Burke’s Philosophy Of Rhetorical Competence And Its Current Implications In The Context Of New Rhetoric

As a pivotal concept of Western rhetoric,rhetorical competence is a sum of diverse competences to conduct rhetorical behaviors.The concept of rhetorical competence varies with periods of rhetoric and connotations of rhetorical education.It encompasses the ability to debate,rhetorical criticism competence,and intercultural communication competence,etc,Burke is a leading rhetorician in the period of the new rhetoric,with his rhetorical philosophy shedding light on the development of the new rhetoric.However,Burke’s philosophy of rhetorical competence is underresearched.Therefore,the study sets out to study the connotation of rhetorical competence embedded in Burke’s philosophy of rhetorical education,seeking to provide a new perspective to interpret his philosophy of rhetorical education and provide insights for the development of foreign language education and talent cultivation in the new era.Constructivist grounded theory methodology is utilized to investigate Burke’s philosophy of rhetorical education.It primarily includes four procedures:data collecting,initial coding,focused coding,and theoretical coding.In the procedures,Burke’s philosophy of rhetorical education is categorized and summarized,and finally his philosophy of rhetorical competence is constructed.Based on the interpretation of rhetoric,rhetorical education,and rhetorical competence by rhetoricians prior to and in the period of the new rhetoric,the connotation of rhetorical competence is constructed.To sum up,intercultural communication competence,rhetorical criticism competence,the competence of solving social problems,and interdisciplinary thinking competence construct Burke’s philosophy of rhetorical competence.Its construction is influenced by the connotation of rhetoric and rhetorical education.Among these four competences,Burke leans more towards intercultural communication competence,followed by rhetorical criticism competence,the competence of solving social problems,and interdisciplinary thinking competence.In terms of the relationship among various competences,rhetorical criticism competence is a prerequisite for intercultural communication competence;the competence of solving social problems is a part of intercultural communication competence;and interdisciplinary thinking competence and intercultural communication competence are essentially the same,but they respectively refer to the competence to handle the relationship among various disciplines or among various cultures.Moreover,concepts of morality and life-long learning are also presented in Burke’s philosophy of rhetorical education.Finally,Burke’s philosophy of rhetorical education and rhetorical competence is of great value to foreign language education in the new era in aspects of cultivating compound talents,improving global competitiveness or intercultural communication competence,respecting the subjectivity of students in learning and improving their rhetorical criticism competence,creating interdisciplinary and diversified curriculum,and linking foreign language education to socio-economic development.