Linguistic Justice in Writing Studies: Translingualism and Critical Rhetorical Agency

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to answer a broad and complex question that the field of writing studies has been grappling with: How do we promote linguistically just writing practices that are inclusive, effective, and ethical? As an individually and institutionally situated response, this dissertation proposes a linguistic justice framework for writing studies pedagogy that works toward redressing the harms of English monolingual and monocultural ideologies. These ideologies are entangled with racial and colonial differences and are operative in all writing classrooms today and we must help our students to confront and work through those ideologies as writers. I build and expand on the major tenets of translingualism using critical insights of from raciolinguistics, critical language awareness, antiracist Black language pedagogy as well as decolonial theories to make it more inclusive and responsive to pave the way for linguistically just writing practices that cultivate critical rhetorical agency of all students. In the next section, I share a critical autoethnographic study that examines my positionality as an international graduate teaching associate (IGTA), explores the ways my lived experiences have informed my research, and questions the West-centric notions of knowledge, research, and disciplinary narrative. Finally, I propose an equity-based writing curriculum that doesn’t allow English monolingual and monocultural ideologies to harm nondominant linguistic subjects–students whose first language isn't English and/or standardized English–and ensures that all students actively participate in and mutually enrich each other’s learning experience as writers. With three assignments of different yet interrelated nature, this chapter shows that all language use and all writing involve translation and translanguaging and invites students to debunk the myths of Standard (Written) English.