Intercultural Rhetoric and ESP/EAP - Ulla Connor

Intercultural Rhetoric and ESP/EAP [English for Specific Purposes (ESP) / English for Academic Purposes (EAP)]
→ Keynote Address Ulla Connor, PhD
→ Centre for English Language Communication (CELC)
→ Symposium 2013: Alternative Pedagogies in the English Language & Communication Classroom
→ National University of Singapore

«From Contrastive to Intercultural Rhetoric

»“Contrastive rhetoric, started by Robert Kaplan (1966), is an area of research in second language acquisition that identifies problems in composition encountered by second language writers and, by referring to the rhetorical strategies of the first language, attempts to explain them” (Connor, 1996, p. 5 [Connor, U. (1996). Contrastive rhetoric: Cross-cultural aspects of second language writing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.]).

»• An applied linguistics field with a teaching concern.

»• Influenced by contrastive analysis.

»• First real research interest in teaching writing to ESL learners in the USA (vs. spoken language).

»Intercultural Rhetoric

»Intercultural rhetoric is defined as the study of discourse between and among individuals from different cultural backgrounds.

»Intercultural provides an appropriate connotation of collaborative interaction between and among cultures, on one hand, and within cultures on the other (Connor, 2011, p. 1).

»‘Intercultural rhetoric’ is an umbrella term that includes cross-cultural studies (comparisons of the same concept in culture one and culture two) as well as studies of interactions in which writers from a variety of linguistic, cultural, and social backgrounds negotiate through speaking and writing (Connor, 2011, p. 2).

»Three main premises of Intercultural Rhetoric

»• Texts must be seen in their full contexts.

»• Small and large cultures interact in complex ways.

»• Accommodation and negotiation is necessary in intercultural communication.»

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