Writing and rhetoric along the U.S.-Mexico border
This article explores the rhetorical patterns of writers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The article first explores the complex history of the border region, and grounded in this cross-border history, the article rejects border theories that privilege the local and U.S. view. Instead, based on the Human Capability Approach, this article explores five "functionings" or typified rhetorical patterns or genres on the border and examines how writers along the border are capable of working in a variety of these functionings. It grounds this analysis in health communications but ends by discussing how different Spanish-English multilinguals manifest different variations of these five functionings based on their individual rhetorical and cultural histories.
Teaching L2 Composition: Purpose, Process, and Practice
Brief Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1. Concepts in Writing and Learning to Write in a Second Language 2. Understanding Student Populations and Instructional Contexts 3. Composition Pedagogies: Theory, Principle, and Practice 4. Reading, Genre Awareness, and Task Design in the L2 Composition Course 5. Course Design and Instructional Planning for the L2 Writing Course 6. Classroom Assessment of L2 Writing 7. Response to Student Writing: Issues and Options for Giving and Facilitating Feedback 8. Improving Accuracy in Student Writing: Error Treatment in the Composition Class 9. Developing Language Skills in the Writing Class: Why, What, How, and Who References Index
Contrastive Rhetoric in Context: A Dynamic Model of L2 Writing
Abstract The notion of contrastive rhetoric was first proposed as a pedagogical solution to the problem of L2 organization, and the subsequent development in research has generated, among other valuable insights, three explanations for the organizational structures of L2 texts, including linguistic, cultural, and educational explanations. However, the contribution of contrastive rhetoric to the teaching of ESL writing has been limited because of the underlying assumptions that has guided the early pedagogical approaches. This study identifies a static theory of L2 writing that has been widely used in teaching organizational structures and considers how the pedagogical application of insights from contrastive rhetoric studies have been limited by this theory. To overcome the limitations of the static theory, an alternative model of L2 writing is proposed, and its implications for further research and the teaching of L2 writing are discussed.