism.Indeed, in my classes many students, especiallygraduate students, asked their friends to help them ifthey did not know the answer to questions I raised inclass. Even when I asked them to do in-class writtenexercises independently, they still sought help fromothers. Often, they automatically formed into smallgroups of 5 to 10 and started discussing the exercises,though they were not group work. The monitor (aParty member chosen by the university to coordinatestudents’ activities) walked from group to group to passideas from one group to another. When I told themto complete the exercises independently, the monitorexplained to me that they were helping each other outby sharing ideas on these exercises; he then invokeda Chinese idiom, “Three stupid cobblers can matchone Zhu Geliang” (a very talented primary minister inthe Three-Kingdom period), meaning they could notcomplete the in-class exercises without the concertedefforts of the collective groups. Here, the monitor, tojustify the students’ choice of group work, was invokingthe strengths of collectivism which Chinese culturestresses. The monitor added that their professors oftenencouraged them to seek help from others if they metwith hurdles in their homework. One of the advantagesof a large class, the monitor emphasized, was thatyou could obtain more ideas from others than in asmall class.Their sense of collectivism was also manifest whenthey had conferences with me. Neither the graduatenor undergraduate students ever showed up for theconferences without forming a group of around 10.They then sat down in a circle around me, expectingme to discuss their papers one by one. I told them thatconferences were more effective if they were conductedon a one-on-one basis than on a group basis, unlessthe group shared the same strengths and weaknessesin their papers. The students replied that with a groupthey could write a much better paper because they hadshared their ideas already while drafting their papers, sothat if they had conferences with me in a group, theycould learn more strategies from me and memorizemore information than one person. It seems that thesestudents here made the same invocation as the monitorin class: collectivism. They picked their group membersaccording to their programs, paper topics, and sharedacademic and personal interests. One student explainedto me that the more students there were in a class,the more choices, thus better groups. In a sense, thelarge class size also helped students form into groupsfor conferences.Because “collectivism” was upheld in class, I believedthat Bacon’s (1996) “response group” and Dale’s (1997)“co-authored writing assignments” would help me tacklethe problem of oversized classes. First, Bacon’s modelhelped me reduce conference time. In Bacon’s model,the class forms into small groups and the writers readtheir papers to the group by turns. When the reading isover, the writer listens to the group members discussinghis or her paper. Then the writer may respond with hisor her own comments. In addition to the advantageselaborated by Blackburn-Brockman (2003), thismodel gave me another advantage: It worked very wellin a culture that emphasized collectivism. Students,including undergraduate students, actively respondedto each others’ papers and helped each other makerevisions, so that when they came to the conferences,they had a better draft. That meant shorter conferencesto accommodate more students.Dale’s cooperative method helped me solve theproblem of reading too many papers. My students,graduate students in particular, were from variousschools and departments, and many of them wereterm-working on projects assigned by their schools anddepartments. I broke the class into small groups of 7to 10 according to the projects they were undertaking.This method worked beautifully because it offered anopportunity for them to collaborate with their teammembers in drafting reports, thus allowing themVolume 58, Number 1, February 2011 l Technical Communication 45

Applied ResearchA Technical Communication Program in a Chinese Universityto demonstrate their “collectivism.” Certainly, asBlackburn-Brockman (2003) has pointed out, assigningcoauthored papers for the sake of saving time onlyis not appropriate; for me, however, the coauthoredassignments did have an added advantage: Instead ofreading 300 papers a week, I read only about 80 papers.Memory-based study habits. My observationof the students’ performance in class indicates thatindeed they used rote learning as a major means tostudy. As identified in the literature from the fieldof education in general, a large number of Chinesestudents adopt memorization as a major approach tolearning (Cavanagh, 2007; Marton, Wen, & Wong,2005; Roberts & Tuleja, 2008; Watkins, 2000; Watkins& Biggs, 2001; Zhao, 2007). One reason why Chinesestudents prefer rote learning might be explained byhow Chinese professors teach. Chinese universitiesalways stress the importance of test-oriented education(Cavanagh, 2007). As I have already pointed out, thiseducational approach started in ancient China as ameans to learning Confucius’s teachings (Beamer, 1994).Despite the recent reforms in education to emphasizequality, the Chinese educational system is still largelytest-oriented (Zhao, 2007).In addition to culture, memorization-based studyis also influenced by Chinese social conditions. Chinahas a large