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Contrastive Rhetoric in English and Spanish Composition • CONTRASTIVE RHETORIC IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH COMPOSITION •.. McGILL UNIVERSITY A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE STRUCTURE OF RHETORIC IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH COMPOSITION by GERALD JOHN STREI A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH MONTREAL, QUEBEC SPRING, 1972 c ABSTRACT AUTHOR: GERALD J. STREI TITLE OF THESIS: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE STRUCTURE OF RHETORIC IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH COMPOSITION DEPARTMENT: ENGLISH DEGREE: MASTER OF ARTS Cultural thought patterns are reflected in the forms of written composition, an idea suggested by Robert Kaplan in a study of compositions written by students from different language groups. This thesis attempts to test this theory by describing the composition forms typical of English and of Spanish, then examining compositions written in English by native Spanish speakers and in Spanish by native English speakers to see if a transference of form has occurred. Thirty compositions written in each language by students from two universities were used in the study. Comparisons with the models established by reference to the cultural and historical development of the (!omposition in both languages revealed that all but four Spanish speakers and five English speakers transferred the composition form of their mother tongue to the composition written in the second language. This study has particular implications for the teachers of composition to students whose second languages are Spanish or English. There are also implications for further study on different levels of composition comparison. c c ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer wishes to express his thanks to his thesis director, Professor Rose-Marie Weber of the Department of Linguistics at McGill University, for her generous help in the completion of this thesis. He would also like to especially thank Gwendolyn S. Newsham for the encouragement and very helpful sug~estions she provided throughout the writing of the thesis. Grateful acknowledgement is extended to Professor A. Stokes of Sir George Williams University, Montreal, Quebec, and to the Coordinator of Modern Languages, Mr. Jean Paul Baril, and Mr. Gerald Pratt of Vanier Colltge (CEGEP), Montreal, for their permission to gather data from student compositions. c c TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I INTRODUCTION. 1 THE GENERAL NEED FOR THE STUDY 1 THE SPECIFIC NEED FOR THE STUDY • 6 PURPOSES OF THE STUDY 9 A STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM • 10 11 THE BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM · 11 CULTURE AND COMPOSITION. · 12 Cultural Thought Patterns • 12 Culture and Logic • · 13 Cultural Rhetoric and Composition · 15 THE CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPOSITION FORM • · 26 Characteristics of English Composition Form • · 26 Characteristics of Spanish Composition Form • · 31 III THE R~S~CH DESIGU AND THE SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS • • 36 THE RESEARCH DESIGN . 36 The Limitations of the Study · 37 The Population Sample • 37 The Research Procedure · 40 Samples from the Research Procedure • · 42 THE SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS • · 51 A Statement of the Findings c Some Observations from the Procedure and the Findings. • 52 c CHAPTER PAGE IV CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FROM THIS STUDY • 56 CONCLUSIONS • 56 IMPLICATIONS FROM THIS STUDY • • 56 For Language Learning • 56 For Language Teaching • 57 For Psycholinguistics • 59 For Anthropological Linguistics · 60 BIBLIOGRAPHY • · 61 APPENDIX A · 64 APPENDIX B • 65 c APPENDIX C · 66 APPENDIX D · 68 c c LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1. Model Form Diagram for English • . 30 2. Model Form Diagram for Spanish • • 34 c c CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION I. THE GENERAL NEED FOR THE STUDY Recently in the expanding field of second and foreign language teaching there has been a reawakening of interest in the skills of lit­ eracy. The psychological and structural theories which led to the stress on audiolingual skills in learning and teaching languages have given way to newer theories which stress the cognitive approach and a return to some of the values of prescriptive and traditional grammar methods. Leon Jakobovits has pointed out that the stress on oral proficiency and the resultant neglect regarding writing skills was a product of the habit notion of the behavioristic approach to foreign language teaching.l This Skinnerian notion that foreign language learning is simply a mechan­ ical process of habit formation has been demolished by such authorities as Chomsky (1959). In 1966 John B. Carroll summed it up this way: What is needed .•• is a profound rethinking of current theories of foreign language teaching in the light of con­ temporary advances in psychological and psycholinguistic theory. The audiolingual habit theory which is so prevalent in American foreign language teaching was, perhaps, fifteen years ago in step with the state of psychological thinking at that time, but it is no longer abreast of recent develop­ ments. It is ripe for major revision, particularly in the direction of joining with it some of the better elements of the cognitive code-learning theory.2 lLeon A. Jakobovits, Foreign Language Learning (Rowley: Newbury House Publishers, 1970), p. 224. 