Abstract

Contrastive Rhetoric (CR) examines differences and similarities in writing across languages and cultures. Despite being largely restricted to a rigid form, ESL student essay writing, in its first three decades, today the area of study has developed into a promising domain of L2 writing research with rich theoretical foundations in both linguistics and rhetoric. In today’s talk, we will first briefly review the historical development of CR since Robert Kaplan’s seminal work in 1966. We will then focus on the new trends in CR – from mere text analysis to context-sensitive text analysis – and the theoretical and methodological developments underlying the shift. We will conclude with a discussion on the possible pedagogical implications CR research can generate.