Variations in Reasoning in Javanese and Bataknese Students’ Argumentative Writing: A Study on the Relation between Ethnicity and Reasoning

This study was intended to describe the relation between students’ reasoning and their ethnicities. Comparison between the argumentative writings written by Javanese and Bataknese students two of the ethnics found in Indonesiawas conducted to seek shared and variation of reasoning between the two ethnics. Interpretation on the results of such comparison was made in order to find out the relation between reasoning and ethnicity. To achieve the objective, a descriptive qualitative research design was applied. Twenty students consisting of 10 Javanese and 10 Bataknese were involved in the study. They were assigned to write 20 argumentative writing. Qualitative data analysis was applied to analyze the 20 argumentative writing. The result of the study showed that both Javanese and Bataknese students shared common patterns of arguments in terms of text structure, reasoning, and affective appeal. Meanwhile, difference in cultural value between Bataknese and Javanese students caused minor variation (differences) in text structure of argumentative writing in two aspects namely in developing thesis statement and drawing conclusion. Ethnicity’s relation to variation in argumentative writing is limited to the two aspects: to the writing of thesis statement and drawing conclusion.


Introduction
Indonesia, geographically, is one of Asian countries. Asian culture is said to have different culture from Western's. Western value is individualism in which individuals should have sufficient freedom. In contrast, Asians' values is collectivism who see themselves as parts of one or more groups (family, co-workers, tribes, nations) and emphasize their connectedness to members of these collectives (Connor, 2008). This difference is formed in their L1 and affects their L2 writing rhetoric pattern. Western rhetoric is characterized by practical and scientific orientation, and factual concrete evidence; they are more direct in their argumentation. Meanwhile, Asian's is typically humanistic aesthetic orientation and subjective in providing evidence. Therefore, they tend to use indirect approach in their argumentation (Kaplan as cited in Uysal, 2012). However, culture cannot be regarded as national entity; within a culture, there are variations of rhetoric (Comfort, 2001). It implicitly states that within Asian and Western culture, there are variations in their rhetoric patterns.
Indonesia consists of various ethnic groups such as Batak Toba who reside in North Sumatera, Indonesia around Toba Lake, Javanese who live in Java, Manado whose residence in North Sulawesi. Their rhetorical pattern will be varied although they belong to Asian culture which will be in line with Comfort's statement as mentioned previously.
This study was intended to find out the relation between reasoning and ethnicity in argumentative writing written by undergraduate students of English Department from different ethnic groups in Indonesia namely Batak Toba and Javanese. The two ethnics have different values. Batak Toba life purpose is to achieve three main ideals namely to be wealthy, to have many sons and daughters, and family honor which is reflected by their motto: Hamoraon (wealth), Hagabeon (hoping to have many sons and daughters), Hasangapon (family honor). They are very ambitious to achieve this purpose and they work hard. In daily life, they speak to the point, frankly and give less consideration on others' feelings. This is an implementation of other motto of theirs: Tedak songon indahan di balanga (Something which is transparent, objective, and open; just exactly like rice in the pan) (Sari, 2018) Javanese live with different value; they value more on harmony which they call as live in rukun (Hawkins, 1996). In daily life, this value is represented in a principle: tanggap ing sasmita. It means a Javanese should be keen on inferring implicit and symbolic meaning (Pudentia, 2015). To achieve harmonious life, one with Javanese ethnic should not say something directly; they have to say something implicitly and they believe that their interlocutors have the ability to infer the implicit and symbolic meaning as the principle of their communication requires everyone to be tanggap ing sasmita.
In argumentative writing, the writer is intended to convince his/her readers by applying argumentative text structure, reasoning, and persuasive appeal to accept his/her claim or thesis statement. Ways of convincing readers, according to Ramage et.al (2016) are realized in three aspects, they are: (1) text structure; (2) reasoning; and (3) affective appeals. Toulmin (2003:11) further explains that reasoning is developed by providing: (1) claim (writer's stance which he tries to prove); (2) reason itself (motive for the claim); (3) ground (data which supports the claim); (4) warrant (underlying assumption that completes the relationship between claim and reason); and (5) backing (the basis on which we believe that the warrant is believable). This theory is resulted from the research conducted to the argumentative writing written by Western writers. From the perspective of culture, Asian writers may have different ways of convincing his readers to accept their claim. It can be seen from Western argumentative writing which is more direct in expressing claim, and scientific by providing more ground and warrant; while Asian writers are indirect, less scientific, less ground and warrant (Schwarz & Asterhan, 2008).
Indonesian argumentative writing is characterized with indirect, less ground and less warrant. Argumentative writing written by Bataknese writers may be different from that written by Javanese writers in terms of text structure, reasoning, and affective appeals although in general they show indirectness, less ground, and less warrant. This is caused by different values they have within the same national cultural entities. There may be variations in their argumentative writing in the attributes that characterize the Asian writers' argumentative writing.

