A Cognitive Contrastive Rhetoric Analysis of English and Arabic in EFL Students’ Writing

Abstract

The present research aimed at suggesting a cognitive perspective to the Contrastive Rhetoric Hypothesis. To do so, I designed a cognitive analytical framework and identified the cognitive rhetorical patterns in 200 Arabic and English short stories written by freshmen and senior students majoring in English, atan Algerian university. The findings proved that there is a transfer of patterns from the mother tongue (Arabic) to the foreign language (English). Hence, the Contrastive Rhetoric Hypothesis is totally valid among beginners and is so to a considerable extent among the more advanced EFL learners.