The rhetorical patterns found in Chinese EFL student writers' examination essays in English and the influence of these patterns on rater response

This research brings together a study of the rhetorical patterns realized in the written texts of Chinese EFL university students on a timed essay test, with a study of these patterns' effects on English native speaker raters and Chinese native speaker raters.;Studies in contrastive rhetoric, which focus on examining rhetorical conventions across cultures and the role of L1/L2 transference, lead us to understand that not only do the overall rhetorical patterns for genres vary across cultures but that the causes of these differences are complicated and need further empirical investigation. In addition, it has often been suggested in studies of EFL/ESL writing assessment that EFL/ESL writers have specific problems with acquiring the rhetorical patterns of English language academic discourse, and that the test scores of these writers may be affected adversely in high-stakes tests of English writing proficiency. Success in such tests is often a prerequisite for advanced academic study.;The major research question of the current research is: What effects do raters' reactions to the rhetorical patterns in the written texts of Chinese university students writing in English have on their assessments of these texts?;Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, analyzed and interpreted, using as data sources student examination essay scripts, questionnaires, interviews with students and teachers, test scores, and verbal protocols from both groups of raters. Text analysis was conducted on the student writers' use of rhetorical patterns at four levels. Findings indicated that this group of students, though sharing a seemingly linear pattern at the global structure level, differed in their management of rhetorical features at lower levels. This was also reflected in the student focus groups, in which students claimed that they had more difficulties in language usage than in organization in writing English essays. The causes of these writers' choices of rhetorical features, however, were complicated and involved factors such as their L1 (Chinese) transfer, their experience in both L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English) writing classes, and their limited exposure to genuine English rhetorical conventions.;Responses from the two rater groups, i.e., NS (native English speaking) raters and CS (native Chinese speaking) raters, were analyzed and investigated using both the test scores given by the raters and their verbal protocols on their perceptions of the use of the rhetorical patterns. Findings from a quantitative analysis of the test scores showed that these two rater groups differed in several ways. An observation and analysis of the protocols of these two rater groups presented a complex picture of their reactions to rhetorical patterns. Different focuses from the two rater groups were found in their perceptions/expectations and judgements of effective uses of some rhetorical patterns, such as the beginning and concluding paragraphs. It was also found that NS raters had differing attitudes towards unfamiliar/unexpected or culture-specific patterns. The rater characteristics that emerged from their assessments and protocols were very diverse and complex, raising a number of issues for contrastive rhetoric, World Englishes and writing assessment.