Transfer in Written English - Discourse: The Influence of Arabic and French on Tunisian EFL Students’ Argumentative Texts - Research Article

Oct 15, 2026

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Although contrastive rhetoric has been widely studied in second language writing, it has not been sufficiently examined in Tunisia’s linguistically complex context. This study evaluates the validity of the Contrastive Rhetoric Hypothesis by testing whether Tunisian EFL writing weaknesses stem from Arabic and French rhetorical transfer, limited writing skills in those languages, weak metacognitive knowledge, and low English proficiency. A mixed quantitative-qualitative approach uses a questionnaire and 150 multilingual compositions from first- and final-year students.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages31

Reading Time1 h 18 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Literature review

# Transfer in Written English Discourse: The Influence ofArabic and French on TunisianEFL Students’ ArgumentativeTexts Arab Journal of Applied Linguistics e-ISSN 2490-4198Vol. 5, No. 2, December 2020, 1-31 © AJAL http://www.arjals.com Najoua Ben Hedia, ISSHT, Institut Supérieur des Sciences Humaines de Tunis, Tunisia ## Abstract Although the concept of contrastive rhetoric has received considerable attentionin research on second language writing, it has not been adequately examinedin a linguistically complex context such as Tunisia. This study is an attempt tocontribute to the growing body of research on second language writing throughinvestigating the validity of the Contrastive Rhetoric Hypothesis in the Tunisiancontext. The study is based on the assumption that the main causes of Tunisianstudents’ deficient writing ability in the English language are transfer of Arabicand French rhetorical norms, insufficient writing ability in Arabic and/or French,lack of a well-developed metacognitive knowledge, and poor languageproficiency in English. The research approach adopted is quantitative as well asqualitative. Two data collection instruments were used: a questionnaire and 150 compositions in three languages. 50 undergraduate students of English atthe Institut Supérieur Des Langues de Tunis took part in the study, 25 of themwere first-year students and 25 final-year students. The findings indicate thattransfer is but one cause of the students’ deficient writing ability and that thedevelopment of multilingual students’ writing proficiency requires much moreattention. Keywords: Contrastive rhetoric; cross linguistic transfer; metacognitiveknowledge; writing proficiency; rhetoric; multilingual writers ## Introduction Kaplan’s (1966) claim that transfer of native language (NL) rhetoric is the main cause ofdeviant writing by non-native students (NNS) has been extensively studied in differentcontexts. However, the concept has not been thoroughly considered in a complex linguisticcontext such as Tunisia, which is characterized by diglossia and where the students learntwo (and sometimes three) foreign languages. A substantial number of publishedcontrastive rhetoric (CR) studies have analyzed English texts written by Arab students (cf.Doushaq, 1986; El-sayed, 1992; Fakhri 1994; Hatim, 1990; Ibrahim, Kassabgy, & Aydelott,2000; Khalil, 1989), but the findings of these studies are not directly applicable to Englishas a foreign language (EFL) in Tunisia. Previous studies by Labassi (1996) and Mhamdi(2004) tested the CR hypothesis, but they did not involve the same genre or the samerhetorical features. This study is specifically concerned with the rhetoric of argumentationand aims to understand the extent to which cross-linguistic interference and other factorscan affect EFL students’ writing. The study aspires to reach a degree of applicability by contributing to the extant resources in research on writing, which may improve theteaching of writing in EFL contexts. The following research questions guide the presentpaper: a) Is there evidence of transfer from Arabic and French in Tunisian students’ EFLcompositions? b) If yes, what exactly do they transfer, i.e. what are the most common types of transfererrors? c) Which language influences the students’ English written discourse most, Arabic orFrench? Why? d) What are the underlying causes of transfer? e) Are discourse errors due to language transfer to be regarded as developmentalerrors? ## Literature review Contrastive rhetoric, a multidisciplinary area of research that investigates rhetoricaldifferences across languages and cultures, was first characterized by a cultural approach tothe NNS texts. It was influenced by the theory of linguistic relativity and assumed thatrhetoric and culture were language specific. Several empirical studies tested the CRhypothesis in different cultural and linguistic contexts and some of them challenged Kaplan’s (1966) des

FAQs

What does the study investigate about Tunisian EFL students’ writing?

It investigates the extent to which cross-linguistic interference and other factors influence Tunisian EFL students’ argumentative writing. It specifically tests the validity of the Contrastive Rhetoric Hypothesis in that context.

Which factors are proposed as causes of deficient English writing ability?

The study assumes main causes include transfer of Arabic and French rhetorical norms, insufficient writing ability in Arabic and/or French, lack of well-developed metacognitive knowledge, and poor English language proficiency.

How does the research determine whether transfer occurs?

It uses a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach with two instruments: a questionnaire and 150 compositions in three languages. The research questions seek evidence of transfer, common types of transfer errors, and the relative influence of Arabic versus French.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Dipper