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Resumo

The letter of application is a widespread subgenre of persuasive discourse whereby access to certain social and material benefits is regulated. We define persuasive discourse in terms of Relevance and Test theory. In the international community, these letters are increasingly drafted in English, and we hypothesize that these nonnative English versions will tend to carry rhetorical and discoursal features transferred from the writer's first language and culture. These transfers give rise to pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic infelicities respectively. A study is reported comparing native and nonnative writers' judgements of the suitability of a number of pre‐identified persuasive strategies for use in application letters. The nonnative judgements vary along a broad oriental‐occidental scale which reflects the Modesty Maxim. Some pedagogical implications for syllabus and methodology are identified and in‐class analytic Contrastive Analysis of such genres is defended.

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