A Study On English Majors' Argumentative Writing Based On The Toulmin Model

Based on the Toulmin model,the present study examines the argumentative writings produced by English majors.It aims to explore the features and problems on argument structure by investigating its uses in English majors' writings.Thus,pertinent suggestions can be offered to L2 learners,which possibly make their arguments more persuasive and acceptable to readers.Meanwhile,it can shed light for ESL/EFL teachers on the instruction of rhetorical skills in argumentative writing.In this study,61 timed argumentative writings(31 texts from the first-grade English majors,and 30 ones from the fourth-grade English majors)were selected from Spoken and Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners(SWECCL).The uses of various Toulmin elements in these texts were investigated at first.Then,it described the features as well as differences in the elaboration and extension of argument structure in texts produced by the two different groups of students,and specific qualitative and quantitative analysis was carried out.The study has found:1)the necessary Toulmin elements(claim and data)are fully used by both two groups of English majors while the frequency of the optional elements(data backing,qualifier,counterargument and rebuttal)is low,especially that of the counterargument and rebuttal(Counterargument refers to the views contrary to that of the writer.Rebuttal refers to the support of the writer's claim by pointing out the weakness in the counterargument.);2)With the increase of grade level,the frequency of most of the elements increases(except the data backing and rebuttal elements),and there are significant differences in the number of claims and qualifiers;3)To some extent,the argument structures developed by higher-grade-level students are more complicated than those by students at lower grade level,especially indicated by the use of embedded arguments(the result of T-test suggests a significant difference).Besides,some other new findings are revealed through analysis:1)In fact,there are almost half students(41%students from the first grade and 43%from the fourth grade),who took potential opposing views into consideration.This finding is quite different from the result obtained in terms of the uses of counterarguments and rebuttals(19%first-grade students and 33%fourth-grade students);2)In terms of the global structure of texts,there is a more clear and fixed pattern(introduction,proposed claims and justification)by employing obvious markers in the texts from the fourth-grade students(57%),compared with those from the first-year students(19%).Finally,there is a discussion on the research findings and a brief illustration of the significance on the argumentative writing and teaching for L2 learners and teachers.