Argument structures in Chinese university students’ argumentative writing
A contrastive study
Situated within a Systemic Functional Linguistics genre paradigm, this study adopted a function-based linguistic approach to examine the argument structures in English writing produced by Chinese university students of English as foreign language (EFL). Their English writing was contrasted with three other sets of argumentative essays in order to explore differences and similarities in the use of argument structures. The four sets of essays were produced by three groups of university students: native English- and Chinese-speaking university students and Chinese university EFL students. Participants’ interviews and questionnaire responses were also collected. The study found that most native English-speaking participants used an analytical arguing strategy, while most Chinese-speaking university participants preferred a hortatory argument structure both in their English and Chinese writing. It was also found that Chinese participants’ English writing was influenced by both English and Chinese.
References (53)
Atkinson, Dwight
2004 Contrasting rhetorics/contrasting cultures: Why contrastive rhetoric needs a better conceptualization of culture.
Journal of English for Academic Purposes 3 (4): 277–289.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Canagarajah, Suresh
2006 Toward a writing pedagogy of shuttling between languages: Learning from multilingual writers.
College English 68 (6): 589–604.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Coffin, Caroline
2004 Arguing about how the world is or how the world should be: The role of argument in IELTS tests.
Journal of English for Academic Purposes 3 (3): 229–246.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Connor, Ulla
2002 New directions in contrastive rhetoric.
TESOL Quarterly 36 (4): 493–510.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Connor, Ulla
2004 Intercultural rhetoric research: Beyond texts.
Journal of English for Academic Purposes 3 (4): 291–304.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Connor, Ulla & Janice Lauer
1988 Cross-cultural variation in persuasive student writing. In
Writing across Languages and Cultures: Issues in Contrastive Rhetoric,
Alan Purves (ed.). California: Sage, 138–159.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Connor, Ulla & Peter McCagg
1983 Cross-cultural differences and perceived quality in written paraphrases of English expository prose.
Applied Linguistics 4(3): 259–268.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Connor, Ulla, Ed Nagelhout & William Rozycki
Cook, Vivian
1991 Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. London: Edward Arnold.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cook, Vivian
1992 Evidence for multicompetence.
Language Learning 42 (4): 557–591.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Davis, Linell
1999 Doing Culture:Cross-cultural Communication in Action. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Eggins, Suzanne
2004 An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics (2nd edition). New York and London: Continuum.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Halliday, Michael & Ruqaiya Hasan
1989 Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-semiotic Perspective (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Halliday, Michael & Christian Matthiessen
2004 An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hinkel, Eli
2002 Second Language Writers’ Text: Linguistic and Rhetorical Features. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hirose, Keiko
2003 Comparing L1 and L2 organizational patterns in the argumentative writing of Japanese EFL students.
Journal of Second Language Writing 12 (2): 181–209.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Holyoak, Stephen & Alison Piper
1997 Talking to second language wrjters: Using interview data to investigate contrastive rhetoric.
Language Teaching Research 1 (2): 122–148.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hunston, Susan & Geoff Thompson
2000 Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hyland, Ken
2003 Genre-based pedagogies: A social response to process.
Journal of Second Language Writing 12 (1): 17–29.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hyland, Ken
2005a Representing readers in writing: Student and expert practices.
Linguistics and Education 16 (4): 363–377.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hyland, Ken
2005b Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse.
Discourse Studies 7 (2): 173–192.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hyland, Ken
2007 Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction.
Journal of Second Language Writing 16 (3): 148–164.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
IELTS
2013 IELTS Task 2 Writing Band Descriptors. ⟨
[URL]⟩ (Last accessed on 4 February 2013).
Jarvis, Scott & Aneta Pavlenko
2008 Crosslinguistic Influence in Language and Cognition. New York and London: Routledge.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johns, Ann
2011 The future of genre in L2 writing: Fundamental, but contested, instructional decisions.
Journal of Second Language Writing 20 (1): 56–68.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kaplan, Robert
1966 Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education.
Language Learning 16 (1–2): 1–20.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kobayashi, Hiroe & Carol Rinnert
2008 Task response and text construction across L1 and L2 writing.
Journal of Second Language Writing 17 (1): 7–29.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kubota, Ryuko
1998 An investigation of L1-L2 transfer in writing among Japanese university students: Implications for contrastive rhetoric.
