History:

The field of contrastive rhetoric, founded by Robert Kaplan in the 1960s, emphasizes Kaplan’s belief that ELL students’ development of ideas in writing is systematically different from the patterns that appear to be natural in English. Through the analysis of errors commonly seen in writings produced by speakers of different languages, Kaplan created several diagrammatic depictions of the rhetoric styles of said languages. His explorations led him to propose that English rhetoric is delivered in a direct, straightforward, and logical manner. This then led many to believe English rhetoric to be superior to all other forms of written expressions produced by other cultures.

Issue:

The representation of ideas and the way writers choose to support their ideas is determined by the rhetorical preferences taught in the schools they attended. English schools focus on the teaching of writing, but, the same in not true for the academic institutions of non-English speaking cultures. Therefore making it challenging for ELL students to quickly adapt to the preferences of the English rhetoric.

The assumption that English rhetoric is superior merely because its structure is logical is flawed and rather ethnocentric. At times ELL students fail to follow the logical patterns of English rhetoric simply because they lack a proper understanding of their audience. The sharing of a culture means that one shares assumptions about reality and knowledge with the other members of their society. ELL students do not share such assumptions with native speakers of English, thus leading them to either over-explain their ideas or to simply assume that their audience understands everything they are saying without having to supply the reader with any detail on the topic.

How do we aid students?:

Pre-Writing

• Brainstorming — The tutor may need to provide some guidance by asking questions to elicit vocabulary and structures associated with the selected topic.

• Word banks- Ask the student to create a word bank for the words they may use in the essay.
• Drawing and sketching — enable students to illustrate ideas for which they do not have the language.
• Outlining- help them in creating a rough guide that will aid them in the writing process.

Revising/Editing Techniques

• Rearranging words within sentences
• Using dictionaries, including personal dictionaries, and other resource materials such as grammar books and textbooks

To encourage critical thinking, guide the students with questions.

Helpful Texts:

Contrastive Rhetoric in Context: A Dynamic model of L2 Writing by Paul Matsuda.

Toward Critical Contrastive Rhetoric by Ryuko Kubota and Al Lehner.