Rhetoric Undertones of Communication In An EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Online-Teaching Setting

Abstract

Teaching discourses essentially presuppose the use of rhetoric. This communication research draws on the Rhetoric Theory of Communication to investigate rhetoric undertones in the teaching discourses of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers engaged in online teaching. The case study involved four participants of equal number of male and female teachers to account for sex-aggregated analysis. It employed Sinclair & Coulthard's method of classroom discourse analysis in the transcription of the teachers' spoken corpora. Findings revealed that (1) male and female teachers used rhetoric in the online teaching of EFL courses, and (2) they used rhetoric in the context of deploying certain discourse functions. On the varied rhetoric intents of the teachers underlying their rhetorical moves, male and female teachers account exhaustively on the use of all types of rhetoric, i.e. Foss' typology of invitational and patriarchal rhetoric (operationalized in this study as "intrusive rhetoric"), and the latter's sub-types. There have been noted difference, both remarkable and less significant, between male and female teachers' rhetoric practices.

From the synthesis of the study's findings and conclusions, several recommendations are offered for the improvement of English language pedagogy, for future research, and the interest of advancement in theorizing under the rhetoric tradition in the field of communication.