Writing in the Devil’s Tongue, peels away the ideologies that have been historically used to teach English, in order to show current composition instructors, how global English has transitioned from a dominant language to a transnational language that can negotiate between cultures to converge with other languages. This book provides insight into the way in which the English language can liberate, once it is disconnected from Western cultural practices. Through examining China’s historical and cultural background in teaching composition, author Xiaoye You shows composition instructors how a language can be woven into the tapestry of other traditional and political discourses. Understanding the relationship of culture to language is significant in teaching L2 writers’ composition. Culture and language connections can enhance one’s ability to create assignments that promote better writing while eliminating exclusion in the classroom. The examination of the cultural differences between languages will assist composition instructors in creating teaching strategies that will improve the success rate of ESL students in composition.
Xiaoye You’s historical examination of China’s cultural differences in English composition unearths the Western ideologies that interfere with L2 learners’ ability to compose in English. You’s journey through time reveals how the Chinese people cultivated Western English language into a language that relates to their identities. Through the exploration of different pedagogies that were introduced in China, You demonstrates how assigned tasks are a central space where languages and cultural identities are overpowered by ideologies that displace second language learners from negotiation. However, You explains that when ideologies are separated from teaching, L2 writers are able to enter a discourse with a hybrid language.
The inclusion of pedagogical practices in each chapter of the book reveals the importance of the ideological implications that students face while trying to write in a second language. You provides writing examples that show how Chinese students culturally struggle with issues such as, “communicative purposes, rhetorical situations, and audience” (2010, p.135). In-depth examples illustrated in the book reveal how L2 learners struggle with identifying with ideologies or pedagogies that are culturally oriented toward native speakers of English. These examples indicate that English composition instructors should adapt pedagogies that have been created for native speakers. The author’s insightfulness suggest that complications with practicing pedagogies that are designed for native speakers can stand in the way of academic success for non-native speakers because they lack the linguistic and cultural knowledge, and are unable to access their knowledge bank to transfer into the discourse of English. Each example in this book demonstrates how students are encouraged to concentrate on form rather than communicating with their audience.
You’s examples are useful for teaching composition to L2 students and for researchers who are looking for different approaches to teaching English in diverse settings. The examples prove how cultural knowledge found its way into composition when the Chinese students include their ideologies while writing in English. English begins to take on a familiar form by attaching itself to ideologies that exist in the Chinese culture. Writing in the Devil’s Tongue pieces together how the English language becomes transnational instead of belonging to specific ideologies.
You’s global perspective of teaching English composition in China could be applied here in the United States. Scholars such as Ruth Spack have indicated that issues in academic writing for L2 writers are connected to the social and cultural influences that interfere with writing. In the sixth chapter You suggests building global composition by veering away from ideologies of old modernist theories that teach students to write for authentic the self, and instead head in the direction of teaching students that they are “one of the billions of intelligent processors in the network of information flow” (p. 177). The ideologies here in the United States are still affiliated with writing based on modernist pedagogies that teach students to write for their instructors through tailoring their writing to the political ideologies of their instructors. You reveals how students need to be able to go back and forth between communities and in order to achieve that goal, composition instructors need to look at ways that teach students how to connect to other communities.
This book is a must-read and can lead both researchers and instructors in the right direction on how to teach English with a global perspective.
Create Your Own Website With Webador