TEXT ORGANIZATION AND TRANSFER - THE CASE OF ARAB ESL LEARNERS

The purpose of this study is to determine whether Arab ESL learners transfer Arabic text organization features into their English writing. The features examined are: (a) loose packaging of information, (b) repetition and paraphrase, and (c) absence of metalingual organizers. The data consist of thirty English essays by Arabic speakers learning ESL and thirty essays by ESL learners whose mother tongue is not Arabic. The two groups are comparable with respect to their proficiency in English. The results indicate little evidence of transfer. The lack of differences between the two groups are accounted for in terms of the influence of instruction, the effect of monitoring, and the possibility that claims about the importance cross-linguistic differences are exaggerated. The study points up the need for more rigorous methodology for proving transfer, and the need for further research in the area of contrastive discourse analysis between English and less studied languages such as Arabic.