Methodology
In this study, three classes of undergraduate students majoring in English Education which consisted of twenty five students in each class were assigned to write argumentative writing with the topic of Should social media be banned? All of the students were in the eighth semester and based on their curriculum as well as the result of the interview, the students had studied how to write argumentative writing. All of the 75 argumentative writing were examined to find out the writing which fulfilled the criteria of argumentative writing. Based on the result of the examination, there were 10 Javanese students' argumentative essays and 10 Bataknese essays were found to fulfill most of the argumentative writing text structure. The 20 essays were used as the data of this study.
This study was designed with qualitative descriptive design. The data were analysed by applying Bogdan & Biklen's model (2014) in which data analysis is firstly begun by data identification and classification. The identification and classification was conducted by taking the theory of argumentative writing as temporary predetermined category. The data analysis was intended to find out descriptions of the Javanese and Bataknese students' argumentative writing. Patterns of convincing the readers applied by the two ethnic students were found out by observing the interrelatedness between the two ethnic groups' values and their ways of convincing their readers. Recurrent pattern was identified as the underlying causes of the two ways of convincing their readers.

Findings /Results
Based on the results of the data analysis, it was found out that the reasoning between the Javanese and Bataknese students were varied in two aspects: in the writing of thesis statement and drawing conclusion. This indicated that ethnic cultural value is related only to the two aspects, while to the other aspects of reasoning in argumentative writing the two ethnics shared common patterns. Both Javanese and Bataknese students wrote text structure, reasoning, and affective appeal in the same ways. These findings were presented here in details.

Common Patterns of Reasoning in Javanese and Bataknese Writing.
In writing arguments, the two ethnics shared features of reasoning. This commonality was found in two aspects of arguments: in the text structure, and reasoning.

1) The Development of Introductory Paragraph
In writing the arguments, the two ethnics wrote paragraphs that were classified into three parts: introduction, writer's position and conclusion. This structure is different from the structure developed by European people as asserted in Ramage (2016). According to Ramage (2016), the structure the two ethnics wrote missed one aspect, namely opposing view. Introductory paragraph of the argument was developed by providing definition of the topic (motion) as in data 1a, by giving personal opinion as in data 1b, and by presenting issues as seen in data 1c and thesis statement as seen in data 1d.
Data 1a showed that the students of the two ethnics developed the introductory paragraph by giving definition:

Data 1a
Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.
Data 1a was classified as definition because it fulfilled the characteristics of a definition proposed by Ary (2010: 36). Data 1a contained description of social media in order to avoid readers' misunderstanding and to gain more precise image of what social media was. It described the function of social media: namely as a means of communication and how the social media worked. It seemed that the subject thought the readers' attention could be tapped if only the readers understood what social media was; the readers would not be interested in social media if the readers did not know what social media was. Unlike what Ramage (2016) proposed that the introduction should be begun with the presentation of current event, memorable scene, illustrative story related to the topic being discussed in order to catch readers' attention.
The introductory paragraph of the argument developed by the two ethnics was also characterized with the provision of personal opinion as shown in data 1b.