Journal of Second Language Writing 7 (1): 69–100.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Li, Xiaoming
1996 “Good Writing” in Cross-cultural Context. New York: State University of New York Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Li, Xiaoming
2002 “Track (dis)connecting”: Chinese high school and university writing in a time of change. In
Writing and Learning in Cross-national Perspective: Transitions from Secondary to Higher Education,
David Foster &
David Russell (eds.). Urbana, Ill. Mahwah, N.J.: National Council of Teachers of English, Lawrence Erlbaum, 49–87.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Liebman, Joanne
1992 Toward a new contrastive rhetoric: Differences between Arabic and Japanese rhetorical instruction.
Journal of Second Language Writing 1 (2):141–165.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Liu, Xinghua & Clare Furneaux
2014 A multidimensional comparison of discourse organization in English and Chinese university students’ argumentative writing.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics 24 (1): 74–96.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Liu, Yameng
1996 To capture the essence of Chinese rhetoric: An anatomy of a paradigm in comparative rhetoric.
Rhetoric Review 14 (2): 318–335.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Loi, Chek Kim & Moyra Sweetnam Evans
2010 Cultural differences in the organization of research article introductions from the field of educational psychology: English and Chinese.
Journal of Pragmatics 421: 2814–2825.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Martin, Jim
1989 Factual Writing: Exploring and Challenging Social Reality (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Martin, Jim
2009 Genre and language learning: A social semiotic perspective.
Linguistics and Education 20 (1): 10–21.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Martin, Jim & David Rose
2008 Genre Relations: Mapping Culture. London: Equinox.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Matsuda, Paul & Dwight Atkinson
Maxwell-Reid, Corinne
2010 Content and language integrated learning (CLIL): The influence of studying through English on Spanish students’ first-language written discourse.
Text & Talk – An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse & Communication Studies 30 (6): 679–699.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Maxwell-Reid, Corinne
2011 The challenges of contrastive discourse analysis.
Written Communication 28 (4): 417–435.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mohan, Bernard & Winnie Au-Yeung Lo
1985 Academic writing and Chinese students: Transfer and developmental factors.
TESOL Quarterly 19 (3): 515–534.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
NEEA
2008 Syllabus for National College Entrance Examination (Subject of Chinese). Beijing: Higher Education Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Odlin, Terence
2003 Cross-linguistic influence. In
The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition,
Catherine Doughty &
Michael Long (eds.). Oxford: Blackwell, 436–486.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pavlenko, Aneta & Scott Jarvis
2002 Bidirectional transfer.
Applied Linguistics 23 (2): 190–214.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Reichelt, Melinda, Natalie Lefkowitz, Carol Rinnert & Jean-Marie Schultz
2012 Key issues in foreign language writing.
Foreign Language Annals 45 (1): 22–41.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Silva, Tony
1993 Toward an understanding of the distinct nature of L2 Writing: The ESL research and its implications.
TESOL Quarterly 27 (4): 657–677.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Toulmin, Stephen
1958 The Uses of Argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Uysal, Hacer Hande
2008 Tracing the culture behind writing: Rhetorical patterns and bidirectional transfer in L1 and L2 essays of Turkish writers in relation to educational context.
Journal of Second Language Writing 17 (3): 183–207.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Weijen, Daphne, Huub van den Bergh, Gert Rijlaarsdam & Ted Sanders
2009 L1 use during L2 writing: An empirical study of a complex phenomenon.
Journal of Second Language Writing 18 (4): 235–250.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Varghese, Susheela & Sunita Abraham
1998 Undergraduates arguing a case.
Journal of Second Language Writing 7 (3): 287–306.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wang, Wenyu & Qiufang Wen
2002 L1 use in the L2 composing process: An exploratory study of 16 Chinese EFL writers.
Journal of Second Language Writing 11 (3): 225–246.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Woodward-Kron, Robyn
2002 Critical analysis versus description? Examining the relationship in successful student writing.
Journal of English for Academic Purposes 1 (2): 121–143.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Woodward-Kron, Robyn
2005 The role of genre and embedded genres in tertiary students’ writing.
Prospect 20 (3): 24–41.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by 2 other publications
Wei, Xing
2023.
On Rhetorical Transfer and Writing Metacognition. In
Exploring the Cross-Language Transfer of L1 Rhetorical Knowledge in L2 Writing,
► pp. 13 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Sibarani, Berlin & Betharia Pandia
2020.
Variations in Reasoning in Javanese and Bataknese Students’ Argumentative Writing: A Study on the Relation between Ethnicity and Reasoning.
European Journal of Educational Research volume-9-2020:volume9-issue1.html
► pp. 385 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.