Language and Identity across Modes of Communication

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EDITOR: Dwi Noverini Djenar
EDITOR: Ahmar  Mahboob
EDITOR: Ken  Cruickshank
TITLE: Language and Identity across Modes of Communication
SERIES TITLE: Language and Social Processes [LSP] 6
PUBLISHER: De Gruyter Mouton
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Andrea Eniko Lypka, University of South Florida

Reviews Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

Linguistic approaches to interconnection among language, identity, and
societal power structures have received significant scholarly attention;
however, few studies explore these interconnections across various modes of
communication. Contemporary interdisciplinary scholarship stretches the
conventional linguistic orientation to identity by conceptualizing it as a
perpetual social sense-making process and a struggle to articulate membership
in a community of practice. Communication in traditional and informal spaces,
including public speech, learning in mainstream schools or heritage language
schools, is impacted by individuals’ (un)conscious ability to negotiate who
they are, how they discursively validate certain positions and avow or resist
socially ascribed identity positions (Davies & Harré, 1999), such as
non-native speaker status, race, minority or ‘other’ status within social
norms, ideologies of majority language and culture, and institutional
discourses that tend to marginalize certain groups or individuals. Depending
on their agency, individuals can choose to contest belonging to a community of
practice by not-participating in the discourse community when marginalized by
normative discourses or by choosing alternative modes of self-presentation in
web-mediated, visual or artistic spaces.

Drawing from the social semiotic view of identity, the fifteen chapters in the
volume edited by Dwi Noverimi Djenar, Ahmar Mahboob, and Ken Cruickshank
expand the earlier language-based definition of identity to multimodal,
semiotic contexts, advocating for a layered approach to examine the dynamics
of identity constitution on a continuum, as opposed to viewing identity as
fixed and pre-established variable. The contributors in this edited
collection, faculty and scholars in the field of language and identity,
recognize identity as a perpetual, strategic, relational, and
multi-directional meaning-making process and action shaped by social norms and
conventions, meta narratives, multimodality, style, and genre. They recognize
that identity is negotiated across various modes of communication, via
different modalities, and semiotic resources, in and through language.
Specifically, identity-in-action emerges in various modes of communication,
such as verbal (Meyerhoff, Cruickshank, Tsung, and Rubino), written (Mahboob
and Wang), visual (Paltridge), or combination of modes, such as images,
speech, gaming, and facial expressions (Bucholtz) or writing, layout, and
speech (Lipovsky). The chapters highlight the fact that identity is both
conditioned and enabled by a web of factors linked to interactional contexts,
existing power relations, and social norms. Because of this interdependence,
identity performance requires strategic orientation toward a set of semiotic
resources.

In line with this multimodal approach to identity, authors problematize
simplistic definitions of identity and uncover the complex process of
constituting a language learner self while maintaining multiple identities as
a student, researcher, adviser, mother, worker, or housewife, for example.
Particular attention is paid to identity-in-action or identity-in-interaction;
how the actions enacted by an individual to belong to a community of practice
intersect with multiple other identities, languages, cultures, and
geographical spaces. The chapters examine how identity is strategically
negotiated in a particular time frame and in various interactional contexts,
i.e., web-mediated communication, media environment, and face-to-face
communication; in informal and formal modes of communication, and hybrid
modalities, such as blogs (Liu), popular fiction (Noverini Djenar), women’s
magazines (Jarkey), general interest magazines (Wang), editorial
communications (Starfield), curriculum vitaes (Lipovsky), and Business English
writing (Zhang), among other modalities. Identity is studied in relation to
majority languages, such as Standard English, host-country language, such as
English or Chinese, and heritage languages, such as Rarotongan (in the chapter
by Cruickshank) and Bequia English (Meyerhoff) across the globe, such as
Australia (Paltridge, Rubino, and Cruickshank), Caribbean (Meyerhoff),
Pakistan (Mahboob), Japan (Jarkey), China (Tsung, Wang, Zhang, and Liu),
Indonesia (Noverini Djenar), France (Lipovski), and the US (Bucholtz,
Starfield, and Nelson). These studies associate identity with topics,
including communities of practice, style, minority languages, code switching,
language variation, social class, ethnicity, race, and mainstream educational
norms.

In the introduction chapter, “Identity and mode as a frame for understanding
social meanings”, the editors provide an overview of identity research, modes
of communication, and the theoretical framework of social semiotic approach
(Kress, 2001) that guides this volume. This section includes thematic and
methodological evaluations of the chapters included in this volume and
furthers the call for interdisciplinary approaches to identity inquiry.

The first two chapters are of particular interest for emerging scholars; these
chapters synthesize identity research and discuss terminology connected to
other chapters, including migrant identity, online identity, language
learning, and blogging. In Chapter One, Brian Paltridge discusses visual
representations of Princess Mary of Denmark and Kylie Kwong, Asian-Australian
celebrity chef. His analysis of news images and of existing research  on
identity negotiations illustrates the socially ascribed dimension of identity
embodied both in linguistic repertoires, such as labels, choice of language,
proficiency, and accent and non-linguistic terms, such as clothing and makeup,
to demonstrate or refute an individual’s belonging to a certain community.
Drawing on the “imagined communities” and “imagined identities” concepts
(Norton & Toohey, 2011) in second language acquisition classrooms, Paltridge
concludes that the power of imagination and multimodality to claim membership
in a community of practice can provide a more nuanced approach to identity
inquiry.

From a multimodal perspective, in Chapter Two, Mary Bucholtz conceives style
as a multidimensional negotiation process and action to negotiate identity.
Using sample transcripts and analyses from previous research, the author
demonstrates how a group of high school students construct their identities
within historical, social, or political contexts, by choosing among a wide
range of stylistic markers, such as voice quality, standard, super-standard or
nonstandard language, clothing options, and participating in certain
activities. The complex interactions among these elements create distinctive
identities among groups. The adaptations of certain stylistic elements, such
as designer fashion, strategically index belonging to a particular community
of practice, as well as stance and expertise in the context of interaction.

