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I conducted this study to provide insights toward deepening understanding of association between culture and writing by building, assessing, and refining a conceptual model of second language writing. To do this, I examined culture and coherence as well as the relationship between them through a mixed methods research design. Coherence has been an important and complex concept in ESL/EFL writing. I intended to study the concept of coherence in the research context of contrastive rhetoric, comparing the coherence quality in argumentative essays written by undergraduates in Mainland China and their U.S. peers. In order to analyze the complex concept of coherence, I synthesized five linguistic theories of coherence: Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion theory, Carroll’s theory of coherence, Enkvist’s theory of coherence, Topical Structure Analysis, and Toulmin’s Model. Based upon the synthesis, 16 variables were generated. Across these 16 variables, Hotelling t-test statistical analysis was conducted to predict differences in argumentative coherence between essays written by two groups of participants. In order to complement the statistical analysis, I conducted 30 interviews of the writers in the studies. Participants’ responses were analyzed with open and axial coding. By analyzing the empirical data, I refined the conceptual model by adding more categories and establishing associations among them. The study found that U.S. students made use of more pronominal reference. Chinese students adopted more lexical devices of reiteration and extended paralleling progression. The interview data implied that the difference may be associated with the difference in linguistic features and rhetorical conventions in Chinese and English. As far as Toulmin’s Model is concerned, Chinese students scored higher on data than their U.S. peers. According to the interview data, this may be due to the fact that Toulmin’s Model, modified as three elements of arguments, have been widely and long taught in Chinese writing instruction while U.S. interview participants said that they were not taught to write essays according to Toulmin’s Model. Implications were generated from the process of textual data analysis and the formulation of structural model defining coherence. These implications were aimed at informing writing instruction, assessment, peer-review, and self-revision.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / This thesis is a contrastive genre study which explores newspaper commentaries on terrorism in Chinese and Australian newspapers. The study examines the textual patterning of the Australian and Chinese commentaries, interpersonal and intertextual features of the texts as well as considers possible contextual factors which might contribute to the formation of the newspaper commentaries in the two different languages and cultures. For the framework of its analysis, the study draws on systemic functional linguistics, English for Specific Purposes and new rhetoric genre studies, critical discourse analysis, and discussions of the role of the mass media in the two different cultures. The study reveals that Chinese writers often use explanatory rather than argumentative expositions in their newspaper commentaries. They seem to distance themselves from outside sources and seldom indicate endorsement of these sources. Australian writers, on the other hand, predominantly use argumentative expositions to argue their points of view. They integrate and manipulate outside sources in various ways to establish and provide support for the views they express. It is argued that these textual and intertextual practices are closely related to contextual factors, especially the roles of the media and opinion discourse in contemporary China and Australia. The study, by providing both a textual and contextual view of the genre under investigation in the two languages and cultures, aims to establish a framework for contrastive rhetoric research which moves beyond the text into the context of production and interpretation of the texts as a way of exploring reasons for the linguistic and rhetorical choices made in the two sets of texts.

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / This thesis is a contrastive genre study which explores newspaper commentaries on terrorism in Chinese and Australian newspapers. The study examines the textual patterning of the Australian and Chinese commentaries, interpersonal and intertextual features of the texts as well as considers possible contextual factors which might contribute to the formation of the newspaper commentaries in the two different languages and cultures. For the framework of its analysis, the study draws on systemic functional linguistics, English for Specific Purposes and new rhetoric genre studies, critical discourse analysis, and discussions of the role of the mass media in the two different cultures. The study reveals that Chinese writers often use explanatory rather than argumentative expositions in their newspaper commentaries. They seem to distance themselves from outside sources and seldom indicate endorsement of these sources. Australian writers, on the other hand, predominantly use argumentative expositions to argue their points of view. They integrate and manipulate outside sources in various ways to establish and provide support for the views they express. It is argued that these textual and intertextual practices are closely related to contextual factors, especially the roles of the media and opinion discourse in contemporary China and Australia. The study, by providing both a textual and contextual view of the genre under investigation in the two languages and cultures, aims to establish a framework for contrastive rhetoric research which moves beyond the text into the context of production and interpretation of the texts as a way of exploring reasons for the linguistic and rhetorical choices made in the two sets of texts.

