Using Contrastive Rhetoric in Legal Writing Pedagogy

Cultural Collisions in L2 Academic Writing

TESL Canada Journal ◽

10.18806/tesl.v20i2.950 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 80 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Linda Steinman

Keyword(s):

Academic Writing ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Writing Pedagogy ◽

English For Academic Purposes ◽

Contrastive Rhetoric ◽

Esl Writing ◽

Discourse Practices ◽

Technical Issues ◽

Open Discussion ◽

Writing Instructors

Learning to write in English for academic purposes presents a significant challenge for non-native speakers. Not only must they deal with the obvious linguistic and technical issues such as syntax, vocabulary, and format, but they must also become familiar with Western notions of academic rhetoric. (West or Western in this article refer primarily to North America.) Collisions of cultures are experienced when the discourse practices L2 writers are expected to reproduce clash with what they know, believe, and value in their L1 writing. For this article I reviewed a range of literature that addresses writing and culture. Described by researchers and by L2 writers are collisions regarding voice, organization, reader/ writer responsibility, topic, and identity. Implications for writing pedagogy include awareness of contrastive rhetoric on the part of ESL writing instructors; instructors' acknowledgment of and appreciation for the prior knowledge that students bring from their L1; realization on the part of ESL writing instructors that Western notions of,for example, voice are indeed just notions and are simply one way among many of expressing oneself; and a need for open discussion with students about how they might incorporate standard Western notions of writing without compromising their own identity.

Download Full-text

VIEWING CONTRASTIVE RHETORIC FROM A POST MODERN PERSPECTIVE: FINDING AN IMPLICATION TO THE SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING PEDAGOGY

Celt A Journal of Culture English Language Teaching & Literature ◽

10.24167/celt.v7i2.159 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 99

Author(s):

Susilo Susilo

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Second Language Writing ◽

Writing Pedagogy ◽

Contrastive Rhetoric ◽

Multilingual Writers ◽

Native Identity ◽

Language Writing ◽

National Boundaries ◽

Modern Perspective

The hybrid nature of culture that comes up as a result of postmodern world brings about considerable interaction, borrowing, and fusion between cultures and communicative genres. In such situation, there is erosion of national boundaries, greater multilingualism, and fluidity in identity; hence a" absolute construct of particular culture is getting blurred. Consequently, the term "native identity" has come to a "blurring spot" in the sense that it will be simply awkward to hold firmly one's native identity when multilingualism has become norm. This hybridand plural character of identity has gone to be considerable as the basis of contrastive texts analysis. The newest way of looking at the contrastive rhetoric is that differences in pragmatic or rhetorical expectations should not be considered as unproficiency or interference for the bi/multilingual writer, rather rhetorical choices opted by the bi/multilingual writer should be considered as critical/alternate discourse. This article is aimed to look at the pedagogy of shuttling between languages done by multilingual writers as the new orientation in the teaching and learning second language writing.

Download Full-text