Inspired by Bucholtz’ definition of style, in Chapter Three, Miriam Meyerhoff
explores frequencies of the variable “be” in past tense marking and
existential constructions in urban sojourners’ Bequia English, using
quantitative research methods. Analysis of interviews with sixty speakers born
in Bequia and field notes reveals that linguistic patterns regarding the
absence or presence of the ‘be’ and past tense marking differ across groups of
speakers from various villages in a Caribbean island.

In the next chapter, Ken Cruickshank examines learner identity negotiation in
non-traditional learning contexts in Australia. Analysis of interviews with
principals and teachers, focus group interviews with 38 students, and field
notes reveal that learners at Chinese, Arabic, and Cook Island Maori heritage
languages schools adopted various strategies to legitimize their membership in
a community of practice or distance themselves from metadiscourses. For
example, to contest racism against Asians in mainstream schools, Asian
participants adopted the label “Chinese” as their ethnic and language identity
marker. The more inclusive Arabic marker was used to unify students from
different ethnic backgrounds in the Arabic language school. Arabic learners
are reported to have used the same marker to contest repressions against
minorities in mainstream schools. Students at Cook Island Maori school are
reported to have developed stronger linguistic and cultural identities in the
community languages schools by participating in cultural performances, such as
dancing and drumming and collaborating with teachers who were less fluent in
the community language, Rarotongan.

In Chapter Five, Linda Tsung uncovers Chinese language learning opportunities
of South Asian migrants, in Hong Kong, using an ethnographic approach.
In-depth interviews with 23 Pakistani, Nepali, Bangladeshi, and Indian
students reveal that even though participants perceived learning Chinese as a
means for achieving upward social mobility, their Chinese learning
opportunities were stifled by teachers and peers who perceived them as less
competent in Chinese, by traditional teaching methods, and by institutional
discourses that devalued participants’ first languages and English language
competency and emphasized participants’ lack of fluency through the
“non-Chinese speaking” label.

In Chapter Six, Antonia Rubino analyzes how members of a working-class
Sicilian-Australian family alternate between the two dominant languages,
English and Sicilian, and the least dominant language, Italian, in
multilingual verbal disputes, drawing on a conversation analytic approach
(Auer, 1984) and Gumperz’s notion of code-switching (1982). The turn-by-turn
analysis of mother-child disputes reveals the complexity of identity and
agency-in-interaction embodied in various linguistic strategies. Family
members drew on a variety of linguistic and cultural resources to perform
their identities during disputes, including transforming the severity of the
discussion into a joke, code-switching to invoke negative evaluations or
contest identity positions, and modifying certain words, such as the Sicilian
‘fummaggiu’ to sound like the Italian ‘formaggio.’

Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics, Ahmar Mahboob in Chapter Seven
unpacks how English language textbooks in Pakistani schools reinforce
ideologies and limit access to global knowledge by including local variants of
English and excluding global English from the educational curriculum. The
analysis of the content and language in textbooks for grades 9 and 10 reveals
that by providing more local content about local culture and national
religious or military heroes and by privileging the genre of biographies,
textbook discourse normalized a national religious and political identity and
limited the development of alternative identities, such as global English user
or academic/professional identity development.

The constitution of housewife identity in the Japanese women’s magazine, The
Housewife’s Companion, is investigated in Chapter Eight by Nerida Jarkey.
Drawing on Bucholtz’ notion of style, Jarkey highlights example excerpts from
articles published in the magazine to discuss textual strategies employed in
the magazine to construct and legitimize the identity of the housewife,
including the use of poetic devices, such as metaphors and simile as well as
the use of honorific language to communicate the role and the persona of the
housewife embodied in the labels of “self-discipline,” “care” and “practical.”

In the next chapter, Wei Wang makes the same point in her analysis of
narrative identities of ordinary people in a collection of 100 most popular
articles in Duzhe, a Chinese general interest magazine with a circulation of 9
million, using positioning theory (Davies & Harré, 1990). Findings reveal that
the magazine employed a variety of storytelling strategies to increase its
audience and construct an ordinary reader identity through educational
stories. Strategies employed in stories included family-themed narratives,
resolution to the conflict, reflective stance from the protagonist’s
standpoint, and dramatic plots predominantly related to Confucian ethics.

From a sociostylistic approach, Dwi Noverini Djenar defines writer identity as
a negotiation among the writer, genre, and audience. She adopts stylistic
analysis to study authorial stance in teen popular fiction in Indonesia by
examining the use of different negative forms. Using interview data and a
corpus of 6,000 words from two novels by Ken Terate, Noverini Djenar suggests
that Terate’s choice of using different negatives is representative of her
attempt to ease  reading for audience and contest standard forms in teenlit.

In Chapter Eleven, Sue Starfield emphasizes the process of her writer and
researcher identity negotiations in academic writing contexts. The analysis of
samples of unpublished and amended texts by editors, as well as responses from
editors on her encyclopaedia entry on researcher reflexivity in applied
linguistics research, reveal that the two texts establish different
relationships with the audience. Starfield suggests that her “non-negotiation”
of use of the first person singular pronoun, “I”, in academic contexts
diminishes her authorial identity: she perceives that the shift of her stance
from a personal style toward a more impersonal style signifies an acceptance
of academic writing norms. The reflexive stance on this non-negotiation
process as well as reflections of her student advising and pedagogy transform
this chapter into an ongoing reflection and contestation of academic writing
norms and positivist research paradigms, revealing that such negotiations
influence identity negotiations beyond the context of a research article.

Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory, in Chapter Twelve, Caroline
Lipovsky provides a case for professional identity construction in applicant
curriculum vitaes (CVs) for a management position at a food company in France,
arguing  that the purpose of curriculum vitaes (CVs) is to strategically
establish a relationship between the writer/applicant, recruiter, and
discourses on profession. The comparison of CVs of participants selected for
job interviews and those not selected, reveals that CVs selected for job
interviews strategically utilized nominalizations, bullet points, extended
qualifiers, such as adjectives and prepositions, noun forms, and bolded terms,
as well as synonyms, hyponyms, repetitions, exemplifications, technical terms,
a clear statement of objective,  and headers to clarify specific information,
emphasize experiences and skills related to the advertised position. Such
strategies provide coherence, and legitimize applicants’ professional
identities, as opposed to using full clauses and general language used in CVs
not selected for job interviews. The author concludes that such strategic use
of language creates lexical cohesion, increases the readability and clarity of
information, and thus increases the possibility of an applicant to be selected
for a job interview.

A Business English student’s evolving identity as an international business
professional is the topic of Chapter Thirteen by Zuocheng Zhang. The analysis
of the student journals, interviews, classroom observations, samples of the
student’s (Nan’s) writing in business genres, and professionals’ evaluations
of this student’s writing at a university in China suggests that professional
identity is both reflexive and co-constructed between the individual and the
social world.  Through this reflective and enacted socialization process, Nan
internalized specific linguistic and rhetorical resources and used these
structures strategically to constitute his professional identity. During this
process, Nan gained understanding of disciplinary norms and practices, genre
knowledge, and developed beliefs in and awareness of what it means to be an
international business professional.

In the next chapter, Jianxin Liu explores the identity development of a female
migrant domestic worker  in China using a virtual ethnography. Drawing on
Butler’s performativity theory (1990), the author analyzes blogposts and photo
collages on gender performance posted by blogger Liuman Yan and media reports
on her blogging. Findings reveal the complex nature of Yan’s evolving identity
as a female: blogging and using profane language created opportunities for Yan
to disrupt power relations, censorship, and discourses on heteronormativity
and traditional views of women.

Inspired by performativity theory, theatre studies, and arts-based methods, in
the final chapter, Cynthia D. Nelson focuses on researcher identity
performance in applied linguistics research. The author analyzes scripted
multimodal research performances to further calls for more performative
approaches that engage public audience in applied linguistics research through
arts, poetry, theatre, and other participatory methods.

EVALUATION

Taking a social semiotic approach (Kress, 2001), the authors in this edited
volume, offer a comprehensive perspective on the intersections among identity,
language, socialization across modes of communication. From a
multidisciplinary, performance-based stance, these chapters challenge
reductionist definitions of identity, culture, language, and ideology. They
emphasize a nuanced approach to study interrelations between micro- and macro
contexts, such as language preferences, perceived linguistic, cultural, and
professional competence, family, culture, race, ethnicity, religion, learning
spaces, media, and institutional discourses on language and communication,
arguing that these factors shape identity positions and normalize status quo
in everyday interactional contexts.

The aim of this edited book is to offer a multimodal approach to identity
inquiry from an international perspective. Chapters are an essential read for
educators, students, applied linguists, communication scholars, and
researchers interested in identity and language. The first two chapters
introduce readers to existing identity-related research and operationalize
relevant definitions. The remaining chapters address identity in a variety of
areas, including language learning, mundane interactions, and web-mediated
communication contexts. Investigated are the discursively and semiotically
constructed social identity negotiations of various groups or individuals,
ranging from more visible public figures (Paltridge) to marginalised voices of
ethnic minorities or individuals, such as Mexican migrant youth and high
schoolers in California (Bucholtz), South Asian migrants in Hong Kong (Tsung),
working class multilingual families (Rubino), school students (Mahboob),
housewives (Jarkey), middle-class families (Wang), and researchers (Starfield
and Nelson), among others. Findings reveal that identity is (re)enacted,
(re)interpreted, and sometimes (re)inforced, depending of encoder and decoder
across various cultures, modes of communication, and social contexts, such as
mainstream schools, universities, media, community language centers, peer
pressure, and family as well as genres, such as textbooks, women’s magazines
and digests, popular fiction, business writing, academic writing, CV writing,
and blogs, among others.

This collection of research highlights that identity negotiation is a struggle
for both visible and less visible communities. However, identity negotiation
becomes more nuanced for less visible communities, such as newcomers, migrant
workers and second language learners, who might not have the linguistic and
cultural capital to refute master discourses that construct them as “the
other.”  The focus on less visible communities, individual experiences, and
identity negotiations in everyday conversations make this book insightful, as
migrant language learners, community perspectives, and mundane conversational
contexts remain less studied in research. For example, in-depth analyses of
evolving individual identities, such as a female migrant blogger in the
chapter by Liu or the professional socialization of a Business English student
in the chapter by Zhang, are examined in blogs or CV writing, that blur the
distinction between the voices of the creator or writer and audience or user.
For language educators, some chapters provide valuable insights into the way
that social experiences by second language learners mediate their second
language acquisition.

The exploration of language and identity from the perspectives of the majority
and minority community could be more emphasized. To include both perspectives
of majority and minority community, for example, Lipovsky invites recruiters’
comments on CVs and Zhang includes comments by business professionals in his
data collection procedures. Other chapters would have enriched understanding
of identity negotiations by emphasizing this two way interactional process
between the minority group and host society.

