Questions on the implementation of a Contrastive Rhetoric approach.

In favor as I am of any kind of inclusive approach, after reading the texts by Casanave and Connor, I could not help thinking of the difficulty of implementing a revised version of the CR approach for Second Language Writing. Here are some of the questions, for which I hope we can find some answers.

How can you avoid considering students’ background and native language in Second Language Learning settings? How could a need analysis ignore these aspects?

Yet, how can one account for contrastive approach in learning new rethoric styles when one is very likely ignorant of students’ native language and cultural background?

How can one aspire to have a profound knowledge of students ‘cultural patterns’ in order to be able to implement a contrastive approach? Particularly in settings where students from different origins are grouped together?

How can you avoid simplistic overgeneralizations like Hinds’ (see Casanave 33) when attempting to implement CR?

In relation to Casanave’s proposal of an Investigative Pedagogical Approach:

Provided the difficulty for the teacher to become acquainted with foreign cultural patterns and languages, is it realistic to rely completely on the part of SLL’s? Will they be conscious of the cultural patterns governing their writing practices?

How could you ‘break down students stereotypes of their L1 and L2 and help them come to a more complex understanding of how their L1 rhetoric creates meaning’ as Casanave puts it, in instructional settings constrained in terms of time and space as ours?

Analyzing students L1 writing samples seems possible in EFL settings where the instructor is highly competent in the native language of the students, but, how do you go about this in ESL setting with diverse populations?

Could mini-research projects, discourse analysis of comparable texts, surveys, and interviews give the instructor a clear picture of intercultural differences? If so, how do you envision the implementation of these?

For the bigger picture, what would the implementation of an Investigative Pedagogical Approach, as proposed by Casanave, imply for curriculum design at universities, colleges, schools?