The analysis of Toulmin elements and use of sources in Chinese University EFL argumentative writing.

摘要

The purpose of this dissertation was to analyze structures of English and Chinese argumentative papers written by Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) university students and also to examine how these students used source texts in English argumentative writing. Specifically, based on the adapted Toulmin model of argument structure (Toulmin, 1958, 2003), the dissertation analyzed the use of Toulmin elements in English and Chinese argumentative papers and examined how the uses of Toulmin elements were related to the quality of argumentative papers. Furthermore, student use of source texts was analyzed based on the two broad categories of verbatim and paraphrase. The dissertation also examined (a) L1 and L2 writing relationships and (b) L2 reading and writing relationships.;One hundred and thirty-three Chinese sophomores majoring in English and 99 Chinese English-major graduate students studying at Chinese universities participated in the study. Six important findings emerged: First, the majority of English argumentative papers displayed the two fundamental Toulmin elements, data and claim, although the uses of the secondary Toulmin elements, namely, counterargument claim, counterargument data, rebuttal claim, and rebuttal data were much less frequent. Second, the use of Toulmin elements, in particular the secondary Toulmin elements, contributed to the overall quality of both English and Chinese argumentative papers. Third, contrary to previous contrastive rhetoric research suggesting organizational differences between Chinese and English argumentative writing, the present study showed more similarities than differences in terms of overall organization and the use of Toulmin elements across languages. Fourth, there was a significant correlation between the overall quality of English and Chinese argumentative papers. Fifth, on average, students tended to rely extensively on source texts, either using exact copying or changing minimally from source texts; there was a significant negative correlation between use of source texts and overall quality of English argumentative papers. Sixth, a weak significant relationship between the English reading scores and the overall quality of English argumentative papers was found for the graduate student group, but not for the undergraduates. A number of pedagogical implications can be drawn from the above- mentioned findings.