An Action Research On Applying Contrastive Rhetoric To Non-English Major College English Writing

The ability of writing is one of the important language skills a college student should master. English writing is an effective way to check out and improve college students’comprehensive ability of using English, and it plays an important role in foreign language teaching. Writing occupies a great proportion in various English tests of college students. However, writing achievements of most college students are not ideal. According to the data and analysis provided by CET Committee, the average score of Chinese college students is only 6.7 in writing(full score is 15), lower than the average score of the rest parts.However, most of non-English majors’ freshmen are not satisfied with current English writing teaching and get bored with pattern writing. In their opinions, simple pattern writing can’t actually improve their writing abilities. According to the analysis of the compositions of non-English majors’ freshmen, the author finds that most of problems stem from applying rhetorical conventions of mother tongue, and it is difficult for them to avoid those negative effects. The author holds that traditional English writing teaching ignores the importance of comparing different rhetorical conventions between English and Chinese. Therefore it is necessary to apply contrastive rhetoric to writing class.The author adopts contrastive rhetoric as the theoretical framework. Contrastive rhetoric is mainly devoted to the study of problems in the second language writing by comparing the rhetorical patterns of the mother tongue and the second language. Based on the research achievements of contrastive rhetoric, the author attempts to find a more effective approach of English writing teaching to Chinese college students by applying contrastive rhetoric to writing class. The purposes are to explore if contrastive rhetoric can minimize the negative transfer of rhetorical conventions of mother tongue in SLA or not, and find a more effective method of college English writing teaching.The research method of this dissertation is action research. Action research conducted on the basis of the self-reflection teaching mode has been a popular teaching theory and research approach abroad in the recent years. This approach is practically significant in the foreign languages teaching practice.Based on contrastive rhetoric, the author conducts an action research among 60 non-English majors’ freshmen in Yangtze University, Hubei. The action research consists of eight parts:identifying problems, putting forward hypotheses, collecting first data, restating hypotheses, designing detailed teaching plans, implementing teaching plan, collecting the second data and reflecting. The author analyzes the result of the research and summarizes experiences. At the end, the author provides feasible suggestions to promote the overall quality of college English writing teaching.Major findings of the action research are as follows:(1) the students’ English writing abilities have improved by applying contrastive rhetoric; (2) the application of contrastive rhetoric is a rather needful supplement to current English writing teaching form; (3) contrastive rhetoric raises the freshmen’s interests in English writing. During the research, teacher is not only a researcher but a participant who achieves teaching aim and enhances professional development. These findings further illustrate the practicality and feasibility of the research approach.After action research, the author reflects and provides the following suggestions for both teachers and students:for teachers:(1) teachers should choose the Chinese and English materials according to the interests and needs of students in contrastive teaching; (2) the role of teacher should be a guider, a promoter and an organizer, but not just a knowledge initiator in students’ learning process; (3) teacher should revise the action plan continually so that it can meet students’ needs and deal with the new issues appears in the process; (4) freshmen can accept the related theories of contrastive rhetoric even though many of them are complicated; (5) contrastive rhetoric doesn’t work effectively at sentence level, so teachers should strive to solve this problem. For students:(1) students should spend much time to read both Chinese and English article, and consciously comparing the different rhetorical conventions; (2) students are encouraged to be aware of designing their own study plans by considering their interests.Though this research has achieved certain teaching aims, limitations are unavoidable:(1) the subjects of this action research are limited to law major students whose English foundation are better, in other words, this action research lacks validity to some extend; (2) This action research is conducted all by the author from beginning to the end, so the conclusions are subjective; (3) the period of this action research isn’t long enough for the author to introduce contrastive rhetoric systematically in the class.