An Empirical Study Into Features Of Rhetorical Patterns In Argumentative Essays Of Chinese EFL Students Of The Tertiary Level

The field of Contrastive Rhetoric has yielded substantial achievements since the1960 s.It chiefly focuses on the differences of rhetorical patterns between two heterogeneous cultures for the purpose of making pedagogical implications for Second Language Writing.Recently,scholars of contrastive rhetoric researched rhetorical patterns by EFL learners from different cultural backgrounds to probe into the effectiveness of L2 writing by EFL learners from different cultural backgrounds.The current study examines English argumentative writings by EFL Business-majors Chinese Students in English-medium educational context based on the theory of Contrastive Rhetoric,which is enlightened by Connor(1996).In order to reveal the features of rhetorical patterns of sample essays,three aspects that are related to thesis statement in argumentative essay are investigated,which include placement,characteristics and its coherence with body paragraphs.The results of the current study are expected to offer implications and suggestions for the teaching and learning of English argumentative writing in Chinese universities.A total of 88 sophomores participated in the research.They study at a prestigious Shenzhen-based Hongkong university.The sample students were required to write a400-word argumentative essay within 60 minutes.Their writings are analyzed from the following aspects: the placement of thesis statement,the coherence between thesis statement and its body paragraphs.The current study focused on the form and content of sample English argumentative essays by adopting a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative research.The results shows that : ? For the placement of thesis statement,most learners can locate their thesis statement in the introductory part,employing a deductive pattern to organize argumentative discourse;? In terms of characteristics,more than half of thesis statements only present standpoint but no controlling ideas,thus failing to govern the developing scope of body paragraphs.Thus,those thesis statements lacked of controlling force,for the information provided in the thesis statement could not responds to its body paragraphs;? Concerning the coherence between thesis statement and its body paragraphs,only a small percent of body paragraphs in sample essays show a high degree of coherence.Whereas,a large amount of essays exhibit a low degree of coherence.The lack of organization and logic in argumentative writings is a common problem in sample L2 argumentative essays.The majority of sample essays failed to achieve the effectiveness of reasoning in the deductively-organized argumentative essays.The current study shed some light on the teaching and learning of English argumentative writing in Chinese universities.Pedagogical implications includes two aspects.Firstly,L2 writing textbooks are advised to provide knowledge concerning the differences and similarities between Chinese and Western rhetoric in argumentative essays to cultivate students' rhetoric awareness.Secondly,classroom instruction should pay more attention to the rhetorical weakness of Chinese EFL learners,which includes thesis statement,paragraph organization and discourse organization.L2 writing teachers can develop their teaching designs according to those aspects.It is hoped that the current study can offer a helpful reference for the teaching and learning of L2 argumentative writing as well as an effective basis for cross-cultural communications.