Data 1b
Nowadays, most teens has been influenced by social media. They usually used social media to post and upload status, picture.
Data 1b contained personal opinion because it conveyed their beliefs in the social media; it did not have any facts about it. Statement like this was called personal opinion by Sims (2016). This introduction is different from what it should be. Ramage (2016) claimed that introduction should be developed by providing facts of current event, memorable scene, and illustrative story. The Javanese and Bataknese writers might think that the readers would accept the writer's introduction even if it was only a personal opinion. Eastern people are comfortable with ambiguity and nurture interpersonal harmony (Hawkins, 1996). The Javanese and the Bataknese writers and the readers are Asians, so the subject may think that personal opinion was enough to get the readers accept their arguments. It might be the reason for the absence of empirical data in the introduction. On the contrary, Qingxue (2003) said that Western people expected messages to be detailed, clear-cut, and definite; if there are not enough data or not apparent, they will ask blunt questions because they feel uncomfortable with vagueness and ambiguity which are often associated with limited data.
The introduction developed by the Javanese and the Bataknese was also characterized with the provision of issues as seen in data 1c.

Data 1c
Social media itself has many positive effects to get and share information and also we can get many friends. But, besides of the positive effect, social media also has many negative effects especially for Junior High School students. They are to make them lazy or disturb their focus and to waste their money. That's why social media should be banned for Junior High School students. Knapp & Watkins, (2005: 2001 defined issue as debatable topic which requires different opinion, one's position towards the topic and needs to be discussed. Data 1c showed that the introduction was developed by presenting the negative and positive effects of the social media. Such negative and positive effects were debatable; different people might have different opinions and different positions toward the effects. Based on this description, the Javanese and Bataknese students developed the issue in the introductory paragraph of arguments by presenting the definition of social media, wrote their personal opinion and put forward the issue to be discussed. The way they developed the issue of the introductory paragraph was visually presented figure 1.

Figure 1. Development of Issue in the Introductory Paragraph of Argument by Javanese and Bataknese Students
The issue development as shown in Figure 1 is different from the development of issue done by the European writer as shown in Figure 2.  (Ramage, 2016) The difference between the two figures indicated that Javanese and Bataknese students developed introductory paragraph in different way from the way the European people did (see Ramage, 2016).
The last character of the introductory paragraph of argument developed by the Javanese and Bataknese students was the way how they wrote implicit thesis statement, as shown in data 1d.

Data 1d
They depend on social media to get more followers and to become outstanding. This habit that is using social media obviously lead the teens to some bad effects.
In data 1d, the students stated that social media may cause bad effects on teenagers, without stating that the social media should be banned. However, this statement indicated their argumentative position that social media could cause bad effects on teenagers. Data 1d was in line with the assertion that Asian people had reserved communication style which leads Asians express themselves in an indirect way in verbal or non-verbal expression communication especially for the purpose avoiding confrontation which potentially brings damage to harmony (Chen & Starosta, 2003).
Comparison of the introductory paragraph development made by Javanese and Bataknese, which classified as Asian, to those developed by European as asserted in Ramage (2016) is presented in table 1.  Table 1 showed that Javanese and Bataknese, classified as Asian, developed introductory paragraph of arguments in different ways from European. This may be caused by the difference in their culture as asserted by Chen & Starosta (2003).

2) The Development of Writer's Position Paragraph
In order to get the readers agree with their thesis statement, the two ethnics students developed the writer's position by providing common based reason, as seen in data 2. Secondly, the social media can make someone become lazy. They will not be able to manage their time because they have been enjoy to play their social media. Their time will pass useless.
In data 2, the two ethnics provided reasons which are very general, like making the social media users lazy and unable to manage their time; unlike European writer who used reasons anchored within the audience belief and value to persuade the readers to agree with the writer as asserted by Ramage, (2016). In addition, in data 2, the two ethnic students used third personal pronoun, like someone, they, etc.; instead of using second personal pronoun, like you, as European people usually do, as exemplified in Ramage (2016). Kumaravadivelu (2007) stated that Indonesia students used indirectness to show politeness and this was assumed to be reason why the two ethnics students used third personal pronoun in their argument rather than the second personal pronoun. The difference between the two types of writers in were presented in table 3.

