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Abstract:
StudiesinContrastiveRhetoricsinceKaplan1966articlehaveindicatedtheneedoflookingatL2writingfromdifferentperspectivebyconsideringfactorssuchasL2learners’historicalbackgroundinL1writing,thedevelopmentintheirwritingprocess,andthegenresbeforewecometoanalyzethetexts.Byfollowingsuchapproaches,thisstudywantstoseeiftherehasbeenanyculturaltransferinL2writingofIndonesianwriters.However,thishasledtotheprobingofIndonesianL1writingaswell.Thisstudyagainsuggeststhecomplexityofrhetoricinwriting.
CULTURALTRANSFERINEFLWRITING:
ALOOKATCONTRANSTIVERHETORICON
ENGLISHANDINDONESIAN
Introduction
ThestudyofcontrastiverhetorichasundergonesubstantialgrowthsincethepublicationofKaplan’sarticleentitledCulturalthoughtpatternsininterculturaleducationin1966.InhisarticleKaplanpresentedfivedrawingsdepictingfivedifferentrhetorics.Englishrhetoricwasdepictedasastraightline,Orientalrhetoricasaspiral,Arabicrhetoricasaseriesofzigzags,andRomanandRussianaslinesheadingdownwardbutveeringoffatdifferentanglesalongtheway.Kaplan’s1966researchhasbeenconsideredasthefirstmajorstudythatattemptedtoanalyzehowL1culturesmanifestinL2writing,whichwasinfluencedbytheSapir-WhorfHypothesis.HearguedthatL2studentswritings,especiallytheirparagraphorganization,exhibitedthestudents’L1culturalthoughtpatterns.(Allaei&Connor,1990,p.22).ForsometimethevisualmemoryofthefivesketchesKaplanproposedwasdominatingthethinking,learning,teachingandwritingofteachersandstudents.ManyESLwritingtextbooksandteachertextsreprintedthesketchesandgenerationsofteachersandstudentslearnedthatEnglishspeakersdiddeveloptheirideasinalinearfashionandOrientalsinanon-linearandspiralfashionetc.(Soverino,1993,pp.44-45)
Afteroverthirtyyearsofstudiescarriedoutinthisfield,therehavebeenconsiderablereactionsastothequalificationofKaplan’spositionincontrastiverhetoric.(Amongthemare:
Hinds,1987,1990;Carell,1987;MohanandLo,1985;Matalene,1985;Purves,1986;Liebman,1992;Allaei&Connor,1990;Leki,1991;Severino,1993).Itwasarguedthatcontrastiverhetoricresearchexaminestheproductonly,detachingitfromandignoringboththecontrastiverhetoricalcontextfromwhichtheL2writersemergeandtheprocessthesewritersmayhavegonethroughtoproduceatext.(Leki,1991,p.123).Liebmanmaintainsthat“Kaplanbelievedthattextsreflectedculture,yettheculturalcontextthatproducedthesetextswasnotexplored.”(1992,p.143)Kaplanhimselfhasrevisitedhisculturalthoughtpatternsarticlewhichhasbeenknownasthe“doodlesarticle.”Hewrotethat
Inthatstudy,Itriedtorepresent,incrudegraphicform,thenotionthattherhetoricalstructureoflanguagesdiffers.Itisprobablytruethat,inthefirstblushofdiscovery,Ioverstatedboththedifferenceandmycase.Intheyearssincethearticlefirstappeared,Ihavebeenaccusedofreductionism–oftryingtoreducethewholeoflinguisticstothissingleissue.Itwasnotmyintentthen,anditisnotmyintentnow,toclaimmoreforthenotionthanitdeserves.Nevertheless,Ihavebecomegraduallymoreconvincedthatthereissomevaliditytothenotion.(1987,p.9)
Hencehewastryingtoreducehisstrongconvictionasproposedinhis1966article,yetsimultaneouslystillmaintainthevalidityofthenotion.
Severalstudiesincontrastiverhetorichaveshownthatweneedtoapproachthisfieldwithastancethatacknowledgesthecomplexitiesoftherhetoricsofdifferentlanguagesandculturesbyexaminingthegenre,ageandclassbackgroundinacomplexdiscourseanalysis(Indrasutra,1988);theorganizationalpatternsemphasizedinschoolwritingandstudents’pedagogicalhistories(Soverino,1993);whilecontinuingtoexaminecontrastsinthesmallestfeaturesoftexts,investigationsofthebroadpoliticalandhistoricalcontextsforwritingandrecognitionofnotjustrhetoricalstylebutalsopurpose,task,topic,andaudience,needtobeincluded(Leki,1991);orinaframeworkofwhatLiebman(1992,p.142)callsthe“newcontrastiverhetoric”whichconsidersnotonlyinhowpeopleorganizetextsindifferentlanguages,butalsointheirapproachtoaudience,theirperceptionofthepurposeofwriting,thetypesofwritingtasks,thecomposingprocess,andtherolewritingplaysintheireducation.