population, and opportunities for studentsto go to college, to find jobs, or to study abroad are verylimited. In this respect, China’s test-oriented education issimply practical and realistic because it provides schoolsand universities with a “way of selecting students froma vast pool of qualified applicants” (Cavanagh, 2007).High-school students study to take college entranceexaminations; college students study to take graduateschoolentrance examinations; they also study to takeexaminations that could allow them to study abroad;they even take examinations to get a job or to getpromoted. Spaces are limited, so students must competeto get in. Thus, test results are highly valued in Chineseeducation. As Zhao (2007) points out, “test preparationoverrides national curriculum requirements” (p. 73). ForChinese students, tests offer a way out of their currentexistence to a higher and better position. In other words,“they see learning as a means to some other end” (Kong& Hau, 1996, p. 75). To succeed in these tests, studentsjust focus on the “most essential aspects rather than onthe meaning [and] the strategy adopted will be mainlyrote learning” (Ibid.).My experiences at Zhengzhou University not onlysupport the above-cited studies, but more important,they revealed that students not only employed rotelearning as study habits, but they also adopted anotherstrategy to help themselves memorize course materials—collective rote learning.Before the semester started, I had not expected tosee my Chinese students so persistent in memorizing thetexts, for I thought that I was not going to teach themto make sentences or build vocabulary; I was teachingrhetorical strategies in technical communication. But Iwas wrong. Every morning before classes began, studentswent to their classrooms to read the texts aloud againand again in order to memorize them. They even triedto memorize different ways of analyzing audience andpurpose, forms of documents, and shapes of differentcharts and graphs. During their nightly self-study time,they went to their classrooms to study the handoutsI had distributed in class earlier that day in order tocommit to memory the key words and phrases. When Iwas introducing Modern Language Association (MLA)and American Psychological Association (APA) styles ofdocumentation, students even tried to learn the specificrules of MLA and APA.They also attempted to memorize samples Idistributed in class. The first assignment in my graduateclasses asked students to write a prospectus for theresearch paper. After discussing the assignment, I passedout a couple of examples, asking my students to critiquethem in small groups so that they could learn from boththe strengths and weaknesses in the examples. Muchto my surprise, when the group activities were over,many students had already memorized two or threeparagraphs. I explained to them that it was not necessaryto commit the examples to memory, but they providedthree reasons why they thought they had to: First, theywere concerned that in the midterm or the final examI would ask them to use the phrases and words fromthe examples. Second, they memorized the phrasesand words so that they could use them in their ownprospectus. Third, they might use the words and phrasesin their other class assignments. Indeed, in their ownpapers they used phrases, sentences, and even paragraphsfrom the examples and other sources without properlydocumenting these sources. This verbatim copying of46 Technical Communication l Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011

Applied ResearchDaniel D. Dinginformation from examples and other sources smacksof Confucianism, which stresses memorization as a wayof learning. Confucius once talked about learning byheart the 300 Classic Poems because memorizing thesepoems would enable one to express oneself by using thelines form the poems (Lau, 1997). More important, itcorroborates Roberts and Tuleja (2008), who observedthat their Chinese students also used similar strategies ofcopying information from sources without citing them.Perhaps rote learning indeed helps Chinese studentslearn to use English faster and more effectively.My students also tried to memorize materials andinformation collectively. That is, they formed into smallgroups of five to seven, and each group member wasassigned to memorize one item. For example, in learningAPA and MLA styles of documentation, the students inClass 3 formed into six groups. Some group memberswere asked to memorize the entry for a book by a singleauthor; others were to learn the entry for a journal articleby three or more authors. In memorizing a sample,some students were to learn the first two paragraphs;others the second three paragraphs. So next time theywere working together, members would contribute theirmemorized information to the group. In this collectiverote learning practice, students demonstrated theimportance not only of memory-based study habits butalso collectivism in class.Broad thinking style vs. specific thinking styleConsiderable research has focused on different thinkingpatterns as a way of studying cultural assumptionsand features in technical communication. Roberts andTuleja (2008), discussing their experiences of teachinga managerial course in a Hong Kong university,identify as a challenge to their pedagogy Chinesestudents’ preference for the inductive approach andtheir resistance to the deductive