3) The Development of Concluding Paragraph
The concluding paragraph was developed by the Javanese and Bataknese students by repeating the thesis statement conveyed in the introduction as shown in data 3 and providing suggestion as shown in data 4. The concluding paragraph was begun by providing repetition of thesis statement as seen in data 3.

Data 3
In conclusion, social media should be banned for students at Junior High School because it gives more negative effects for them.
In data 3, the two ethnic students did not mention their points of argument. This way was different from the way European people do. In developing their concluding paragraph, according to Ramageet.al (2016), European summarize their points of argument. The difference might due to the fact the two ethnics might think that restating their thesis statement was enough to give a sense of closure and emphasis of ideas to the readers. Following the restatement of the thesis statement, suggestion was written as in 4.

Data 4
I suggest for teenagers nowadays, you must be used your social media sufficiently.
The suggestion in data 4, seemed to make the conclusion stronger. With such suggestion, the writer emphasized the writer's conclusion that the social media had negative effects to its users. This way of developing concluding paragraph was different from that of applied by European (Ramageet.al, 2016). The difference is shown in Table 4 Table 4

. The Comparison of Concluding Paragraph Developed by Javanese and Bataknese with Those Developed by
European as Stated in Ramage (2016).

Conclusion Based on Theory (X) Conclusion Written by Subjects (Y) Percentage of match of X and Y Sum up writer's argument without repeating previous sentences
Repeating previous sentences without summing up arguments 0 % Provide suggestion that calls for actions (Ramageet.al, 2016) Suggestion related to the topic 0 % This is in line with Kumaravadivelu (2007, p. 3) who stated that Asians used a lot of repetitions in writing and tend to avoid stating their opinion directly. Writing suggestions allowed them to avoid direct statement of opinion.

B. Reasoning
The subjects persuaded their readers by utilizing their reasoning in writing argumentative text. It was in line with one of the ways of persuading readers stated by Connor (1991). However, the Asian's reasoning as the way of persuading readers were different from the one stated by Connor (1991). The subjects' reasoning was laid on using simple sequence of cause and effects; and using pseudo-evidence which is shown below in detail.

1) By Using Non -Factual-Evidence
The non-factual evidence is evidence which does not have any data and tends to be more like opinion. With reference to this definition, it was found that the subjects use non-factual evidence in writing their argumentative text as seen in data 5.

Data 5
Firstly, social media make people do the crime easily. For example: "Audrey case" We can see that the case happened because of bullying in social media. Audrey was almost die because of bullying and mistreating by some people. It is surely make Audrey get mental pressure. To avoid the crime in social media, it is better to avoid the social media.
In data 5, the reasoning was accompanied by non-factual evidence. Evidence refers to the all the verifiable data and information that a writer might use to support the argument (Ramageet.al, 2016, p. 88). Verifiable in this definition means that the data and information should be objective in which the source and the content of the information itself refer to factual evidence.
By referring to the definition of evidence, the examples provided in data 5 were not evidences because the writer did not show any source and details of the information; therefore examples were not factual evidence. However, the provision of these examples was intended to support the writer's argument that social media triggered people to do criminality. This way of providing reasons was different from the theory proposed by Ramageet.al (2016, p. 88) as seen in the table 5. The difference shown in table 5 was related to the difference between European and Asian culture. Americans prefer a practical and scientific orientation, absolutism, and factual concrete evidences, while Japanese prefer a more humanistic, aesthetic orientation and with more subjective evidences (Wisal, 2012).

2) By Organizing Cause and Effect
The cause and effect reasoning provided by the Javanese and Bataknese were organized in two ways, namely in succession and in sequence. The organization of cause and effect in succession was seen in data 5a.