To account for a multimodal approach to study identity-in-action, chapters
utilize a wide range of methodologies, including multi-sited video ethnography
(Bucholtz), virtual ethnography (Liu), performed research (Nelson),
conversation analysis (Rubino), narrative analysis (Wang), and a combination
of content analysis and genre analysis (Mahboob), and discourse and narrative
analyses (Zhang), among others. Some chapters provide a more in-depth
examination of methodologies.  For example, Meyerhoff foregrounds her study on
linguistic variables from Bequia English by cautioning against privileging
certain research methods in sociolinguistics. The author provides rich
sociohistorical context of the Caribbean villages and  clear rationale for
using 100 hours of recorded interviews with sixty speakers born in Bequia and
field notes in a Caribbean island to analyze frequencies of the existence of
“be”, past tense marking, and existential constructions. However,
methodological approaches, including analytical frameworks, could be explored
more in-depth in other chapters. For example, it is unclear how analysis
frameworks and codes from identity research are conceptualized in the
analytical framework in the chapter by Paltridge. A more in-depth discussion
on themes that emerged in the literature and data and the resulting concept
maps could also enrich the methodology section of the chapter by Cruickshank.
Reflexive statements about researchers’ cultural and language backgrounds as
well as their insider/outsider positions related to the participants are
noteworthy in the chapters by Cruickshank and Tsung, as researcher reflexivity
about the research process and researcher-participant power hierarchy provides
another relational dimension to identity inquiry.

Other authors point out the importance of reflecting on research paradigms and
advocate for combining quantitative and qualitative methods to effectively
study a phenomenon. Particularly, Meyerhoff calls for a reflexive examination
of research methods and the interconnections among participant, assumptions
behind methods, and semantics: “our research paradigms should be absolutely
clear about what they think we are explaining, because ultimately this clarity
will fine-tune the connections between what are sometimes seen as quite
disparate fields of enquiry: (i) how speakers operationalize identities; (ii)
the assumptions underlying different sociolinguistic research methods; and
(iii) the workings of formal semantics” (p. 64). Novice researchers might find
the author’s use of clear language to provide her rationale for the
statistical analysis (multivariate analysis) employed in the study noteworthy.

Most chapters establish clear connections with concepts mentioned in other
chapters, easing the reading process for the reader. For example, the chapters
by Paltridge, Meyerhoff, and Noverini Djenar are inspired by Bucholtz’ notion
of style. Other chapters explore similar concepts related to identity in
different contexts. For example, race, traditional practices, language
learning, and educational experiences thematically unite the chapters by Tsung
and Cruickshank. A focus on linguistic strategies in magazines connects the
chapters by Jarkey and Wang, and professional identity negotiations within
academic genres connects the chapters by Starfield, Zhang, and Nelson.

Contributors in this book expand the examination of identity in social spaces,
such as traditional learning contexts, that reinforce existing power hierarchy
and against the backdrop of monolingualism, to multiple socialization
contexts, such as non-traditional learning environments and mundane
interactional contexts. By highlighting the importance of various learning
contexts, modes of communication (spoken, written, visual, or a combination of
these), media (photography), and register (language choice dependent on the
situation) for identity negotiations and positions, they advocate for more
nuanced micro and macro level approaches to the study of identity. In these
chapters, identity as an ongoing meaning-making interactional process is
examined across multiple learning contexts, traditional and nontraditional,
“in-between” spaces, such as community language schools (Cruickshank),
villages (Meyerhoff), or mother-children conflict talk (Rubino) that create
possibilities for identity negotiations  within less established power
struggles among ethnicity, culture, family, generation, places of origin, and
religion. For example, by examining identity negotiations in non-traditional
learning environments, such as community languages schools, Cruickshank
suggests that these language schools create possibilities for alternative
identity positions, positions that might allow learners to contest ascribed
labels in mainstream schools. For example, through the more inclusive Cook
Island Maori term, traditional literacy-based language learning shifted to
language learning through cultural activities, an approach that has mitigated
the teacher-student power hierarchy and created opportunities for less fluent
students to adopt this identity maker to preserve their culture and language.
Such findings could enlighten pedagogy in mainstream education and second
language acquisition as well as language policy.

REFERENCES

Auer, P. (1984). Bilingual conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s
Publishing.

Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of gender. New
York, NY: Routledge.

Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of
selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 20(1), 43-63.

Davies, B. & Harré, R. (1999). Positioning and personhood. In R. Harré & L.
van Langenhove (Eds.), Positioning Theory (pp. 32–52). Oxford: Blackwell.

Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.

Kress, G. (2001). Sociolinguistics and social semiotics. In P. Cobley (Ed.),
The Routledge companion to semiotics and linguistics (pp. 66-82). London, UK:
Routledge.

Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (Eds) (2001). Multimodality. London: Sage.

Mantero, M. (Ed.). (2007). Identity and second language learning: Culture,
inquiry, and dialogic activity in educational contexts. Charlotte, NC: IAP
Information Publishing.

Norton, B., & Toohey, K. (2011). Identity, language learning, and social
change. Language Teaching, 44(04), 412-446.

Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation.
Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Norton, B. (2001). Non-participation, imagined communities, and the language
classroom. In M. Breen (Ed.), Learner contributions to language learning: New
directions in research (pp. 159–171). Harlow, UK: Pearson Education.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Andrea Lypka is PhD candidate in the Second Language Acquisition and
Instructional Technology (SLA/IT) program at the University of South Florida
(USF). Her research interests include learner identity, discourse analysis,
and digital storytelling.

