ANALYSIS OF THIRD GRADERS’ RHETORICAL COMPETENCE AND THEIR TEXTBOOKS’ RHETORICAL DEVICES

Abstract

Two complementary studies are presented. The first study aimed to evaluate the ability of 109 3rd-graders to interpret and use some rhetorical devices typical of academic language (rhetorical competence) like conceptual anaphors, organizational signals, and refutations. They solved tasks with these three types of rhetorical devices. The results indicate that students have low rhetorical competence. The second study aimed to analyze the presence of the same rhetorical devices in the “Natural Sciences” and “Social Sciences” textbooks read by those same students in 2nd and 3rd grade. The analysis shows that, between 2nd and 3rd grade, the number of devices increases, in such a way that most of the 3rd-grade texts have one or more conceptual anaphors and one or more organizational signals. The contrast between both studies suggests an imbalance between the skills of 3rd-grade readers and the demands of their textbooks.