This thesis investigates whether studying through English has an effect on the written texts secondary school students produce in their first language, Spanish. Research in bilingual education has tended to focus on students‟ language proficiency and academic achievement as opposed to investigating differences in discourse norms. However, an increased awareness of the role of discourse in language use and the culturally-specific nature of discourse, along with a growing concern over the dominance of the English language in Europe and elsewhere, have widened the range of questions identified as requiring investigation in bilingual education. Popular understanding suggests that English speakers make different choices from Spanish speakers in particular rhetorical situations. Although research into these contrasts can be problematic, there is support for the existence of cultural preference in the selection of options, and specific areas of similarity and difference between Spanish and English discourse have been suggested. This study then looks at one group of secondary three (3º E.S.O.) Spanish students studying through English on a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programme in Spain, and compares two sets of argumentative texts written in Spanish by the CLIL students with equivalent texts written by non-CLIL students in the same school. Forty-eight texts are examined in total, and the comparison draws on previous research into discourse differences between Spanish and English texts from contrastive rhetoric, systemic functional linguistics (SFL), and other fields, using tools from SFL for the textual analysis. Areas of analysis include use of clause complexes, multiple Theme and thematic progression, and also genre structure and text organisation strategies for argumentative writing. The main contrasts are found to be in length of t-units, use of simplexes versus complexes, use of multiple Theme, and some issues of text structure. These differences largely correspond to contrasts found in studies comparing written Spanish and written English text, with the CLIL students‟ texts showing features more commonly associated with English writing. Additional data from analysis of the geography textbooks used by the CLIL and non-CLIL students, questionnaires administered to these students, and interviews with their teachers are also used to explore the possible CLIL effect on the students‟ written text. The study discusses how discourse conventions associated with English text in contrast with Spanish text may have influenced the Spanish writing of the CLIL students, considering possibilities including the effect of direct and indirect teaching, and the more general impact of the CLIL programme. Also explored is the question of whether this possible influence of English on Spanish language use is a matter for concern or not, with increased work on language and discourse awareness suggested as a potential response. Methodological issues raised through the study relating to aspects of text analysis and of data collection are also addressed.

This study suggests, through a rhetorical analysis of the role of orators and oration in Ralph Ellison's <em>Invisible Man</em> and N. Scott Momaday's <em>House Made of Dawn</em>, that literature can be a valuable resource for the study of comparative and contrastive rhetoric; conversely, it also demonstrates that a knowledge of culturally-specific rhetorical and narrative practices is important for understanding ethnic-American novels and their social significance. Written during periods of intense racial upheaval in the United States, <em>Invisible Man</em> and <em>House Made of Dawn</em> are, to use a term coined by George Kennedy, metarhetorics: works that explore, from cross-cultural and intercultural perspectives, the ends and means of rhetoric and the ways in which rhetoric is linked to the formation of individual, ethnic, and national identities. This exploration is undertaken through the diegetic rhetoric of the novels, the depiction of rhetorical practice within their fictional worlds. Ellison's young orator, who vacillates between accommodationist, communist, and African American vernacular rhetorics, and Momaday's alienated protagonist, who is healed through the postcolonial rhetoric of a Peyotist street preacher and the ritual rhetoric of a displaced Navajo chanter, both illustrate how the recovery of traditional rhetorical practices is an integral part of cultural empowerment. The interaction of culturally-specific systems of rhetoric is also embodied in the extradiegetic rhetoric of the novels, the means by which the novels themselves influence their readers. Central to the novels' own rhetorical effectiveness is their authors' strategic appropriation of modernist techniques, which allowed the works to negotiate multiple literary traditions or social contexts, to penetrate and transform the American canon, and to accommodate and affect readers from a broad range of cultural backgrounds.

