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Intercultural Rhetoric in the Writing Classroom

Intercultural Rhetoric in the Writing Classroom (book cover)Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Professor Ulla Connor’s latest book, Intercultural Rhetoric in the Writing Classroom, helps trace the evolution in the instruction of writing to second language learners. 

When the field of study, then called Contrastive Rhetoric, first emerged, English language students (such as Connor herself, a native of Finland) learned traditional English writing styles in order to navigate university writing assignments.

Today, business is routinely conducted on a global scale. English is now the dominant means of communication for science and industry but has accommodated the influence of non-native English speakers.

This ebb and flow, this cultural give and take, is what inspired Connor to adopt the term Intercultural Rhetoric, a term that has become increasingly popular among linguists. 

Connor is Director of the Indiana Center for Intercultural Communication (ICIC), a language and cultural training center which is part of the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI.

 "The lion’s share of credit for language professionals’ continued interest in cross-cultural perspectives on rhetoric belongs to Ulla Connor," notes Diane Belcher of Georgia State University and Jun Liu of the University of Arizona in the forward to the book.

According to Thomas Upton, Chair of the Department of English at IUPUI and himself an applied linguist, "Professor Connor is internationally recognized as the leading scholar in the field of Intercultural Rhetoric."

This is Connor’s eleventh book on linguistics and writing.  In 2004, she helped establish the first Contrastive Rhetoric and Written Discourse Analysis Conference at IUPUI to create collaborations among leading research organizations and universities. The conference typically attracts more than 100 participants from the U.S. and abroad, and it will be held again in 2012 as the Seventh Intercultural Rhetoric and Discourse Conference at IUPUI.

Connor has also put her theories into practice through ICIC, both in the classroom and in the business community.

"ICIC’s work has highlighted the impact of intercultural rhetoric beyond teaching and writing and focused on teaching intercultural communication in many other situations," notes Connor.  The center has worked with businesses and non-profit organizations to enhance their business communication techniques in a variety of ways, and ICIC now is increasingly working with healthcare professionals.

 There is a growing need for cross-cultural sensitivity in healthcare delivery, Connor says.  Patients are more culturally and ethnically diverse than ever before, and, at the same time, more internationally-trained physicians are filling shortages left by too few U.S.-trained physicians.  More than a quarter of all doctors practicing in the U.S. now have been educated overseas, according to the American Medical Association.

ICIC has created an assessment process to measure the language and intercultural skills of incoming medical residents.  The center also provides group and individualized training to healthcare professionals for accent modification and pronunciation skills as well as trainings to improve intercultural communication with patients and other healthcare professionals.

Connor has used her theory of intercultural rhetoric in a series of ICIC-sponsored workshops for international scientific researchers.  These highly-popular workshops have covered topics such as Academic Writing for Publication in English and Grant Proposal Writing.

It is increasingly important for scientists all over the world to be able to write for publication in English, even within their own borders, Connor notes. Expectations go beyond just learning the basics of English vocabulary and grammar.  

When Connor’s native Finland joined the European Union in 1994, she was asked to help Finnish scientists adapt to the new writing standards of the E.U.  They were accustomed to writing their grant proposals in Finnish for an audience of their peers who often both knew them personally and were familiar with their body of academic work.  They were now required to submit their grant proposals in English, but with much more rigorous, detailed documentation to an audience in E.U. central offices in Brussels.

Connor’s ongoing message to scientists is that while some writing styles may be perfectly appropriate for one audience, they must understand the expectations of new, international audiences in order to be successful. 

 "You might have written in your first language in a certain way for a specific audience, however, this is a new audience," she tells them.

While intercultural rhetoric makes room for both parties from different cultures to accommodate each other as intellectual and cultural equals, the primary focus, in most cases, Connor says, is still writing successfully for publication in English.

"I must emphasize the need to teach English learners the tools of appropriate discourse for a variety of situations. It would be remiss for teachers not to expose learners to the use of dominant English norms, such as writing an acceptable essay, job application letter, or e-mail in a register and style expected of one’s interlocutor when the basic norms can be identified," she said.

Connor’s extensive body of academic work centers around these core principles, and has gained her a prominent role in the field of intercultural rhetoric, both in the United States and internationally.

Notes Upton, "With more than 100 published articles and book chapters and nearly a dozen authored and edited books, it can be argued that Professor Connor has had more influence on the field of Intercultural Rhetoric over the past 20 years than anyone. It is to a great extent due to her work in IR that she was named this year as a Chancellor’s Professor at IUPUI."