line of reasoning.Barnum and Li (2006), after comparing Chineseand American communication documents, point outthat Chinese students prefer inductive thinking whileAmerican students always think deductively in theircommunication practices.My sabbatical experience identified another thinkingpattern in my students’ writing. That is, they preferredto think broadly and generally instead of specifically. Ifound this thinking pattern in papers by both graduatesand undergraduate students. For example, in myundergraduate classes, one of the assignments requiredstudents to draft a recommendation, analytical, orinformative report to address a real problem at a real jobsetting. Though I repeatedly emphasized the importanceof picking a specific, small-scope problem that existed ata job setting, most of the students chose broad, largescopeproblems, such as China’s economic developmentafter the Beijing Olympics, China’s status in the globaleconomy, or building China into a world power. Mygraduate students chose problems of similar scope. Forexample, while discussing her plans for her final writtenproject, which was intended to address a problem inthe provincial human resource services where she wasworking, one student picked China’s current educationalsystem as the theme of her final recommendation reportto her program manager. She supported her choice byciting the fact that the Chinese Communist Party hadissued a call for faster development in education andby arguing that China’s education as a whole neededto catch up. I suggested to her that the problem shouldbe narrowed down to a more significant, specific localproblem (e.g., a problem in her department) so that themanager could make an informed decision based on herrecommendations; the manager would not be able todo anything about these large-scope problems becausethey were beyond her ability and managing power. Thisstudent’s explanation for her choice of a broad problemsurprised me. She stated that ever since elementaryschool, her Chinese teachers of composition had advisedher and other students to focus on “big” problems likethose faced by the country and the world instead ofsmall, personal or local problems. Big problems aresignificant because they are related to more people; smallproblems are not worth discussing because they concernonly a few people.Research has provided support for a similarclassification of thinking styles. For example, Kao,Yi-ming, Pei-Lan Lei, and Chuen-Tsai Sun (2008),while discussing web research strategies, identify thesetwo thinking patterns as “global thinking style” and“local thinking style” (p. 1335). They claim that [globalthinking] style users…are less likely to explore an issuein depth compared to [local thinking] style individuals”…who “elaborate on a few specific topics” (p. 1330).They also note that global thinking individuals tendto “deal with relatively large and abstract issues” whilelocal thinking individuals tend to focus on “detailed andconcrete issues” (p. 1335).Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011 l Technical Communication 47

Applied ResearchA Technical Communication Program in a Chinese UniversityOne explanation for my Chinese students’preference for broad and general issues over local andspecific issues relates to their cultural focus on thecollective and its deemphasis of individuals (Ding, 2006;Huang, et al, 1994; Winfield, et al, 2000). China’scollectivist culture places a high value on the interestsof the whole country above those of the local provinces,cities, and enterprises and institutions; and on theinterests of a group over those of individuals. One wayto show an individual’s sense of the collective is to talkabout issues faced by the country rather than issues facedby the local entities or to discuss issues faced by groupsinstead of individuals. Thus, global and broad issuesare culturally more significant than local and specificissues for my Chinese students. Perhaps for this reason,some researchers suggest that when we communicatewith our Chinese colleagues, we also play “collectivism,”for example, using “we” instead of “I” and beginning atext with “general” and “big” issues followed by specificissues (Xu, 1996).ConclusionsMy discussions suggest that the technicalcommunication program in Chinese universities isconditioned by Chinese culture. First, pedagogy oftechnical communication is governed by the testorientedsocietal norms of a society that offers limitedopportunities for too many students. Second, Chinesestudents in their studies are motivated by their desireto uphold collectivism, which Chinese culture stresses.Third, the broad thinking style is a textual mechanismfor students to complete their written assignmentsand to demonstrate their patriotism. My study hasthe following implications for international technicalcommunication education in China:• Technical communication courses in China must belocalized.• When designing a technical communication coursefor a Chinese university, we must consider theregulations of the authorities governing selection oftextbooks and course content.• We must respect the Chinese cultural assumptionof teacher as the knowledge center in class whileteaching technical communication.• Building technical communication coursework forstudents must be based on their rote-learning studyhabits.