Beyond Grammatically Correct: Classical Rhetoric for EFL Students

Abstract

This paper reports a two-month study that investigated the extent to which classical rhetoric may foster writing development among a group of 24 tertiary-level students majoring in English. Seven rhetorical devices were targeted as operational abilities for student practice in essay writing. Data are drawn from students’ first drafts prior to the treatment and revision drafts after the study was completed. Post-study questionnaires are also collected to examine student perceptions involved in the production. The data analysis includes a comparison of texts produced by each individual learner and an investigation into the learners` reflections on the experience of exercising rhetoric in that composition process. Results indicate that students produced longer and stronger texts in terms of expressiveness, creativity, and complexity with treatment. Rhetoric training affords students with abundant opportunities to see more clearly the inter-relatedness of form and meaning, and the psychology of diction both in their own writing and that of others. This study concludes with implications for composition pedagogy when taken in an EFL context

這篇文章報告了一個為期兩個月的研究，其探究了對一群24名主修英文的大專生，古典修辭在促進他們寫作發展可能的程度。七種修辭詞在學生練習文章寫作時，視為主要的運用能力。分析的資料來自於在施測前學生們的第一份草稿、以及研究完成後的修正版本。所蒐集到的研究後問卷，也用來檢視學生們對於成果的想法。資料分析包括比較每一名學習者所寫的所有文本，以及探究他們在寫作過程中，對於練習修辭的經驗之感想。結果顯示，就表達方式、創造力、以及寫作方式的多元性而言，學生們會使用比較長以及有力的修辭。修辭訓練提供給學生們足夠的經驗，以更加地清楚句型上與意義之間的關係、以及理解自己和他人文章中措詞之心理層面。研究也提供一些建議給EFL情境下的寫作教學為總結。