Factors Affecting Composition Evaluation in an EFL Context: Cultural Rhetorical Pattern and Readers’Background

Abstract

We investigated how 465 readers with different backgrounds (differing L1, academic status, and amounts of writing instruction) evaluated 16 versions of Japanese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students’English compositions containing different culturally influenced rhetorical patterns (Japanese vs. American English) as well as two other features (coherence breaks and language use errors). Among other factors, including coherence and language use, culturally influenced rhetorical patterns affected assessment of EFL student writing on an analysis of effects topic. Overall, Japanese students who had not received English writing instruction preferred the Japanese rhetorical pattern, native English teachers favored the American rhetorical pattern, and Japanese students who had received English writing instruction and Japanese teachers valued features of both patterns. There were no significant differences between the two teacher groups in the overall assessment of the two rhetorical patterns, but Japanese English teachers, similar to Japanese students, gave significantly higher scores than native English teachers to the Japanese introduction. On a comparison/contrast topic, other discourse features, particularly paragraph level coherence problems, appeared to override rhetorical pattern in terms of influence on writing quality scores. The results suggest that a flexible approach to permissible rhetorical patterns and a greater emphasis on coherence may prove beneficial for EFL writing instruction.