Blog Week 6
Contrastive rhetoric:
It seems to me that the main advantage of contrastive/intercultural rhetoric is that it forces us to reconsider the ideas about writing, reading rhetoric that we take for granted because they've been ingrained in us. But I do think there are other ways of honing that awareness without getting into the extremely troubling territory of overgeneralizing different cultures/languages (especially ones we don't have a particular expertise in); attributing all of a student's rhetorical difficulties to culture, rather than considering more individual factors like educational background, socioeconomic factors, and the student's personal style of writing, thinking, and expressing ideas; and treating an American/Euro style of writing, reading, and thinking as inherently preferable/better — what to strive for, at the expense of the approaches that feel most natural to them.
That last one is something I'm especially interested in addressing — both in my own brain as I prepare to grade my GEL students' first papers, which will include some from international students — but also in those students' brains. How to encourage those students, who are understandably hesitant about speaking up in class, to see their multi-cultural experiences not as a hindrance to their ability to interpret a text, but as a "superpower"? How to encourage students to harness that strength? To me, this isn't just a matter of boosting those students' confidence in their abilities, but it's also about enabling conversations that thrive on diverse viewpoints. This benefits everyone in the room — from the student who's literally an ear of Iowa-grown corn, to the student with the kind of strong formal background that is so often and easily rewarded in higher ed, to li'l old me.
It seems to me that the main advantage of contrastive/intercultural rhetoric is that it forces us to reconsider the ideas about writing, reading rhetoric that we take for granted because they've been ingrained in us. But I do think there are other ways of honing that awareness without getting into the extremely troubling territory of overgeneralizing different cultures/languages (especially ones we don't have a particular expertise in); attributing all of a student's rhetorical difficulties to culture, rather than considering more individual factors like educational background, socioeconomic factors, and the student's personal style of writing, thinking, and expressing ideas; and treating an American/Euro style of writing, reading, and thinking as inherently preferable/better — what to strive for, at the expense of the approaches that feel most natural to them.
That last one is something I'm especially interested in addressing — both in my own brain as I prepare to grade my GEL students' first papers, which will include some from international students — but also in those students' brains. How to encourage those students, who are understandably hesitant about speaking up in class, to see their multi-cultural experiences not as a hindrance to their ability to interpret a text, but as a "superpower"? How to encourage students to harness that strength? To me, this isn't just a matter of boosting those students' confidence in their abilities, but it's also about enabling conversations that thrive on diverse viewpoints. This benefits everyone in the room — from the student who's literally an ear of Iowa-grown corn, to the student with the kind of strong formal background that is so often and easily rewarded in higher ed, to li'l old me.
I really love your description of L2 students’ experiences and intellectual/academic/cultural backgrounds as “superpowers.” I too want to successfully communicate this to my students! I’ve never managed to think of a good way to systematically incorporate this into the classroom. Your post, however, is giving me some ideas. I know that many of my L2 students, now and in the past, read L1 translations of our English texts to help comprehension. Maybe it would be a good idea to encourage them to share any interesting details they notice about how the translation differs from the English text, potentially creating a space for all of us to consider some of the cultural differences. I need to think more about this and other possible approaches!
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