scholarly journals Toward an Intercultural Rhetoric: Improving Chinese EFL Students’ Essay Writing through Outline Writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Fang Li ◽  
Yingqin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Intercultural Rhetoric ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Main Ideas ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Chinese And English

This study explores the effects of teaching EFL students to use an outline in their English essays. The researchers maintain that using outlines can raise students’ awareness of different audience expectations embedded in the rhetoric of the target language (English) and culture and can improve their English academic writing. The study was based on a four-week long case study at a university in Xi’an, China, in which 24 Chinese EFL students at the College of Translation Studies participated. A discourse analysis was conducted by comparing the Chinese EFL students’ English essays produced at the beginning of the study with those produced at the end of the study after learning and practicing outlining for writing the English essays. Email inquiries were used for understanding the participants’ viewpoints on learning how to write English essay outlines. The findings reveal that teaching EFL students to use outlining in their English essays is an effective way to help them improve their essay writing. Not only can it enhance the students’ understanding about using the English thesis statements, but it can also help improve the use of related, logical, and specific detailed examples to support the main ideas in their essays. The email inquiries also revealed that the students believe that outline learning helped them to understand the differences between Chinese and English essay writing. The implications of the study for intercultural rhetoric are also discussed.

scholarly journals Effects of Text-messaging on the Academic Writing of Arab EFL Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleh M. Al-Salman ◽  
Aziz T. Saeed
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Text Messaging ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Teachers Attitudes ◽  
English Academic Writing

This paper investigates the effect of text-messaging on Arab EFL learners’ English academic writing. It also investigates teachers’ attitudes and reactions to the presence of e-texting features in their students’ writing. Qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis were employed on data obtained from the following sources: (1) a sample of freshman students’ writing, (2) a survey investigating students’ use of e-chatting in Arabic and English, and (3) a questionnaire eliciting teachers’ reactions to students’ use of texting features in academic writing. The data were collected from a student sample of the Arab Open University (AOU). The research findings show that Arab EFL students’ writing does not reveal a heavy use of texting features, which suggests that this phenomenon neither poses a serious threat nor adversely impacts students’ written English.

The Simpsons

Babel ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo A. Rodríguez Martín
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Correct Interpretation ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Visual Elements ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Simpsons ◽  
Specific Meaning ◽  
Common Device

Phraseological Units rank high among the most complex linguistic segments for translators, whether because of their figurative nature, their culturally specific meaning or their pragmatic peculiarities. Such difficulties increase exponentially when PUs are expressed in a multimodal fictional environment, especially if the situated meaning of the unit relies on visual elements for its correct interpretation: the so-called visual phraseological units (PUs). In these cases, the literal wording of a PU is portrayed physically, thus making both the phraseological and literal meanings overlap. These visual PUs have progressively become a common device in TV programs such as sitcoms and cartoon series — this paper, in particular, uses the case-study of the well-known American cartoon series The Simpsons. However, their ubiquity has not triggered a comparable scholarly response, either from the field of phraseology or from that of translation studies, with some notable exceptions. The combination of a limited theoretical framework and the inherent traductological obstacles these units pose accounts for the poor or, at times, non-existent solutions when it comes to rendering them in other languages. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the felicity of the Spanish translations of visual PUs appearing in The Simpsons. Some tentative traductological solutions will also be provided alongside the inevitable shortcomings of the target language versions, in an attempt to provide practical ground with which to foster further research on the question.

scholarly journals RHETORICAL PATTERN IN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY WRITING BY EFL STUDENTS OF IAIN SURAKARTA

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Sujito Sujito ◽  
Wildan Mahir Muttaqien
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Slow Learner ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Fast Learner ◽  
Strong Connectivity ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Thesis Statement

  This study reports pattern of rhetoric in argumentative essay of academic writing accros three achievement categories: fast learner, medium learner, and slow learner.  Descriptive correlation between the  pattern of the rhetoric and overall quality of academic writing was also identified. This research was descriptive study using content analysis approach. The research subjects were 3 classes of semester VII EFL student out of 9 classes selected  in purposive sampling. Pattern of rhetoric in students work was analyzed in seven categories: thesis statement, reservation, background information, rational appeal, affective appeal, conclusion, and hesitation. ESL composition profile by Jacobs was employed  to measure students’ academic argumentative essay. The finding showed that rhetoric pattern categories in three different writing achievers was failed to use. However, strong connectivity between pattern of the seven rhetoric categories and overall quality of academic writing across level of achievement was significantly linked.  

