Wuhan Zhu

My primary research interests lie at Cross-cultural Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis and Second Language Acquisition (from social-cultural perspective). I have completed my PhD thesis-A  Study of Upward Request Emails: Managing a Harmonious Relationship in Three Academic Discourse Communities of Britain and China and got my PhD degree in the University of Sheffield, UK in December, 2012. The thesis, as indicated in the title, with a central focus on how three discourse communities in Britain and China manage harmonious relationship in request-email genre, is motivated by largely two-fold factors. Theoretically, a more synthesized theoretical framework, which integrates some updated politeness models like rapport management by Spencer-Oatey (2000, 2008) and Locher and Watts’ relational work (2005), is called for in a new area of cross-cultural genre study. Practically, a comprehensive insight needs to be provided into the nature and difference of email communication from cross-cultural and interlanguage perspectives. The thesis is expected to be contributable to the existing body of research on Cross-cultural pragmatics and discourse analysis.
As a university teacher of English and linguistics in China (before 2009), together with a PhD candidate in the University of Sheffield, I have gained rich experience in teaching and research. I have published ten research papers in international and Chinese journals, as well as one teaching course book of interpreting. Recent publications and conference contributions are listed below:
Recent Publications:
1. Zhu, W. (2012). Modal verbs for politeness in email requests to professors: The case of Chinese EFL learners.  Asian EFL Journal, 14 (1), 99-141.
2. Zhu, W. (2011).The Critical Period of L2 acquisition studies: Implications for researches in  Chinese EFL context. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2(6), 1217-1226.
3. Zhu, W. (2012)Polite requestive strategies in emails: An investigation of pragmatic competence of Chinese EFL learners. RELC Journal,43(2),217-238
4. Zhu, W. (2011). A dialogue between Zhuangzi’s and Wittgenstein’s theories of Games from the perspective of metaphysics.  Academic Journal of Lanzhou, 8, 16-20.
5. Zhu, W. (2009). The study of autonomous learning of English under the contemporary Chinese culture. Journal of Beijing International Studies University, 4,43-49.
6. Zhu, W. (2007). The acquisition of existential Sentences by Chinese learners of English.  Foreign Language Teaching, 1, 13-19.
7. Zhu, W. (2006). An investigation into the multimedia -assisted vocabulary teaching. Computer-assisted Foreign Language Teaching,3, 54-59.

Selected conference contributions:
1. 3- 8 July 2011. “Managing Rapport in Chinese and English Requestive Emails to University Instructors” .  The12th International Pragmatics Conference, Manchester,
2. May. 2010. “Polite Requestive Strategies in Emails: An Investigation of Pragmatic Competence of Chinese EFL Learners”. LangUE 2010. The Fifth Language at the University of Essex Postgraduate Conference
3.July. 2010. “ Modal Verbs for Politeness in Email Requests to Professors” Presentation at the 2010 'Metamorphoses' PG Colloquium, University of Sheffield
Supervisors: Professor Susan Fitzmaurice
Address: School of English,
Zhejiang International Studies University
309 Liuhe Road, Hangzhou,
PR China,310023