published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Kaplan (1966) has claimed that certain organizational problems in non-native speakers' writing are due to the influence of L1 rhetorical patterns. Based on an examination of 600 papers written in English by students from different cultural backgrounds, Kaplan concluded that the Oriental students developed their ideas in an indirect, inwardly spiralling pattern. Such circular development contrasted with the linear structure of paragraphs written by English speakers.While Kaplan's conceptualizations have received considerable attention, there is a central problem with his analysis: his claims were based solely on compositions written in English.In this thesis, I examine 30 paragraphs of Chinese expository prose and 30 paragraphs of English expository prose randomly chosen from contemporary writings to see if they conform to Kaplan's model. In the first chapter, I present certain problems in the teaching of composition concerning paragraph development. A literature review is presented in Chapter Two. Chapter Three is a brief description of the modes and organization of expository Prose that Chinese students learn. Chapter Four shows the modes and organization of English expository prose. In Chapter Five, a representative sample of 30 paragraphs of Chinese expository prose examined are discussed. Chapter Six is discussion of representative English paragraphs. A brief discussion of the results of the examination is presented in Chapter Seven. Finally, a brief summary concludes the thesis.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education