Rhetoric Construction of Chinese Expository Essays: Implications for EFL Composition Instruction

Abstract

Recent scholarship on Chinese students’ English expository essays tends to blur or mitigate the differences between English and Chinese writings. This alleged convergence of English and Chinese rhetorical norms gives rise to a view that rhetorical aspects in second language writing instruction and research in China should be de-emphasized. Drawing on data from full-score Chinese compositions of College Entrance Examination, this study examines how Chinese expository paragraphs are developed. Results show great disparities between English and Chinese expository writing at paragraph level such as non-English rhetorical mode, reliance on authorities, rhetorical paragraph, and figurative language in topic sentence. We argue that Chinese rhetorical strategies are likely to be transferred to English writing if English rhetoric is not taught and reinforced in college.

A Multidimensional Analysis of Language Use in English Argumentative Essays: An Evidence From Comparable Corpora

“…Finally, in some cases a part-time job can get you experience that you can use after you graduate. (ENS) This line of difference between English and Chinese writing largely echoes Liu and Huang (2021) regarding how Chinese writers develop their expository paragraphs. They reported that Chinese learners' writing prefers to quote authorities, stories, and the words of famous people and books to promote their trustworthiness, moderate their tone, and convey their voice less directly in their writing.…”

“…This finding is largely consistent with that of Zhao and Wang (2017), which found that native writers used more public verbs, past tense verbs, and perfect aspect verbs, while Chinese English learners used more negations, present tense verbs, and third personal pronouns. To some extent, this difference in using linguistic features that characterize narration between native English writers and Chinese English learners may be due to their respective rhetorical traditions, that is, Confucian rhetoric and Aristotelian approach (Hinkel, 2002;Liu & Huang, 2021). This difference may also be due to the lack of a morphological system for marking tenses and aspects in Chinese.…”

Constructing Academic Identity Through Critical Argumentation: A Narrative Inquiry of Chinese EFL Doctoral Students’ Experiences

“…Briefly, Yuwei demonstrated underdeveloped writer-source integration by combining sources and her own ideas. Her lack of experience with synthesis writing and presenting new ideas based on interpretations of other evidence or arguments reflected one of the challenges she faced in representing herself as intertextually knowledgeable and adopting an appropriate academic identity (Chang, 2016;Liu & Huang, 2021).…”

“…More importantly, Yuwei’s reliance on her previous writing style could be specifically challenging for her to adopt the expected writing practices in her current academic environment and restrict her approach to critical argumentation. According to Liu and Huang (2021), rhetorical aspects in EFL academic writing are not considered as important in the Chinese context. This may contribute to Yuwei’s challenges in adapting to English academic writing conventions.…”

Mission possible: Incorporating academic literacy and readiness into an English intensive program curriculum

“…Students' backgrounds (whether linguistic or cultural) dictate the way (read dao) that lay before them. In a recent article by Liu & Huang (2021), for example, it is demonstrated how students from China transfer rhetorical structures from their L1 and how these structures need to be specifically targeted in English classes. Similar disparities between English and other languages need to be recognized and addressed both intentionally and carefully in classes of academic English (Ma, 2020).…”