The Visual Narrative Reader

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Title: The Visual Narrative Reader
Publication Year: 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Book URL: http://www.bloomsbury.com/the-visual-narrative-reader-9781472585592/

Editor: Neil Cohn

Electronic: ISBN:  9781472577924 Pages: 376 Price: U.K. £ 24.99 Comment: ePUB
Electronic: ISBN:  9781472577917 Pages: 376 Price: U.K. £ 24.99 Comment: ePDF
Hardback: ISBN:  9781472577900 Pages: 376 Price: U.K. £ 75.00
Paperback: ISBN:  9781472585592 Pages: 376 Price: U.K. £ 24.99

Abstract:

Sequential images are as natural at conveying narratives as verbal language,
and have appeared throughout human history, from cave paintings and tapestries
right through to modern comics. Contemporary research on this visual language
of sequential images has been scattered across several fields: linguistics,
psychology, anthropology, art education, comics studies, and others. Only
recently has this disparate research begun to be incorporated into a coherent
understanding.

In The Visual Narrative Reader, Neil Cohn collects chapters that cross these
disciplinary divides from many of the foremost international researchers who
explore fundamental questions about visual narratives.

How does the style of images impact their understanding?
How are metaphors and complex meanings conveyed by images?
How is meaning understood across sequential images?
How do children produce and comprehend sequential images?
Are visual narratives beneficial for education and literacy?
Do visual narrative systems differ across cultures and historical time
periods?

This book provides a foundation of research for readers to engage in these
fundamental questions and explore the most vital thinking about visual
narrative. It collects important papers and introduces review chapters
summarizing the literature on specific approaches to understanding visual
narratives. The result is a comprehensive “reader” that can be used as a
coursebook, a researcher resource and a broad overview of fascinating topics
suitable for anyone interested in the growing field of the visual language of
comics and visual narratives.

Looking Beyond Words: Gestures in the Pedagogy of Second Languages in Multilingual Canada

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Title: Looking Beyond Words
Subtitle: Gestures in the Pedagogy of Second Languages in Multilingual Canada
Publication Year: 2015
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
http://www.cambridgescholars.com/

Book URL: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/looking-beyond-words

Author: Giuliana Salvato

Hardback: ISBN:  9781443880121 Pages: 185 Price: U.K. £ 41.99
Hardback: ISBN:  9781443880121 Pages: 185 Price: U.S. $ 71.95

Abstract:

This book is a result of the growing number of insights found in recent
research on gesture studies and language acquisition, which have renewed the
attention of scholars in gesture functions and meanings in communication and
language learning. Observation of the participation of both gesture and speech
in the formulation of meaning has revealed that communication is typically
multimodal. This perspective has produced engrossing research questions,
particularly in contexts where the combination of languages and cultures is
complex and diversified. Competence in multiple languages and in different
semiotic systems inevitably impacts the way in which people interact and learn
languages. Given its status as a country of immigration, Canada provides such
a context for this study.

This book discusses the changes that the literature on gesture studies can
help implement in current practices of language pedagogy. By including gesture
as a nonverbal dimension of language and as a means for language acquisition,
it provides a contrast to those traditions that have viewed gesture as a
marginal aspect of communication and language learning. In addition, this book
offers the results of three research studies in Italian language classes in
Canada, showing that gesture enables a multimodal approach in language
pedagogy and a richer experience for both teachers and learners.

The Discourse of Tourism and National Heritage: A Contrastive Study from a Cultural Perspective

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Title: The Discourse of Tourism and National Heritage
Subtitle: A Contrastive Study from a Cultural Perspective
Publication Year: 2015
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
http://www.cambridgescholars.com/

Book URL: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-discourse-of-tourism-and-national-heritage

Author: Claudia Elena Stoian

Hardback: ISBN:  9781443882194 Pages: 435 Price: U.K. £ 57.99
Hardback: ISBN:  9781443882194 Pages: 435 Price: U.S. $ 98.95

Abstract:

The Discourse of Tourism and National Heritage: A Contrastive Study from a
Cultural Perspective presents an in-depth research study in the field of
online tourism promotion. It focuses on the national online promotion of
UNESCO World Heritage Sites, on two different types of websites –
institutional and commercial – from three countries, Romania, Spain and Great
Britain.

The book analyses the way in which each country combines various modes to
create a virtual brochure with a promotional message from both institutional
and commercial positions. In doing this, it studies the organization of the
websites and their webpages, as well as the lexico-grammatical and visual
features of their promotional messages. The theoretical framework used is
Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday 1985, 1994; Kress and van Leeuwen
1996, 2006; Halliday and Matthiessen 2004).

The results are compared in relation to the types of websites and to the
countries in which they were produced. These are further interpreted from a
cultural perspective, showing that the findings can be accounted for by
cultural variability, in particular the dimension of context (Hall 1976, 1990,
2000).

Towards the Ecology of Human Communication

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Title: Towards the Ecology of Human Communication
Publication Year: 2015
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
http://www.cambridgescholars.com/

Book URL: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/towards-the-ecology-of-human-communication

Editor: Marta Bogusławska-Tafelska
Editor: Anna Drogosz

Hardback: ISBN:  9781443880886 Pages: 301 Price: U.K. £ 47.99
Hardback: ISBN:  9781443880886 Pages: 301 Price: U.S. $ 81.95

Abstract:

There is undoubtedly considerable intellectual and methodological progress
evident in approaches to linguistics, from systemic and formal methods, to
post-Newtonian transpersonal, non-local models of meaning co-creation built
within contemporary language studies. Indeed, such changes are constant – the
20th century product orientation of linguistic research is currently being
complemented by ecolinguistic processes, with the linearity of scientific
perception and treatment being replaced by the dynamic and multispectral
approach of “ecological” theory. This book provides a richly detailed analysis
of this profound shift within contemporary language and communication
research.

A particularly interesting facet of this volume is the proposal that the
architecture of the human organism is, transpersonally, in constant relation
with its immediate surroundings, as well as with non-local multilevel
surroundings. This connection is based not only on the cognitive connection of
minds or neurocognitive contacts with the nervous and sensual systems of
communicators, but on the multidimensional relationship between the manifold
communicative modalities living systems possess. Human communication is
embedded within a given local communicative situation, as well within the
global, non-local environment via the basic ontology of entanglement.

