TSOL 531

Second Language Acquisition

(Fall '02)

Presentation Handout (after the fact)

Kaplan’s notion of Contrastive Rhetoric would suggest that college-preparatory ESL instruction can benefit from systematic study of a student’s native language and comparison of its rhetorical structures and discourse organization to those of Western academic English. This paper presents two contemporary TESOL documents that tend to support this perspective and one that presents qualifications.

Fan Shen was a Chinese international student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1975. He describes a process of reconciling his Chinese identity with “an English identity dictated by the rules of English composition” (123). He says that many Chinese students have reported having the same or similar experiences in their initial stages of learning to write in English. He attributes organizational and rhetorical differences between Chinese and US academic writing to differences in national cultures.

Taeko Kamimura & Kyoko Oi did a quantitative evaluation aimed at identifying argumentative strategies in English essays on capitol punishment written by American (HS) and Japanese (college) students. They described their results in terms of Organizational Patterns, Rhetorical Appeals, Diction, and Cultural Influences, also attributing observed differences to cultural differences.

Together, these studies suggest that students’ linguistic background (L1) can have significant and systematic influences on their academic writing in English. However, a collection of essays surveying the linguistic environments in US colleges offers a word of warning. In today’s rapidly changing culture, more and more college students are multi-lingual and tend to favor English structures that are unique to their particular linguistic heritage. Many of these students are quite fluent in languages including English, but (like many monolingual native-speakers) simply do not conform to academic discourse standards (for similar reasons). The editors caution us against mistakenly identifying all deviations from the currently accepted norms of academic composition as calling for, or even susceptible to, remediation through ESL instruction.

As I’m sure you remember, my presentation was a travesty, and for that I’m truly sorry. I propose that a major component of my performance that night is attributable to something like culture shock upon finding a Macintosh on the projector. The differences between Macintosh and PC versions of MS Windows are analogous to differences between two human languages/cultures – both are ultimately capable of performing the same functions, but sometimes use radically different mechanisms to meet a given end. I never quite recovered from the initial shock. I’ve also been unsuccessful in recent attempts to keep some unpleasant personal situations from intruding into and disrupting my academic endeavors. Score one for humanist theories, I guess. I’m really not as incompetent as last week’s presentation would indicate. Before that night, I tended toward incredulity when considering language learning factors like culture shock and personal strife; you watched me learn better. This memory should help me show patience and understanding to students who disappoint my expectations as a teacher. I hope this caveat will do something like that for you.

Reference

Harklau, M., Siegal, M., & Losey, K. M. (1999). Linguistically diverse student college writing: what is equitable and appropriate? In M. Harklau, M. Siega, & K. M. Losey (Ed.), Generation 1.5 meets college composition (Pp. 1-14). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Inc. (ILL from SPU)

Jackson, A (2002). TSOL 531 – Presentation. TESOL Program Directory. Retrieved 11/14/2002, from http://dandylines.net/gradschl/seattle/tsol_531/index.html.

Kamimura, Taeko; Oi, Kyoko (1998). Argumentative strategies in American and Japanese English. World Englishes, 17/3, 307-323. (SU library microfiche - EJ577568)

Kaplan, R. B. (no date), Contrastive rhetoric. Reading into writing, Article 2. Retrieved November 14, 2002, from http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/pubs/BR/functionalsec2_2.htm (US Dept. of State, Bureau of educational and cultural affairs, Office of English language programs, English as a foreign language publication catalogue, Background readings.)

Shen, Fan. (1989). The classroom and the wider culture: Identity as a key to learning English composition (Staffroom Interchange). College Composition and Communication, 40/4, 459-466. (SU library microfiche - EJ403608 )