Rhetoric: A Tale of Two Cultures

Writing is a complex process that transforms writers’ thought into texts. Proficiency in writing is always one of essential purposes in language learning. However, mastering grammatical rules and sociolinguistic competence is not enough in language learning, particularly in an academic discourse. Foreign language teaching tends to focus on grammatical aspects of writing. However it is very difficult for foreign language learners to express their thought in completely unfamiliar rhetoric style. Therefore, contrastive rhetoric has an important role in applied linguistics. The paper initially discusses the two related concepts rhetoric and contrastive rhetoric, and then analyzes the differences between Chinese and English in key rhetoric aspects such as structure of composition, individualism vs. collectivism, logical thinking vs. imagery thinking and the responsibility of writers and readers. Finally, it examines the implications of contrastive rhetoric in foreign language teaching and intercultural awareness