Data 5a
Firstly, the social media can make someone do the crime easily. For instance, someone can bully someone else by their social media, like Facebook, Instagram, etc. Someone also can spread the hoax to others in order to make someone else can not live comfortable. Then, someone can do the plagiarism.
Secondly, the social media can make someone become lazy. They will not be able to manage their time because they have been enjoy to play their social media. Their time will pass useless.
In data 5a, the effect immediately follows the cause. It was mentioned in data 5a that social media made someone to do criminality easily. It meant that social media was the cause, and doing criminality was the effect. The succession of the cause and effect was mentioned that social media could make someone lazy. Social media was the cause, and lazy was the effect. The two ethnics students also organized the cause and effect sequentially as seen in data 5b.

Data 5b
First, most teens stay connected to the internet, accessing social media the whole time. They always check their social media account on the smartphone from the time they wake up in the morning till they back to sleep at night. They usually stayed up at the whole night. This habit could ruin their sleep pattern and it would lead to a higher risk of exhaustion and depression. It can affect their performance at school.
Data 5b is categorized as sequential explanation of cause and effect, which matched the definition put forwarded by Martin and Rose (2008:150). In data 5b, it is the social media that causes one bad effect that is disturbing one's sleep pattern and the sleep pattern as the impact of using social media becomes the cause of exhaustion. Then, the exhaustion affects the students' performance at school. The flow from sleep pattern, exhaustion, and also students' performance at school shows how one problem, in this case: social media, arise and resulted in one bad effect which causes one to another. The argument developed by the Javanese and Bataknese and its structure as well as its reasoning was presented in figure 3. Second, social media could decrease the real life social interaction because they are being more comfortable with their online friends. A study that was conducted by the National Citizen Service also found that most girls seek comfort on social media rather than talking their problem to their parents.

Social media is an online media in
In conclusion, social media basically created to connect people around the world easily. However, the excessive use of social media could lead to some bad effects, especially for teenagers. As it has been mentioned above that social media could lead to some bad effects, which are exhaustion and depression. As a teenager, the exhaustion from school has been tough because of extracurricular and classroom assignment Then, the teenager decrease their social life in real life. They do not know how to socialize with other. They think their online friend more comfortable. I suggest teens nowadays should decrease their dependable from social media. They should play and communicate with people out of the social media.

Variations Reflecting Ethnics Cultural Values
The data analysis showed that variations in patterns of argumentative writing were found in the ethnics writers' argumentative writing in two aspects namely: (a) in developing thesis statement; and (b) in drawing conclusion.

a) Stating thesis statement
Javanese ethnics formulate his thesis statement very implicitly as shown in data 9.

Personal opinion
Thesis statement suggestion

Common-based reasons
Non Factualevidence

Data 6
In data 6, the Javanese student implicitly said that social media should not be banned. This is indicated by the sentence we cannot ignore the social media in L.4 due to the fact that: (1) social media has a lot of types and (2) the children were born in the social media era. He did not say explicit word to show his position. He might hope the readers to be able to infer the implicit meaning as expected by Javanese community principle namely Tanggap Ing Sasmita. This behavior may be affected by the value of harmony to the readers as required by the value of rukun.
The Bataknese writers used explicit words in formulating his thesis statement as shown in data 7.

Data 7
In data 7, the Bataknese writers explicitly stated that social media should be banned. This is indicated by the explicit statement Therefore, I agree that social media should be banned. Even though the relationship between the introduction and the statements of banning the social media is not rationally explained. The explicitness might due to the fact that the Bataknese writers are direct and open as required by the motto Tedak songon indahan di balanga (Something which is transparent, objective, and open; just exactly like rice in the pan).

b) In Drawing Conclusion
The Javanese writers draw conclusions by repeating the negative or the positive effects of social media depending on his position or thesis statement towards the social media as seen in data 8.

Data 8
In data 8, the negative effect of the social media were not repeated since his statement was social media should not be banned that was implicitly stated in introduction. This might be intended to keep harmony between the writers and the readers as required by the ethnic value namely rukun. If the Javanese writer drew explicit conclusion then his social status might be considered higher than the readers which are not in line with their ethnic group's values because such conclusion may result in disharmony or not rukun between the writers and the readers (Pudentia, 2015).
The Batak writers draw the conclusions by repeating the thesis statement which was formulated explicitly in conclusion as seen in data 9.