The human communicative process is always evolving as a result of the constant
fluctuations of life processes. Indeed, the conclusions presented in this
volume open up a new approach to present-day linguistics, that human language
is an essential life process.

The Stylistics of Professional Discourse

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Title: The Stylistics of Professional Discourse
Publication Year: 2015
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
http://www.euppublishing.com

Book URL: http://www.euppublishing.com/book/9780748691692

Author: Martin Solly

Electronic: ISBN:  9780748691708 Pages: 168 Price: U.K. £ 70
Electronic: ISBN:  9780748691715 Pages: 168 Price: U.K. £ 70
Hardback: ISBN:  9780748691692 Pages: 168 Price: U.K. £ 70

Abstract:

‘Martin Solly elegantly demonstrates that stylistics can reveal how
professional groups mark their distinctive identity, with doctors, lawyers and
educators providing the model. He deftly draws out the stylistic techniques
that can create a sense of shared community, and in the process provides a
primer of approaches to analysing discourse.’
Michael Kelly, University of Southampton

Why are doctors’ prescriptions illegible and why is the language of the law
considered impenetrable to outsiders? Is it more difficult for non-native
speakers of English than native speakers to access the discourse of
professions such as the law and medicine? These are just some of the questions
covered by this innovative study, which uses the lens of stylistics to shed
light on how the discourse of professional communities is used not just to
convey meanings, but also to construct identity and a sense of membership.

Aimed at students and scholars of applied linguistics, language education and
communication studies, Martin Solly examines a range of professional
discourses, from the language of education to that of the law and medicine,
showing how knowledge of stylistics can provide the key for appropriate and
acceptable language use, enabling successful communication and potential
membership of professional communities.

Academic Literacy and Student Diversity: The Case for Inclusive Practice

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AUTHOR: Ursula  Wingate
TITLE: Academic Literacy and Student Diversity
SUBTITLE: The Case for Inclusive Practice
SERIES TITLE: New Perspectives on Language and Education
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Laura Dubcovsky, University of California, Davis

Reviews Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

The book “Academic literacy and student diversity. The case for inclusive
practice” poses the question of academic literacy in four Anglo speaking
countries: United States, United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa. Ursula
Wingate takes into account a diverse student population, with special emphasis
on international students, whose admission is currently a popular trend in
modern universities around the world. The author offers a linear and clear
structure, moving from a general state of the art of academic literacy at the
university level (Chapter 1), to specific models and instructional approaches
(Chapters 2-3). She describes principles and features inherent to
discipline-based approaches (Chapters 4-5) and classifies major themes among
students’ academic experience (Chapter 6).  Finally Wingate proposes an
inclusive model of academic literacy for all, considering content, methodology
and evaluation (Chapter 7). She concludes with challenges and institutional
changes embedded in current force market (Chapter 8).

In the first chapter, “Academic Literacy and Student Diversity: What is the
problem?” Ursula Wingate attempts to define academic literacy.  She starts by
departing from superficial features of grammar and style that have dominated
the scene through discourses of deficiency and remediation.  She also proposes
to reach all students, claiming that although universities show higher numbers
of underrepresented students, there are still persistent inequalities and
serious disadvantages that need to be overcome.  Then the author outlines her
epistemological and sociocultural understanding of academic literacy, drawing
on communicative competence parameters (Hymes 1972), community of practice
models (Lave & Wenger 1991), and language socialization theories (Duff 2010).
Finally the author addresses the instructional aspect of academic literacy,
arguing that university professors and lecturers rarely  give explicit
explanations to improve their advanced literacy skills in the specific content
area  to students. They either overlook language use as they feel responsible
for teaching subject content only, or they send “struggling” students to
remedial classes, which mainly focus on language skills and generic academic
English. In her view, students from all backgrounds need to be taught how to
communicate competently in academic language to be successful in their study
programs.

In the second chapter Wingate focuses on the writing aspect of “Approaches to
academic literacy instruction.” First she provides a general overview that
includes skills, processes, genres, social practices, and socio-political
approaches.  She also presents clear “Classifications of approaches to
teaching academic literacy” (Table 2.1 p. 16) and exemplifies with distinctive
models (Lea & Street 1998, Ivanič 2004, Hyland 2002). Then the scholar
analyzes three genre traditions in-depth, comparing and contrasting types of
orientation, teaching aims, and theoretical and contextual underpinnings (Hyon
1996). While  Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS) has a sociological orientation,
it is interdisciplinary in nature and questions the explicit teaching of
genres in the classroom, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) share linguistic orientation, believe in social
functions of genres and promote a visible pedagogy.  After her detailed
examination of genre-based approaches, the author advocates for a joint effort
among different genre traditions and an added socio-political layer to textual
analyses in order to improve current teaching of academic literacy.

In the first part of Chapter 3, titled “Current practice in academic literacy
instruction,” Wingate addresses four main limitations observed in university
classrooms: generic teaching, trivialization and marginalization, exclusive
targeting of specific learner groups, and inadequate distribution of
responsibilities between writing experts and subject teachers.  The author
provides evidence of reductive practices from thirty-three curricula of
British universities. These programs mostly limit the teaching of academic
literacy to a set of grammatical structures, spelling errors and syntax, focus
on skills and accuracy, and employ fixed templates disengaged from the content
areas. Additionally teachers provide neither explicit instruction nor
systematic and formative feedback. In the second part Wingate revises goals,
methodologies and scope of transformative practices, typically concerned with
nontraditional, non-native and international students. The author concludes
that challenging pedagogies, such as Academic Literacies, Critical English for
Academic Purposes, English as Academic Lingua Franca, and Multilingualism,
call for deeper transformation to embrace more seriously linguistic and
cultural diversity. Among other suggestions, she proposes to abandon dominant
monolingual and one-directional policies, accommodate the needs of all
students, enable minorities to express their views, and incorporate new genres
and social media.