scholarly journals NATIVE LANGUAGE INTERFERENCE ON TARGET LANGUAGE WRITINGS OF INDONESIAN EFL STUDENTS: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
R. Agus Budiharto
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Grammatical Errors ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Language Influence ◽  
Grammatical Sentence

Possessing language students who are skilled in creating a structured, orderly and no error-found piece of composition constitutes a hope and a wish for many EFL teachers, as they are the individuals who undergo a big problem when their students commit numerous errors in EFL writing as a result of their native language interference. This study is aimed at exploring native language influence on students� English writings as well as investigating the salient and common grammatical errors in their writing with the purpose of checking whether or not Indonesian as the students� L1 influence them when writing in English. To this end, a corpus of 22 English essays written by students is examined and the errors are then categorized according to the following aspects: grammatical, lexico-semantic, mechanics, and word order sorts of errors. In this study, mixed methods research designs are used: quantitative and qualitative. The results revealed that UNIRA students commit different sorts of errors which are chiefly on account of their native language (Indonesian) interference. The students highly rely on their L1 in stating their thoughts, even though the ranking processes revealed that their essays hold different sorts of errors, those in the grammar and the lexico-semantic statistically constitute the most serious and recurrent ones.Keywords: grammatical sentence; L1 interference; lexico-semantic; writing.

A Business Writing OIL (Online International Learning)

2020 ◽  
pp. 881-891
Author(s):  
Simon Smith ◽  
Nicole Keng
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Business Writing ◽  
Study Materials ◽  
International Learning ◽  
International Interaction ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Almost All

Online International Learning (OIL) helps to integrate soft skills into the academic curriculum, as well as providing students with international interaction opportunities. In this article, we evaluate the extent to which telecollaborative writing tasks between UK-based (mostly Chinese) and Finnish students over an online platform can benefit academic writing learning experience and contribute to curriculum and materials design in EAP. In the article, there are two groups of learners from different geographical contexts, Finland and the UK. The Finland-based students are almost all Finnish, while those studying in the UK are mostly from China. In both cases, the target language is English. The students in Finland worked in pairs to create authentic case study materials, and the students in the UK, in what we characterize as “stimulus writing”, produced reports based on the case studies they had been given.

scholarly journals Innovating Selection and Use of Online Writing Resources for EFL Students: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (09) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistic ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Urban University ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
On Line ◽  
On Line Learning ◽  
Writing Resources

This study reports on how teachers’ systemic functional linguistics (SFL)-based selection and use of on-line writing resources impacted students’ perceptions of on-line resources and their writing performance. Through a case study of students from one academic writing course in an urban university in China and primarily qualitative analysis of interviews with students, written artifacts, and students’ reflections, it was found that the selection and use of on-line learning resources, guided by the teacher’s SFL perspective on writing as a meaning-making process, facilitated students’ transition. That is, students gained a principled perspective on the use of on-line resources and were able to use pertinent knowledge in producing effective academic writing. The study concludes that the pedagogical use of on-line resources, when supported by SFL, could transform students’ perception of the value of on-line materials and improve their self-efficacy as academic writers.

scholarly journals A Case Study on the Translation of Metaphors in Red Sorghum

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Leyang Wang
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Optimal Relevance ◽  
Chinese And English

Mo Yan’s novel Red Sorghum is well known for its creative and initiative usage of metaphors. When it is translated into English, the translator has to evaluate the cultural differences between Chinese and English. The current study takes the translation of metaphors in Red Sorghum as an example to illustrate how cultural elements influence translation. The representative examples selected hereby were analyzed on the basis of the Relevance Theory and at the same time different cultural elements were taken into account to provide solid evidence. This essay proposes that translations of metaphors in Red Sorghum can be divided into four types: from metaphor to simile, from metaphor to metaphor with the tenor and vehicle unchanged, replacing the vehicle, deleting the vehicle. In order to facilitate target readers’s inferential process and help them establish the optimal relevance, the translator has to deliberate the disparities of the cultures in the source language and target language and then demonstrate the appropriate ostensive stimuli. No matter what measures the translator takes, it can not be sepearated from the corresponding cultural elements.

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