A Study of Written Administrative Directives in the Japanese and Australian Workplaces
Research Program: Culture and Representation
This study aims to examine the kinds of factual written directives used in the Japanese and Australian workplaces in order to understand the relationship between language use and cultural practice. The corpus of texts consists of email, memos and formal letters which serve to direct staff to perform tasks in the workplaces. The study will investigate 1) how social relations are expressed, 2) how the directives are grammatically structured, 3) how the interlocutors are positioned socially, and 4) how Japanese directives compare with English directives by utilising Systemic Functional theory. The significance of the study lies in facilitating the tertiary pedagogy of Japanese language learning, particularly in relation to authentic workplace language use. At the same time, this study will give an English model used in authentic office situation for non-native English speakers at a tertiary level.
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