Arabic and English Persuasive Writing of Arabs from a Contrastive Rhetoric Perspective PDF
Preview Arabic and English Persuasive Writing of Arabs from a Contrastive Rhetoric Perspective
Indiana University of Pennsylvania Knowledge Repository @ IUP Theses and Dissertations (All) 6-9-2010 Arabic and English Persuasive Writing of Arabs from a Contrastive Rhetoric Perspective Soliman Ismail Indiana University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at:http://knowledge.library.iup.edu/etd Recommended Citation Ismail, Soliman, "Arabic and English Persuasive Writing of Arabs from a Contrastive Rhetoric Perspective" (2010).Theses and Dissertations (All). 632. http://knowledge.library.iup.edu/etd/632 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Knowledge Repository @ IUP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (All) by an authorized administrator of Knowledge Repository @ IUP. For more information, please [email protected], [email protected]. ARABIC AND ENGLISH PERSUASIVE WRITING OF ARABS FROM A CONTRASTIVE RHETORIC PERSPECTIVE A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Soliman Ismail Indiana University of Pennsylvania May 2010 ii © 2010 by Soliman Ismail All Rights Reserved iii Indiana University of Pennsylvania The School of Graduate Studies and Research Department of English We hereby approve the dissertation of Soliman Ismail Candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 04/13/10 Signature on File __________________________ ______________________________________ Michael M. Williamson, Ph.D. Professor of English, Advisor 04/13/10 Signature on File __________________________ ______________________________________ Jeannine Fontaine, Ph.D. Associate Professor of English 04/13/10 Signature on File __________________________ ______________________________________ Gary Dean, Ph.D. Professor of Adult Education ACCEPTED Signature on File _________________________________________ _____________________ Timothy P. Mack, Ph. D. Dean The School of Graduate Studies and Research iv Title: Arabic and English Persuasive Writing of Arabs from a Contrastive Rhetoric Perspective Author: Soliman Ismail Dissertation Chair: Dr. Michael M. Williamson Dissertation Committee Members: Dr. Jeannine Fontaine Dr. Gary Dean The purpose of the study was to investigate whether negative first language transfer could be implicated as the etiology of the ESL writing problems of Arab advanced writers and thus to contribute to the existing body of knowledge about the validity of the contrastive rhetoric hypothesis in light of issues in the ontological, epistemological, and axiological underpinnings of contrastive rhetoric. To do so, the study analyzed and compared the ESL and Arabic L1 writing of 30 native Arabic speakers and the English L1 writing of 30 native English speakers on the same persuasive writing task. Rhetorical performance of each participant was quantified by use of established, valid, and reliable measures of select rhetorical dimensions of persuasive writing developed by Connor (1999) and Connor and Lauer (1985; 1988). The rhetorical dimensions investigated were argument superstructure, Toulmin‘s informal reasoning, rational, credibility and affective appeals, and persuasive adaptiveness. The study also administered a language history questionnaire that collected some information about the participants‘ demographics and educational background. Crosstabulations of data tallied from the language history questionnaire indicated that the two participant groups were of adequate tertium comparationis. Multiple regression analysis of the participants‘ scores on the analytic measures of rhetorical v performance against their holistic scores confirmed the validity of the analytic measures. Multiple discriminant analysis and ANOVA of the data confirmed the assumption of the contrastive rhetoric hypothesis that NASs exhibited similar rhetorical problems in their ESL and AL1 persuasive writing. However, the analysis could not predict the participants‘ language/cultural background based on their rhetorical performance. Furthermore, the analysis did not find any significant differences in the rhetorical performance of advanced NES and NAS writers regardless of the language of composing of the Arab participants. On the contrary, there was much greater within-group than between-group variance in the rhetorical performance of the participants. Results of the study cast serious doubts on the validity of the contrastive rhetoric hypothesis and suggested that other individual, contextual, and/or situational variables play a more significant role in the writers‘ rhetorical performance than native language background does. vi To my parents for their unconditional love and sacrifices vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would have never seen light without the help, support, and guidance of many people. I am especially indebted to my dissertation advisor and graduate mentor, Dr. Michael M. Williamson for his guidance, support, and patience. Mike, I cannot thank you enough. I am also grateful to Dr. Jeannine Fontaine and Dr. Gary Dean, my dissertation committee members, for their invaluable feedback and encouragement. Special thanks are due to Drs. Saad Gamal El-Din, Shaker Rizk, Amira Agameya, and Jean Nienkamp for their insightful feedback on my dissertation proposal. I would like to also thank Drs. Bill Grabe of NAU and Barbara Kroll of CSU for introducing me to contrastive rhetoric at the TESOL Summer Institute and Dr. Bahaa- Eddin Mazid of UAE University for providing me with a couple of references that got me interested in the study of written persuasive discourse from a contrastive rhetoric perspective. I should add that though this dissertation has been inspired by many people, I, alone, am responsible for its flaws. This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of the study participants who managed to find the time in their busy schedule to participate in the study and Drs. Alvine, P. Bizzaro, R. Bizzaro, Emerick, Fontaine, Ghatti, Hanauer, Hayward, Kuipers, Rafoth, Slater, and Shafer, who invited me in their classrooms to introduce my study to their graduate students. Drs. Abdelfattah Moftah, Sayyah Al- Ahmad, and Jiron-King, in particular, were of tremendous help during the data collection stage. Thanks a million, Dr. Jiron-King. You are my heroine. Throughout my learning journey, I was fortunate enough to have so many dedicated teachers and mentors who have nurtured my love for learning. I would like to viii express my gratitude to each and every one of them. I would like to start with Mr. Abdelwahhab Ibrahim, my cousin who taught me how to read and write at the age of three. I would like to also thank Mr. Kamal Khalifa, my English high school teacher, who nurtured my love for English. I am particularly indebted to Dr. Shaker Rizk, Dr. Abdelfattah Moftah, and Dr. Abdelsalam ElKoumy, my undergraduate professors and mentors at SCU; and Dr. Mahmoud Abdeen, Dean of the College of Education at SCU, and Dr. A. M. Abdelrahim, Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at SCU, who were instrumental in securing funding for my graduate study in Egypt and the US. I would like to acknowledge the insights I gained from working with my graduate professors at IUP, Drs. Aghbar, Bencich, Gebhard, Hayward, Hurlbert, Levinson, Tannacito, Pagnucci, Savova, Shepler, and Yan, who made my graduate study an enjoyable and fruitful experience. The same is true for Mrs. Cathy Renwick and Mrs. Bertha Cecconi, the Graduate English secretaries. Thank you everyone for making me feel at home. At a personal level, I have also been fortunate to have wonderful, understanding, and supportive family and friends. I am grateful to my parents, parents-in-law and siblings, Soad, Sameer, Sameh, Muhammed, Hussam, and Salwa for their love, patience, prayers, and sacrifices. Mervat, my soul mate, words cannot express how much I appreciate your being there for me and for the kids all the time. Your tireless spirit and optimistic smile are the two things that helped me go thru this long journey. Ahmed and Mazen, thank you for being the best sons one could ever have. I love you so much. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support and camaraderie of my friends, classmates, and colleagues, M. Ahmed, Fahad Al Jumah, Abdelrahman Al-Oleiwy, Walid ix Farag, Bob Friday, Waleed Gandura, M. Hammad, Ahmed Mohamed, Al-walid Mohsen, Khaled Morsy, Mike Powers, Sayed Saeed, M. Siam, Abdelmeneim Soliman, M. Hamdy Yaseen, and Nabeel Yaseen.
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