Data 9
In data 9, the Bataknese writer drew explicit conclusion by stating explicitly that social media should be banned. This might be the reflection of Tedak songon indahan di balanga (Something which is transparent, objective, and open; just exactly like rice in the pan) which require the Batak ethnics to be open and explicit.

Discussion and Recommendation
Reasoning developed by Javanese and Bataknese students varied in two parts of the argument: in writing thesis statement and drawing conclusion. This indicated that ethnic cultural value is related only to the two aspects, while to the other aspects of reasoning in argumentative writing the two ethnics shared common patterns.
The common patterns shared by the two ethnics were in applying the text structure of the argument which include the development of introductory paragraph, writer's position paragraph, and conclusion. The shared patterns reflect the national cultural entities which make them different from the patterns of Western's argumentative writing. In introductory paragraph, the two ethnic students used definition, personal opinion, and introduced the issue to catch readers' attention. In reasoning, the paragraphs developed by the two ethnic students are characterized by indirectness, subjective ground, and absence of warrant.
Variations in patterns of argumentative writing as resulted from different ethnic groups' cultural values are limited to the development of thesis statement and drawing conclusions. Bataknese writers who value more on explicitness, and directness develop thesis statement strongly and draw conclusion firmly. Meanwhile, Javanese writers who value harmony (rukun) and tanggap ing sasmita develop thesis statement weakly and draw conclusions indecisively. Connor (2008) found that there is shared argument patterns among individuals coming from the same culture meaning that culture of individuals affect the patterns of their arguments. These findings support the current study both of them agree that shared culture cause individuals to have the same patterns of arguments. In the current study, it is stated that national cultural entities causes various ethnics in Indonesia to have general patterns (shared patterns) of argumentative writing among various ethnics in Indonesia. Connor (1996) states that culture is realized in one's L1. Xinghua and Clare (2015), found out that Chinese participants applied hortatory strategy in their writing because of their L1 (Chinese) influence, while English speaking participants applied analytical strategy because of their L1 (English) influence. The two evidences showed that the L1, in which one's culture was preserved, affected their strategy of arguing in argumentative writing. This is also in support of the current study saying that ways of convincing the readers in terms of text structure, reasoning, and affective appeal is affected by the culture. Comfort (2001) found that there were variations within shared pattern of argumentative writing due to culture variations within the national entities. The current study showed that there were variations in thesis statement development and drawing conclusion between Bataknese and Javanese writers in their argumentative writing confirmed the finding of Comfort's. In the context of Indonesian culture, the shared-pattern of argumentative writing among various ethnic groups are mostly influenced by national cultural entities while variations cause by cultural variations within the national cultural entity occurs in small aspects of argumentative pattern. However, further research on the effect of language mastery to reasoning in the argumentative writing is recommended since this study did not pay sufficient attention to this phenomena. Addition of ethnic number involved in a further study is also recommended for a more firmed conclusion on the argumentative pattern variations within national cultural entity.

Conclusion
National cultural entities mostly affect different ethnics which constitute the nation on their developing the reasons in their argumentative writing. The effects cause various ethnics of the nation to share common patterns in applying the text structure of the argument which include the development of introductory paragraph, writer's position paragraph, and conclusion. The national cultural entities also cause the various ethnics to share common patterns in reasoning. Their reasons are commonly developed with indirectness, subjective ground, and absence of warrant. Specific cultural value that distincts an ethnic from the other in the nation cause them to have variations in patterns of argumentative writing. The effect of the ethnic groups' cultural values is limited to the development of thesis statement and drawing conclusions. Bataknese writers who value more on explicitness, and directness develop thesis statement strongly and draw conclusion firmly. Meanwhile, Javanese writers who value harmony (rukun) and tanggap ing sasmita develop thesis statement weakly and draw conclusions indecisively.