SofarthestudiesincontrastiverhetorichavebeenconductedindifferentlanguagessuchasJapanese(Hinds,1983,1987,1990),Chinese(Mohan&Lo,1985),Thai(Indrasatra,1988),Korean(Eggington,1987),Hindi(Kachru,1983,1987,1988),Arabic(Hatim,1991),Vietnamese(Soter,1988),andsomeEuropeanlanguagesreviewedbyKaplanandGrabe(1996),buttherehasnotbeenanysignificantstudydoneonIndonesianEFLstudents’writing.AsoneofthemajorcountriesinAsiawhereEnglishisgettingmorepopular,IbelievethatthestudyofrhetoricinIndonesianwritingsmaycontributeandenrichthestudiesofcontrastiverhetoric.Furthermore,asIndonesiancultureispresumablyclosetoOrientalcultures,itmightbewellconsideredtoseeifsuch“culturaltransfer”inwritingashavingbeenconductedwithotherAsianwritingshasalsoconstitutedthesame,similar,orevendifferentproblemscomparedtotheirIndonesiancounterparts.
Byconsideringthepreviousstudiesthathavebeenconductedincontrastiverhetoricandtheproposedapproachesbysomeresearchers,inthispaperIwillfirstseebrieflythehistoricalbackgroundofschoolwritinginIndonesia.ThenIwillseehowthewriterandreaderrelationship,andtextdevelopintheprocessofIndonesianwriting.
BriefHistoricalBackgroundoftheLearningofSchoolWritinginIndonesia
InthemultiethnicandmulticulturescountrylikeIndonesia,IndonesianlanguageorBahasaIndonesiahasbeenusedasournationallanguagethatwasformallydeclaredinOctober28,1928,evenbeforeIndonesiadeclareditsindependencein1945.Bahasahasbeentaughtinallschoolsintheentirecountrybesidestheregionaldialectthatisalsotaughtuntiljuniorhigh.ThecurriculumoftheteachingofBahasahasalsobeenundergoingalotofchanges.However,therehasnotbeenanysignificantformalinstructionintheteachingofwritingorcomposition.Forinstance,myownprimaryeducationinIndonesiaduringthesixties,writinginbahasawashardlyassignedbytheinstructor.Whenwedidhavetowrite,theteacherwouldusuallyassignatopic,suchasMyvacation,Myidealhome,forustowriteathomewithoutgivingusanyguidanceastotheorganizationorthestyleofwriting.Therewasnorevisionafterfirstdraftwassubmitted.Thatwasfinalandtheteacherwouldgiveusgradeonthatfirstandfinaldraftwithoutanysubstantialcommentgiventothecontent,northeorganization.
Duringtheeightiesandninetiesthecurriculumofbahasawasundergonesomechanges,butstilltherehasnotbeenanysignificantformalinstructionforwriting.FromtheCurriculumofBahasaIndonesiapublishedbytheDepartmentofEducationandCulturein1995,theteachingofwritingisintegratedinthecourse.ABahasaIndonesiateacheradmittedthatthereisnoseparatecourseforteachingwriting.Itdependsontheteacher’screativitytoteachit.1)ArecentgraduatefromIndonesianhighschoolreportedthatwhatshelearnedwasmostlyIndonesiangrammar,reading,andsometheoriesonliterature.Anotherreportedthatshegotsomeguidelinefromherprimaryschoolteacherthatwritingshouldconsistofintroduction,contents,andconclusion.Butthatwasaboutitwithnofurtherelaborationandseriouspractice.Anotheradmittedthattheonlythinghelearnedaboutwritinginbahasawasthemodesinwritingwithsomeparagraphsgivenasexamples,butheandhisclassmateswereneverassignedtowriteacomposition.Hence,likeothercoursestaughtatschool,thestudyofbahasaistreatedmorelikeasciencewhoseknowledgeistobelearnedandmemorizedthantobeusedinpracticalactualcommunication.Attheendoftheirhighschoolyear,someschoolsassigntheirstudentstowriteafinalpaperonacertaintopic,butwhatthestudentsdidwasoftenimitatinghowformerstudentshadwritten.Again,therehasnotbeenanysignificantguidanceastohowtoorganizeapaperwriting.Perhapsweareassumingthatsincebahasaisourownlanguage,sothereisnoneedforustolearnhowtowriteaslongasweknowthegrammarandhowtowritecorrectsentences,butthisnotionstillneedtobefurtherinvestigated.
MyIndonesianfriendswhohavebeenstudyingoverseas,andthosewhotookEnglishastheirmajorincollegeagreewithmethattheystartedtolearnhowtocomposeapaperwhentheystudyEnglish.SobasicallymostofuswouldlearnEnglishrhetoricintheirfirstformallearningofwriting.Thosewhohappentolikewritingdowriteevenwhentheyarestillinhighschool,butmostlytheyareintheformofcreativewritingsuchaswritingashortstory.Hencetheirstyleandorganizationaremainlyurgedbytheircreativityorbyimitatinghowotherwriterswrote.
EnglishasaforeignlanguageinIndonesiaislearnedfromjuniorhightohighschoolasarequiredcourse.However,likeinthelearningofbahasa,whatwelearninourEnglishclassismostlygrammarandreading.Thus,IndonesianstudentswhocometostudyintheEnglishspeakingcountriesfacesomehardtimeintheiroralcommunication,whatismoreinwriting.
TheWriter-ReaderRelationship
Englishisasubjectprominentlanguage.Thepersonprimarilyresponsibleforeffectivecommunicationisthespeaker.Hindscategorizeswritingasreaderorwriterr