2John B. Carroll, "The Contribution of Psychological Theory and Educational Research to the Teaching of Foreign Languages," Trends in c Language Teaching, ed. Albert Valdman (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966), p. 105. 1 2 c Current advances in the field of second language teaching suggest a reevaluation of the importance of reading and writing skills. Only recently are teachers becoming aware that students learning a second lan­ guage dontt necessarily have to learn them in the order in which they learned their first; reading and writing are no longer being left until 1I1ater on." A well known authority in the field of teaching English as a second language~ Mary Finocchiaro, speaks of this idea of a primacy of order in teaching language skills as a "myth" which must be exploded: The first myth is that a long aural-oral period should pre­ cede the students' introduction to the printed word. To my knowledge, no experiment has ever been performed that would jus­ tify a long, rigidly-adhered-to time lag between the students' reasonably good oral production of an utterance and their seeing it in print. 3 Although it is not the intention of this study to explore the re­ lationship between speaking and writing, it does serve to point out here how they are different. L.S. Vygotsky in Thought and Language states that: . • the development of writing does not repeat the develop­ mental history of speaking. Written speech is a separate lin­ guistic function, differing from oral speech in both structure and mode of functioning. Even its minimal development requires a high level of abstraction. It is speech in thought and image only. 4 Vygotsky goes on to point out that there are certain factors involved in the writing process which sometimes create problems in developing this 3Mary Finocchiaro, "Myth and Reality: A Plea for a Broader View," English_Teachin~Forum, X, 2 (March-April, 1972), 3. 4Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, Thought .and Language, trans. Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar (Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1962), p. 98. c 3 c skill in the learner. Our studies show that it is the abstract quality of written language that is the main stumbling block (in learning it)~ ••• not the underdevelopment of small muscles or any other mechanical obstacles. Writing requires deliberate analytical action. • • . The change from maximally compact inner speech to maxi­ mally detailed written speech requires what might be called deliberate semantics - deliberate structuring of the web of meaning.5 It is this "abstract quality" and the "deliberate structuring" involved in the writing process which need further explanation and investigation for application to the field of second language teaching. Composition writing, however, is a different skill from that of sentence writing. Recently in the field of communications, visual media has sometimes been emphasized to the point where written discourse has nearly been pronounced obsolete, but the ability to structure sentences into a whole composition has much significance today. The importance of composition teaching is discussed by one textbook author in the following terms: . • • properly conceived the teaching of composition involves the development of student sensitivity to the physical world, the world of human relations~ and the inner mental world in which every human being does much of his living. It includes developing in students patterns of productive thought - both rational and emotional - for varying purposes. It includes conveying accumulated humanistic and conventional patterns to the student for adaptation to his new "now." And composition teaching includes developing a morality of language and language usage, so that in work habits~ selection of messages, employment of message forms, and all other aspects of communication, students will show a respect for language as the fabric connecting human society.6 5Ibid., pp. 99-100. 6Lionel R. Sharp, ua e: A Teacher's Guide (Boston: Ginn and 4 o Although some universities and colleges in North America have begun to experiment with the student use of audio-visual forms and methods of report making, composition writing remains as an important facet of student work at the university level. In a recent survey undertaken by this writer at one university in Canada, a questionnaire was submitted to 162 students representing four different faculties. 7 The questionnaire asked students to indicate the relative importance of each of the four language skills - reading, writing, speaking, and listening - in terms of "expected use" in courses they were taking other than languages. The results showed that approximately 90 per cent felt that the skill of writing was expected of them "much of the time" as opposed to the speaking skill which was required "little" or "none of the time." As one textbook writer puts it, Skill in writing is an invaluable permanent asset not only in college but later in the business and professional worlds • ••• Further, writing skill is a highly personal asset and one not likely to be automated.
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