Taiwanese argumentation skills: Contrastive rhetoric perspective

Abstract

Argumentative writing is a fundamental writing style across various EAP and ESP writing tasks. Despite its importance, no second language writing research has examined how Taiwanese students compose this genre based upon a well-established theoretical model of Western argumentation. The goal of this study is to bridge this gap by building upon Stephen Toulmin’s (2003) model of argument to examine the use of English argumentation features. Participants included 40 Taiwanese and 39 US college freshmen writers. Writing samples collected included 119 essays, 80 of them were composed by Taiwanese participants (40 Chinese and 40 English texts) and 39 by American students. The findings indicate that Taiwanese student arguments are less extended and complex, and display a limited range and quantity of argumentative structure in comparison to American arguments. Yet, both Taiwanese and American students are weak at handling oppositional structures, an essential trait differentiating Chinese and English rhetoric. Equally important, Taiwanese students, when composing Chinese texts are able to construct certain argument features in a way similar to American students. This illustrates that culture may not necessarily account fully for the argument features manifested in Taiwanese writing of English. Other factors, such as L2 language proficiency and developmental factors, also play a mediating role in the use of argument structures.