Chapter 4 “Discipline-specific approaches to academic literacy instruction”
discusses the need for collaboration and integration in order to enhance the
quality of academic teaching for all students. As Wingate explains, the
stronger and more consistent the relationship between the writing expert and
the subject matter instructor is, the more successful the academic literacy
instruction will become.  To illustrate this joint effort, the scholar traces
a continuum from lower to higher involvement, showing stages of ‘cooperation,’
‘collaboration,’ and ‘team-teaching.’ She also draws examples from Australian
and South African curricula and presents a table with “Increasing levels of
integration” through ‘extracurricular, additional, curriculum-linked, and
curriculum- integrated’ programs (Table 4.1 p. 60).  Later in the chapter
Wingate resumes the genre-based literature review, limiting it to empirical
studies based on instructional settings only (Tardy 2006). Although the author
seeks for evidence, she acknowledges that data-driven studies may lack a
strong theoretical framework, show only indirect applications, and employ
authority, rather than experience, as the basis for pedagogical interventions.
Finally Wingate focuses on two effective teaching practices. She finds that
popular textual modeling and explicit teaching may not always be effective.
For example, students often receive inauthentic, limited or less suitable
models, while teachers sometimes implement a “visible pedagogy” that turns out
to be too prescriptive and normative, or driven by monolithic forms and linear
transmission.  To overcome theoretical and practical limitations the author
advocates a genre-based approach that combines an informational corpus with
qualitative text analyses in addition to socio-political layers (Adel & Reppen
2008, Biber 2006, and also Chapter 2).

In Chapter 5 “Reading and writing” Wingate complements the construct of
academic literacy by focusing on  reading activity. Equally important as
writing (already described in Chapter 2), the reading aspect is nevertheless
often taken for granted (Swales 2002). To compensate for this common
disregard, the author enumerates the beneficial components of skilled reading:
automatic recognition skills, vocabulary and structural knowledge, formal
discourse structure knowledge, content/world background knowledge, synthesis
and evaluation skills/strategies, and metacognitive knowledge and skills
monitoring (Grabe 1991). Then she summarizes three models that include
relevant reading epistemologies: transmission, translation and transaction
(Schraw & Brunig 1996). After claiming that reading and writing are strongly
related, Wingate selects source-based activities that involve both literacy
components to succeed in academic literacy, such as identifying sources,
selecting relevant information from these sources, and evaluating and
integrating sources in arguments (McCulloch 2013).  Finally the author shows
examples of academic reading courses from different universities, emphasizing
academic skills of referencing, paraphrasing and summarizing. Above all she
praises the teaching of academic reading and writing within the context of the
subject area, and the opportunities such teaching  affords for practicing
academic skills, socializing in the academic language, and appropriating
literacy behaviors.

In Chapter 6 “Academic literacy development and the student experience”
Wingate describes students’ difficulties as they become novice writers of
academic discourses, especially focusing on international students, because
they constitute an appealing population for universities. The scholar follows
three major themes from the student’s perspective. First, interviewees agree
in the frequent mismatch between academic requirements and student life
experience. Usually instructions are not very explicit, or critical policy
measures, such as plagiarism and attributions, are not clearly spelled out to
foreign students (Lillis & Turner 2001).  The second theme refers to critical
thinking and argumentation, closely related to students’ prior knowledge and
background experiences, as well as to their further language and rhetorical
socialization, as expected at the university level (Turner 2011). For most
foreign students identity is the third theme, as it affects how they position
themselves in the classroom, express themselves in their own voices and gain
agency (Morita 2004).  Interestingly, these themes are also reflected even in
support-oriented programs that fail to recognize differences in time
management and uses of sources, or in well-intentioned lecturers who offer
superficial feedback and do not facilitate reasoned stances, among other
failures.  The scholar claims that these themes demonstrate the need for
explicit teaching, supporting the notion that academic literacy is in fact a
very complex phenomenon that involves technical, conceptual and
epistemological underpinnings.

In Chapter 7 “Towards an inclusive model of academic literacy instruction”
Wingate first shows various literacy models rooted in exemplary practices, and
then introduces her own study, conducted in a UK university  across four
disciplines: Applied Linguistics, History, Management and Pharmacy.  She
describes her intervention and includes achievements and limitations of “An
inclusive model of academic literacy instruction” (Figure 7.1 p. 128). Through
the visual representation and further explanations, the author clearly
connects the inclusive model to the four principles of (1) focus on genres and
their social context, (2) broad range for all students, (3)
discipline-specific and integrated curriculum, and (4) collaboration between
writing and subject experts. Additionally Wingate describes the content of her
approach, which follows particular SFL features of rhetorical moves (Chang &
Schleppegrell 2011), discourse-semantics (Martin 1992, Ravelli 2004) and
lexico-grammar  (Schleppegrell 2004). She also points at the methodology of
her approach that facilitates the teaching/learning cycle of deconstruction,
joint construction, and independent construction. Overall the model embraces
constructivist theories (Vygotsky 1978) and creates scaffolding conditions to
favor genre awareness and critical awareness, especially through group
discussions and tutors’ guided conversations.