This study suggests, through a rhetorical analysis of the role of orators and oration in Ralph Ellison's <em>Invisible Man</em> and N. Scott Momaday's <em>House Made of Dawn</em>, that literature can be a valuable resource for the study of comparative and contrastive rhetoric; conversely, it also demonstrates that a knowledge of culturally-specific rhetorical and narrative practices is important for understanding ethnic-American novels and their social significance. Written during periods of intense racial upheaval in the United States, <em>Invisible Man</em> and <em>House Made of Dawn</em> are, to use a term coined by George Kennedy, metarhetorics: works that explore, from cross-cultural and intercultural perspectives, the ends and means of rhetoric and the ways in which rhetoric is linked to the formation of individual, ethnic, and national identities. This exploration is undertaken through the diegetic rhetoric of the novels, the depiction of rhetorical practice within their fictional worlds. Ellison's young orator, who vacillates between accommodationist, communist, and African American vernacular rhetorics, and Momaday's alienated protagonist, who is healed through the postcolonial rhetoric of a Peyotist street preacher and the ritual rhetoric of a displaced Navajo chanter, both illustrate how the recovery of traditional rhetorical practices is an integral part of cultural empowerment. The interaction of culturally-specific systems of rhetoric is also embodied in the extradiegetic rhetoric of the novels, the means by which the novels themselves influence their readers. Central to the novels' own rhetorical effectiveness is their authors' strategic appropriation of modernist techniques, which allowed the works to negotiate multiple literary traditions or social contexts, to penetrate and transform the American canon, and to accommodate and affect readers from a broad range of cultural backgrounds.

[ES] Entendida como la disciplina que aborda el estudio de los usos comunicativos del lenguaje, la pragmática ha sido uno de los centros de la investigación en lingüística de las últimas décadas (Escandell Vidal, 2013). En línea con esta orientación teórica eminentemente funcional que otorga preeminencia tanto a la interacción emisor-receptor como al contexto de enunciación, el metadiscurso (Hyland y Tse, 2004; Hyland, 2018) se erige como un paradigma de análisis fiable en la medida en que proporciona un marco conceptual para comprender las diversas estrategias interpersonales que atienden al modo en el que el hablante organiza su discurso y se relaciona con su destinatario, desvelando, por tanto, las prácticas retóricas propias de diferentes comunidades lingüísticas y culturales. La presente propuesta busca examinar estos rasgos y patrones metadiscursivos en el discurso político hablado de las elecciones en España y los Estados Unidos, estableciendo así las bases para una investigación de las estrategias del discurso que acompañan y refuerzan al acto de habla. En este sentido, se pretende avanzar en una doble dirección epistemológica, revelando por un lado las estrategias interpersonales arriba citadas que expresan la función de persuasión en una modalidad concreta, la política, y por otro descubriendo la variabilidad interlingüística e intercultural de estas marcas persuasivas y de adecuación a las exigencias del contexto comunicativo. Todo ello se consigue al estudiar, desde una óptica comparativa, los debates electorales destinados a las comunidades española y estadounidense, aplicando los presupuestos teóricos y metodológicos ya mencionados sobre una gran base documental, es decir, avalada por procedimientos propios de la lingüística de corpus (Baker, 2010). / [CAT] Entesa com la disciplina que aborda l'estudi dels usos comunicatius del llenguatge, la pragmàtica ha estat un dels centres de la investigació en lingüística de les últimes dècades (Escandell Vidal, 2013). En línea amb aquesta orientació teòrica eminentment funcional que atorga importància tant a la interacció emissor-receptor com al context d'enunciació, el metadiscurs (Hyland y Tse, 2004; Hyland, 2018), s'erigeix com un paradigma d'anàlisi fiable en la mesura en què proporciona un marc conceptual per comprendre les diverses estratègies interpersonals que atenen la manera en què l'autor organitza el text i es relaciona amb el destinatari, desvetlant, per tant, les practiques retòriques pròpies de diferents comunitats lingüístiques i culturals. La present proposta busca examinar aquests trets i patrons metadiscursius en el discurs polític parlat de les eleccions a Espanya i els Estats Units per tal d'establir les bases per a una investigació