Week 6 Blog

Late in Casanave’s chapter, she asks us as teachers of L2 writers, “Does a one-size-fits all approach make sense…?” (53). This question doesn’t just relate to issues surrounding Intercultural Rhetoric, though. In recent years, this has become a central question within pedagogical studies more generally. We know that the most effective ways to assist students is to vary our instruction, individualizing it as much as possible. Contrastive Rhetoric seemed founded on the idea that all L2 students were alike in that they were all learning English. Intercultural Rhetoric challenges instructors to analyze the past education of these students along with them and to discern how it formed their writing style.

The difficulty in answering Casanave’s question is the same difficulty instructors face when considering it in terms of individualized instruction for L1 students. How do we, within the confines of the classroom, carve out time and space to delve this deeply with our students? Kaplan, in a late 80s essay in which he defends his earlier work, states that Contrastive Rhetoric intended to “solve—within the normative academic space of one or two semesters—the writing problems of speakers of other languages trying to learn to function in written English” (31). What a goal! The idea of being able to solve any major academic or intellectual “problem” within sixteen weeks strikes me as pretty lofty. This made me think that perhaps the greatest benefit of much of this research regarding Contrastive/Intercultural Rhetoric would be to make the case that our current teaching models and structures need to evolve. The Writing Center seems much better equipped to handle some of these issues, because it enables writers and tutors to work closely for long periods of time. Students can even work with tutors beyond the confines of the semester model, allowing them to better explore issues such as the student’s L1 writing education over the course of multiple semesters and even years. Is there a case to be made that university education, for both L1 and L2 writers, could benefit from more sustained instructor/writer relationships?