Eileen Schell
691. Comparative Processes and Premises of Research
Project Proposal (Research Area in the Field Assignment)
As part of some of my ongoing projects, I have been researching and exploring the global/transnational, cross-cultural and cross-linguistic cross-currents increasingly informing the hitherto US-centric discipline of rhetoric and composition in general and the rhetoric of World Englishes and its implication to composing practices in the US and beyond in particular. Scanning the textbooks, book chapters, journal articles and other writings pertaining to the topics of my inquiry, my general observation so far is that a number of patterns and trends in composition have emerged over the years and a lot of shifts, moves and developments have taken place.
Some such patterns, trends, shifts, moves and developments in global, transnational
and cross-cultural as well as linguistic aspects/ dimensions of/in composition studies/classroom over the years are:
1. From ESL towards World Englishes
2. From English Only towards Multilingual Composition (Classroom)
3. From nationalistic framework towards global/transnational framework in Composition curricula and classroom
4. From writing as expression tool towards writing as resistance tool (in oppressive composition classroom esp. for students from minority groups as well as against forces of oppressive globalization)
6. From Cross-cultural towards intercultural pedagogy
7. From Print literacy towards Multiliteracies in composition (classroom)
Similarly, my inference after reading the theorists, scholars and/or inquirers/researchers who thus trace and indicate the changing landscape of composition patterns, classrooms or practices over time is that they are advocating for an inclusive pedagogy, the pluralization of academic writing and treatment of transnational or cross-cultural difference as resource in composition (classroom) to incorporate, address or at least acknowledge the transitions taking place in the discipline or classroom which is to say that they are vehemently critiquing the existing composition curricula, patterns or classroom/s.
With this being my larger project in progress, I am at the moment working on a paper for a panel in CCCC next year named “Remixing National/International Academic Boundaries: International Students in Rhetoric and Writing Studies”. My accepted proposal for the panel reads as:
I will discuss the ways in which World Englishes can broaden the curriculum of graduate programs by creating space for different varieties of English that students from across cultures and nations bring to the increasingly globalized classroom. Only a curriculum informed by transnational and cross-cultural perspectives on language may begin to help the field recognize/legitimize different discourse conventions and expression patterns, as well as composition styles that international students draw from in their composition practices. Such an approach is important to develop a transnational perspective “capable of understanding the study and teaching of written English in relation to other languages and to the dynamics of globalization” (Bruce and Horner 623). Finally, I contend that since existing graduate programs do not place adequate emphases on global and cross-linguistic issues of composition, it is imperative that their curricular and programmatic priorities be required to make them relevant to the times and also bring about changes in undergraduate composition pedagogy since graduate programs are the ones that ultimately shape undergraduate composition pedagogy.
Along side these projects, I now plan to read some major texts and journal articles dealing with the changing landscape of composition (classroom) from method/methodological point of view for RAF assignment. For keeping the project manageable, I will focus particularly on the composing strategies or research methods/methodologies/approaches of the scholars/researchers/inquirers/theorists declaring or calling for the hitherto nationalistic framework of composition classroom and curricula going/to go increasingly transnational or global in terms of pedagogy, curricula and media of instruction. As the bibliography below shows, I have chosen few major textbooks and articles from variety of journals including College English and College Composition and Communication. Since my choice is guided by whether articles touch upon the global/transnational dimension/s of rhetoric, composition and language, I want to particularly focus on the issue of College English on transnational feminist rhetoric/s edited by Eileen Schell and Wendy Hesford.
To be precise, I attempt to trace how scholars/researchers/inquirers of my choosing approach their topics and what their takes are on methodological disparities across spaces and cultures. Special focus will be on how and why their methods (qualitative, quantitative) vary depending on who their intended audience is and disciplines they come from. Similarly, I am also nterested in seeing whether these people uphold the so-called East-West stylistic and methodological binaries of indirect/direct, subjective/objective, qualitative/quantitative etc. or take some other positions and directions.
Working Bibliography
Text books
1. Canagarajah, Suresh A. Critical Academic Writing and Multilingual Students. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2005.
2. ---.Geopolitics of Academic Writing. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002.
4. Pennycook, Alastair. Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows. London and
New York: Rutledge, 2007.
5. Kachru, Yamuna. Cultures, Contexts and World Englishes.
Articles and Book Chapters
Bhatt, Rakesh M. “World Englishes.” Annual Review of Anthropology. 30 (2001).
18 Oct. 08
Cliett, Victoria. “The Expanding Frontiers of World Englishes: A New Perspectives for Teachers of English”. Eds. Geneva Smitherman and Victor Villanueva. Language Diversity in the classroom: From Intention to Practice. Carbondale: SIU Press, 2003. 67-75.
Horner, Bruce and John Trimbur. “English Only and U.S. College Composition”.
College Composition and Communication. 53. 4 (Jun., 2002). 18 Oct. 08
Kachru, Yamuna. “Culture, Style, and Discourse: Expanding Noetics of English.” The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures. Ed. Braj B. Kachru.2nd ed. Urbana and Chicago:
U of Illinois Press, 1992. 340-354.
Severino, Carol. “English Contact Languages and Rhetorics: Implications for U.S.
English Composition.” College Composition and Communication. 59.1(2007): 128-138.
Canagarajah, Suresh A. “The Place of World Englishes in Composition:
Pluralization Continued.” College Composition and Communication. 57.4
(2006): 586-619.
Canagarajah, Suresh A. “Toward a Writing Pedagogy of Shuttling between Languages:
Learning from Multilingual Writers.” College English. 68.6 (2006): 589-604.
Mastuda, Paul K. “The Myth of Linguistic Homogeneity in U.S. College Composition.”
College English. 68 (2006): 637-651.
Himley, Margaret. “Writing Programs and Pedagogies in a Globalized Landscape.”
WPA: Writing Program Administration 26 (2003): 49-66.
Schau, Mark. “Beyond These Shores: An Argument for Internationalizing
Composition.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature,
Language, Composition, and Culture 3 ( 2003): 85-98.
L’Eplattenier, Barbara E. “Opinion: An Argument for Archival Research Methods”
College English, Volume 72, Number 1, September 2009.
Schell, Eileen and Wendy S Hesford. “INTRODUCTION: Configurations of Transnationality:
Locating Feminist Rhetorics”.College English; May 2008.
Dingo, Rebecca. “Linking Transnational Logics: A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis of Public
Policy”. College English; May 2008.
Kulbaga, Theresa A. “Pleasurable Pedagogies: Reading Lolita in Tehran and the Rhetoric of
Empathy”. College English; May 2008.
Eck, Eck. “Thinking Globally, Teaching Locally: The "Nervous Conditions" of Cross-Culture”.
College English; Jul 2008.
Queen, Mary. “Transnational Feminist Rhetorics in a Digital World”. College English; May
2008.
Schaub, Mark. “Beyond These Shores: An Argument for Internationalizing
Composition”. Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language,
Composition, and Culture. Volume 3, Number 1, © 2003 Duke University Press
Lu, Min-Zhan and Bruce Horner. "Composing in a Global-Local Context:
Careers, Mobility, Skills". College English, Volume 72, Number 2, November 2009
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