Individualism, Power Distance, and Pronouns: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Rhetorical Variation in EFL Essays

Recent research has suggested that cultural values such as power distance and individualism have an influence on the expression of rhetoric. While insightful, this research was conducted in only eight cultural contexts in Asia, limiting generalizability of the results. To expand our understanding of cultural influences on rhetoric, argumentative essays from 30 different EFL contexts that spanned multiple continents were evaluated from the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE). Different pronouns and determiners from the essays were tallied and statistically compared to cultural values for power distance and individualism. Results revealed several significant relationships. Whereas first-person singular pronouns and determiners (e.g., “I”) tended to be used more by learners with individualistic cultural beliefs, first- and third-person plural pronouns and determiners (e.g., “we” and “they”) tended to be used more in collective societies with higher power distance. Results also revealed that proficiency and gender explained some of the variance in how pronouns or determiners were used. Collectively, the findings underscore a need to consider writers’ diverse backgrounds and beliefs when interpreting rhetoric or designing effective pedagogical techniques for cross-cultural communication. Although the present study has provided new insights, additional study is needed to further expand and triangulate the findings.