• Any effort to help China develop its own technicalcommunication program must accommodatethe Chinese educational system, which promotescollectivism and patriotism.As technical communication practitioners andresearchers, we should, among other things, focusmore on the culturally conditioned manifestations inpedagogy to help international technical communicatorsdefine strategies for approaching Chinese students.In this respect, Roberts and Tuleja (2008) have donea wonderful job in that, they studied six particularcultural challenges they encountered in teachingmanagement communication in a Chinese university.These challenges are specific manifestations ofthe generalizations identified by literature aboutinternational technical communication. Based onthese challenges, they “consciously adapted [their]teaching and learning practices” to help students learn(p. 485). Their efforts represent our further researchinto international technical communication. Asinternational technical communicators, we must notonly develop an internationally oriented approach totechnical communication, but more important, we mustunderstand practicing and teaching styles and studyingand learning habits within a particular culture. We mustknow when and how to adapt, in Roberts and Tuleja’swords, “our [emphasis added] strongly entrenched”(p. 476) styles and habits to a particular internationalcommunication environment. I hope my sabbaticalexperiences at Zhengzhou University have providedmore useful information for both practitioners andresearchers to develop a global approach to technicalcommunication.I want to stress that I do not wish, based onmy experiences at one Chinese university, to makeany general pronouncements about technicalcommunication in China as a whole. I do not wanteither to draw any valid conclusions about millions ofChinese college students’ or instructors’ perceptions oftechnical communication based on my contact with300 students and five instructors from one Chineseuniversity. Rather, I just want to make some validobservations about technical communication pedagogy48 Technical Communication l Volume 58, Number 1, February 2011

Applied ResearchDaniel D. Dingand practice at one Chinese university. My experiencesshould serve as a small window through which we mightget a glimpse of technical communication education asis influenced by Chinese culture.Certainly more research needs to be doneto investigate how Chinese cultural and societalconventions affect technical communication pedagogyand practices. Before I left China, the chair of theEnglish department of a nearby university asked me tohelp her department develop a technical writing course.It is a daunting task, especially when we consider thatshe asked me to develop not just a technical writingcourse but an international technical writing course. So Isuggest that we focus on the following two questions inour future research:What role does broad thinking style play in ourefforts to develop technical communication curriculaappropriate to Chinese students?How does Chinese students’ sense of collectivismaffect developing the curricula, especially in audienceand purpose awareness?Though I designed a technical communicationcourse based on my interviews and surveys, it did notaccommodate students’ broad thinking style or theirsense of collectivism. On the contrary, sometimes Ipurposely steered the course in a different direction,although with little success. Ding and Jablonski (2001)pointed out 9 years ago that “technical/professionalwriting has an important role in China’s future. Hurdlesin the path include changing the perceptions andattitudes of both ourselves and our Chinese colleaguesworking within Chinese curricula” (pp. 433–434).This statement is still valid today. What we can do is towork closely with our Chinese colleagues and adapt ourteaching and practicing styles in order to define effectivestrategies for approaching technical communicationin China.AcknowledgmentThis article is made possible partially by the Ferris StateUniversity 2008 Research Fund.ReferencesAnderson, P. (2010). Technical communication: Areader-centered approach (7th ed.). Boston, MA:Wadsworth.Bacon, M. (1996). Response groups in the writingcenter. In R. L. Root and M. Steinberg (Eds.), Thosewho do, can: Teachers writing, writers teaching (pp.137–145). Urbana, IL: NCTE.Barnum, C. M., & Li, H. (2006). Cross-culturalcomparison of differences. Technical Communication,53, 143–166.Barnum, C. M., Philip, K., Reynolds, A., Shauf, M. S.,& Thompson, T. M. (2001). Globalizing technicalcommunication: A field report from China.Technical Communication, 48, 397–420.Beamer, L. (1994). Teaching English business writing toChinese-speaking students. Bulletin of the Associationfor Business Communication, 57(1), 12–18.Blackburn-Brockman, E. (2003). Changing thecurriculum: How much latitude does a first yearteacher have? English Journal, 92, 21–25.Burnet, R. (2005). Technical communication (6th ed.).Boston, MA: Wadsworth.Cavanagh, S. (2007). Asian equation: Chinese leadersare redesigning the way students are taught mathand science so the young generation will be preparedto help a changing society more forward. EducationWeek, 26(39), 22–26.Chen, G. (1997). An examination of PRC businessnegotiating behaviors. Paper presented at theannual meeting of the National CommunicationVolume 58, Number 1, February 2011 l Technical Communication 49

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