de les estratègies del discurs que acompanyen i reforcen l'acte de parla. En aquest sentit, pretenem avançar en una doble direcció epistemològica, examinant d'una banda les estratègies interpersonals adès citades que expressen la funció de persuasió en una modalitat concreta, la política, i d'altra descobrint la variabilitat interlingüística i intercultural d'aquests marcadors persuasius i d'adequació a les exigències del context comunicatiu. Tot això ho aconseguim arran d'estudiar, des d'una òptica comparativa, els debats electorals destinats a les comunitats espanyola i nord-americana, aplicant els pressupostos teòrics i metodològics ja esmentats sobre una gran base documental, és a dir, avalada per procediments propis de la lingüística de corpus (Baker, 2010). / [EN] Characterized as the discipline that focuses on the research of the communicative uses of language, pragmatics has been one of the main areas of linguistics in the last few decades (Escandell Vidal, 2013). In line with this functional orientation that gives prominence to both speaker-hearer interactions and the broad socio-cultural context, the interpersonal metadiscourse model (Hyland y Tse, 2004; Hyland, 2018) emerges as a reliable analytical framework since it provides a way to understand the diverse interpersonal strategies addressing the way in which speakers can organize their own discourse and engage with audiences, thus revealing diverse persuasive resources embedded in particular linguistic and cultural communities. The present proposal seeks to explore these metadiscursive traits and patterns in speeches belonging to the political election campaigns taking place in Spain and the United States, thus establishing the foundations for an investigation of the metadiscourse features that serve and reinforce the speech act. In this sense, it is intended to advance in a two-fold epistemological direction, signalling, on the one hand, the interpersonal strategies that accomplish the role of persuasion in a particular modality, the political one, and, on the other hand, exploring the cross-linguistic and cross-cultural variability of these persuasive markers adapted to the characteristics and demands of a given communicative context. This can be achieved by analizing, from a comparative perspective, the election campaign debates addressed to the Spanish and North-American communities, adjusting to the theories and analytical methods endorsed by corpus linguistics (Baker, 2010). / Albalat Mascarell, A. (2021). Análisis comparativo de las estrategias metadiscursivas en el género del debate electoral en España y Estados Unidos [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/166438 / TESIS

A presente pesquisa trata da descrição e da análise de estratégias retóricas que abrangem a distribuição e organização funcional e conteudística de segmentos textuais de introduções de dissertações de mestrado. Para o fim proposto, os textos de introduções foram extraídos de dissertações de mestrado do Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprache/Transnationale Germanistik da LMU de Munique e da Área de Alemão da USP, Brasil, escritas nas línguas de cada país: alemão e português. O corpus é composto de 44 textos de introdução. Com base na perspectiva linguístico-contrastiva, as constatações da retórica contrastiva, juntamente com a análise de gênero de orientação sócio-retórica, formam os fundamentos teóricos desse trabalho. Com o intuito de determinar a distribuição e a organização dos segmentos textuais, foi empregado o modelo CARS de SWALES (1990, 2004), desenvolvido inicialmente para analisar a estrutura organizacional de introduções científicas do gênero artigo. A prioridade da presente pesquisa foi a de identificar e localizar as estratégias que o autor da dissertação de mestrado utiliza, para apresentar seu próprio trabalho (movimento 3 de Swales). Devido à grande variação da sequência de estratégias retóricas não foi possível determinar um modelo organizacional claro dos textos nas duas línguas. Contudo, a descrição dos dados tornou possível a constatação de estratégias principais e secundárias empregadas na apresentação dos próprios trabalhos. Incluem-se entre as estratégias principais: a) a denominação do estabelecimento de metas, b) indicações sobre o método de procedimento, assim como c) indicações sobre a estrutura textual. Adicionalmente, é importante para os autores dos textos em questão indicar o que o trabalho não é capaz de realizar, uma estratégia não existente no modelo de Swales e que, para as introduções das dissertações de mestrado consideradas, é essencial. Contextos diferentes da produção (como, por exemplo, posições