The last chapter moves “Towards the implementation of an inclusive model of
academic literacy instruction.” Wingate links the theoretical principles and
arguments developed throughout the chapters to the practical intervention
conducted in her study.  She confirms some limitations of the model that
conflict with the cited principles. For example the low number of participants
inhibits the availability for all students, the “add-on” workshops recommended
interfere with an integrated curriculum, and the lecturers’ extra volunteer
work do not reflect institutional support and cooperation.  In light of these
findings, Wingate urges for changes at the institutional level, so that
students and instructors receive structural, financial and organizational
support, while universities benefit from a broader and more varied spectrum of
students, as expected in current highly competitive markets. On the one hand
faculty and staff need better preparation for teaching academic literacy in
the content area, high qualitative feedback, as well as better defined defined
working roles and load (Sadler 2010). On the other hand the “inclusive model”
should reach not only typically “needy” students, but a broader diversity of
home and international, native and non-native English speakers, traditional
and non-traditional, first college generation and high-fee paying students.
Finally the “literacy for all” model should tap all aspects of academic
literacy, including communicative competence, the literacy process and  text
production (Wingate et al. 2011).

EVALUATION

“Academic literacy and student diversity. The case for inclusive practice” is
a straightforward account of current academic literacy at the university
level. Ursula Wingate reviews relevant literature and summarizes main topics
that affect the epistemology and practice of advanced literacy for a diverse
population. The clear and straightforward tone will capture the interest of
university professionals, especially writing experts and subject lecturers who
work with international and non-English speaking students.

The author presents a neat organization, where goals, contents, methods and
intervention are clearly developed. The accompanying tables and figures
throughout the chapters contribute to the overall tight structure.  Moreover
Wingate strengthens her proposed model by including data-driven studies and
anecdotal examples from different experiences in Anglophone countries. The
book has, however, some limitations, as the scholar recognizes, mainly given
by the low-scale of her intervention.  It also presents information which is
not entirely new for scholars and practitioners in the field of academic
literacy. However novice instructors and researchers will find the
hierarchical organization and the literature review helpful for  deepening and
up-dating understanding. Furthermore they could extract ideas for a practical
manual, useful for collaborative teaching between subject lecturers and
writing experts.

REFERENCES

Adel, A. and R. Reppen (eds.) 2008. Corpora and discourse: The challenges of
different settings. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Biber, D. 2006. University language: A corpus-based study of spoken and
written registers. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Chang, P. & M. Schleppegrell. 2011. Taking and effective authorial stance in
academic writing: Making the linguistic resources explicit for L2 writers in
the social sciences. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 10(3). 140-151.

Duff, P. 2010. Language socialization into academic discourse communities.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 30.169-192.

Grabe, W. 1991. Current developments in second language reading research.
TESOL quarterly 25(3). 375-406.

Hyland, F. 2002. Teaching and researching writing. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Hymes, D. 1972. On communicative competence. In J. Pride & J. Holmes (eds).
Sociolinguistics  (269-293) London: Penguin.

Hyon, S. 1996. Genre in three traditions: Implications for ESL. TESOL
quarterly 30(4). 693-722.

Ivanič, R. 2004. Discourses of writing and learning to write. Language and
Education 18(3). 220-245.

Lave, J. and Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral
participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lea, M. & B. Street. 1998. Student writing in higher education: An academic
literacies approach. Studies in Higher Education 23(2).157-172.

Lillis, T. & J. Turner. 2001. Student writing in higher education.
Contemporary confusion, traditional concerns. Teaching in Higher Education
6(1). 57-68.

McCulloch, S. 2013. Investigating the reading-to-write processes and source
use of L2 postgraduate students in real- life academic tasks: An exploratory
study. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 12(2).136-147.

Martin, J. 1992. English text: System and structure. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.

Morita, N. 2004. Negotiating participation and identity in second language
academic communities. TESOL quarterly 38(4). 573-603.

Ravelli, L. 2004. Signalling the organization of written texts: Hyper-Themes
in management and history essays. In L.J. Ravelli & R. Ellis (eds) Analysing
Academic Writing: Contextualized Frameworks. (104-129) London: Continuum.

Sadler, D. 2010. Beyond feedback: Developing student capability in complex
appraisal. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 35(5). 535-550.

Schleppegrell, M. 2004. Technical writing in a second language: The role of
grammatical metaphor. In L.J. Ravelli  & R. Ellis (eds.) Analysing academic
writing: Contextualized frameworks. (172-189) London: Continuum.

Schraw, G. & R. Brunig.1996.  Readers’ implicit models of reading. Reading
Research Quarterly 31(3). 290-305.

Swales, J. 2002. Integrated and fragmented worlds: EAP materials and corpus
linguistics. In J. Flowerdew (ed.) Academic Discourse. (150-164) Harlow:
Pearson Education.

Tardy, C. 2006. Researching first and second language genre learning: A
comparative review and a look ahead. Journal of second language writing 15(2).
79-101.

Turner, J. 2011. Language in the academy: Cultural reflexivity and
intercultural dynamics. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological
functions. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Wingate, U., Andon N.  & Cogo, A. 2011. Embedding academic writing instruction
into subject teaching: A case study. Active Learning in Higher Education
12(1). 1-13.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Laura Dubcovsky is a lecturer and supervisor in the Teacher Education Program from The School of Education at the University of California, Davis. She has a Master’s in Education and a PhD in Spanish linguistics with special emphasis on second language acquisition. Her areas of interest combine the fields of language and bilingual education. She is dedicated to the preparation of prospective bilingual Spanish/English teachers, especially on the use of Spanish for educational purposes. She collaborates as a reviewer with the Linguistic list serve and bilingual associations, as well as with teachers, principals, and specialists at the school district. She has taught a course that addresses Communicative and Academic Spanish needed in a bilingual classroom for more than ten years. She also published the article, Functions of the verb decir (”to say”) in the incipient academic Spanish writing of bilingual children. Functions of Language, 15(2), 257-280 (2008). Laura continues working on uses of Spanish by bilingual teachers , bilingual home/school connections , and academic language across school disciplines.

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