com graus hierárquicos distintos) conduzem a uma valorização diferente nas metas comunicativas, fazendo com que, por exemplo, o movimento 3 tenha um papel mais importante nas introduções de dissertações do que em artigos científicos, nos quais a revelação de uma lacuna de pesquisa é muito importante. Além da identificação e da organização de estratégias retóricas, também foi considerada a sua realização linguística e gramatical no alemão e no português, assim como examinado o emprego dos pronomes pessoais que indicam as autorreferências. Assim, objetivou-se verificar em que papéis acadêmicos o autor aparece em seus textos. Os fundamentos teóricos empregados foram fornecidos por HYLAND (2002), STEINHOFF (2007) e SCHMIDT (2010). Como resultado é possível afirmar que a) os autores dos textos em português não seguem um mesmo modelo no que concerne ao emprego de pronomes pessoais, b) nos textos em alemão o autor quase não aparece, fazendo com que as referências de autor sem a presença do agente predominem, e c) nos textos em português e em alemão o autor aparece predominantemente na função de autor, isto é, quando, por exemplo, aparecem indicações sobre a organização textual. Os resultados deste trabalho têm como meta servir de subsídio para a produção de material didático que forneça aos futuros mestrandos recursos para a elaboração de textos de introdução nas duas línguas. / This study explores the description and analysis of rhetorical strategies utilized in the content-related distribution and organization of textual segments of master theses introductions. For this purpose, introduction texts were taken from masters dissertations of the Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprache/Transnationale Germanistik of the LMU of Munich and of the German Department at Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, each written in its respective national language: German and Portuguese. The corpus consists of 44 introductions. Due to the linguistic contrastive perspective, the findings of the contrastive rhetoric constitute the theoretical basis of this research, together with the genre analysis of socio-rhetoric orientation. In order to determine the distribution and disposal of the text segments, the CARS model by SWALES (1990, 2004) was employed. This model was initially developed to analyze the organizational structure of scientific introductions of research articles. The primary focus of this study is to identify and locate the strategies that each dissertation author uses to present its own work (Swales move 3). Due to a great variety of rhetoric sequences, it was not possible to determine a conclusive organizational structure of the texts in either language. However, a description of the data made it possible to determine primary and secondary strategies employed in the presentation of master theses. Primary strategies include: a) indication of goal setting, b) indications concerning the methodical procedure, as well as c) indications about the structure of the text. Furthermore, it is important for the authors to indicate what cannot be achieved, a strategy which is not considered by Swales in his model and which is essential for the analyzed introductions of masters dissertations. Different production contexts (as, for example, positions with different hierarchical degrees) lead to a different valuation of the communicative goals, having as a result that, for example, move three in master thesis introductions plays a more important role than in scientific articles, in which the indication of a research gap is of great importance. In addition to the identification and organization of rhetoric strategies, linguistic and grammatical use in German and Portuguese was also considered, as well as the use of personal pronouns that indicate references to the author depending on the agent. The intention was to verify in which academic rules the author appears in his texts. The theoretical fundamentals employed were based on HYLAND (2002), STEINHOFF (2007) and SCHMIDT (2010). As a result, it is possible to state that a) the authors of texts in Portuguese do not follow the same model concerning the use of personal pronouns, b) in the German text the authorial presence is frequently hidden behind passive forms c) in the Portuguese, as well as in the German texts, the author appears mainly in the rule of the agent, for example, when indications about the textual organization appear. The results of this work intend to serve as a basis for the production of didactic materials by providing instruments for future masters students to employ in the production of introduction texts in both languages.