ESP writing studies in an English as a lingua franca world

Journal of English for Academic Purposes 29 (2017) 12e20

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Journal of English for Academic Purposes journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jeap

What intercultural rhetoric can bring to EAP/ESP writing studies in an English as a lingua franca world Kyle McIntosh a, *, Ulla Connor b, Esen Gokpinar-Shelton c a

University of Tampa, 401 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL, 33606, USA Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis 420, University Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA c Indiana University, 107 S. Indiana Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405, USA b

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 21 February 2017 Received in revised form 1 September 2017 Accepted 5 September 2017

Over the last several decades, the perceived norms of writing in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) have been affected by the dominance of that language across an array of fields and settings. As writers and audiences become more linguistically and culturally diverse, the ways that English is composed at the linguistic, rhetorical, and discursive levels are changing, resulting in an ongoing search for adequate theoretical frameworks to describe the reality of academic and professional writing practices. Two related frameworks, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and translingualism, propose more flexible patterns of communication between users of different varieties of English, with negotiation and accommodation being keys to success. In this paper, we argue that the efforts to introduce ELF and translingualism into EAP and ESP contexts can benefit from Intercultural Rhetoric (IR), or “the study of written discourse between and among individuals with different cultural backgrounds” (Connor, 2011, p.2), which has adopted a dynamic view of culture, while continuing to stress the importance of genre comparability. Finally, we make recommendations for research and pedagogical applications that draw from IR, ELF, and translingualism to promote the growth of EAP/ESP in an ever-changing, globalized world. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Intercultural rhetoric English as a lingua franca Translingualism Writing studies

1. Introduction Over the last several decades, the perceived norms of writing in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) have been affected by the dominance of that language across an array of fields and settings. As writers and audiences become more linguistically and culturally diverse, the ways that English is composed at the linguistic, rhetorical, and discursive levels are changing, both in print and online (L. Flowerdew, 2015). Such changes have resulted in an ongoing search for adequate theoretical frameworks with which to describe the reality of academic and professional writing practices in an English-dominated world. One framework that has gained some traction in EAP/ESP writing studies is English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), which Firth (1996) defined as “a ‘contact language’ between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign [emphasis in original] language of communication” (p. 240). More recent

* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (K. McIntosh), [email protected] (U. Connor), [email protected] (E. Gokpinar-Shelton). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2017.09.001 1475-1585/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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definitions (Seidlhofer, 2004) have repositioned ELF as a linguistic resource or tool of communication for speakers of Kachru’s (1986) Outer and Expanding Circle varieties of World Englishes (WE), as well as so-called “native English speakers” (NES) from the Inner Circle (i.e., traditional Anglophone countries), thus crossing all boundaries in the WE paradigm. The proponents of ELF envision a world in which rigid NES norms are replaced by more flexible, internationally-oriented patterns that facilitate communication between users of different varieties of English, with negotiation and accommodation being keys to success. Another framework emerging primarily from composition studies in the United States is translingualism, which also stresses the need for effective negotiation strategies when communicating across linguistic and cultural boundaries (Canagarajah, 2011, 2013b, 2016; Horner, Lu, Royster, & Trimbur, 2011; Lu & Horner, 2013). Unlike ELF, however, translingualism seeks to challenge the dominance of English in the writing classroom e and in society at large e by promoting linguistic heterogeneity via “codemeshing” (i.e., a mix of languages and varieties), as a way for multilingual writers to exert their rhetorical agency. According to advocates of translingualism, the use of codemeshing supports innovation and “may even lead to more elegant and locally appropriate language” (Jordan, 2012, p. 68). The growing influence of ELF in applied linguistics and translingualism in composition studies has led to productive discussions about developing new research and pedagogical orientations for the fields of EAP and ESP. Recent studies have addressed the acceptability of non-standard grammar and rhetorical structures in research articles published in international
s-Sanz, 2016; Rozycki & Johnson, 2013), the influence of ELF and WE on the teaching of EAP/ English-medium journals (Lore ESP writing courses (L. Flowerdew, 2015), and the need for localized assessment that is attuned to the linguistic diversity and language needs of those applying to and attending English-medium institutions (Leung, Lewkowicz, & Jenkins, 2016). Not everyone, however, has viewed these developments in a positive light. Tribble (2017) predicted that the widening gulf between ELF and traditional genre-based pedagogies could escalate into a full-blown “paradigm war,” although he did not discount the possibility of reconciliation between the two sides, provided that the focus remained on helping students to achieve their academic goals. Meanwhile, Atkinson et al. (2015), in an open letter to the editors of writing studies journals, expressed concern about how translingualism was being positioned as a replacement for second language (L2) writing, despite the fact that the latter has long promoted intercultural awareness and linguistic diversity in composition classrooms (see, for example, Matsuda, 2006). In this paper, we propose that the efforts of ELF and translingualism can, in fact, lead to actionable practice in EAP and ESP settings without exacerbating conflicts with genre studies or L2 writing, especially if they are informed by lessons learned from intercultural rhetoric (IR), which can be broadly defined as “the study of written discourse between and among individuals with different cultural backgrounds” (Connor, 2011, p. 2). By adopting a situated, dynamic view of culture while asserting the need for comparability of genres across languages, IR has made valuable contributions to EAP/ESP writing studies with an emphasis on student needs, teacher preparation, and curriculum design in particular contexts (see, for example, Abasi, 2012; LoCastro, 2008; Petri
c, 2005; Xing, Wang, & Spencer, 2008; Xu, Huang, & You, 2016; Yang, 2012). As Lynne Flowerdew (2015) noted, “The field of intercultural rhetoric has already been flagged as being of increasing importance for ESP studies. However, as yet, it has not been widely informed by, or, informed, studies of ELF” (p. 16). This paper takes initial steps toward bridging that gap. First, we will review the current state of IR and its contributions to EAP/ESP writing studies. Next, we will discuss the present and potential impacts of ELF and translingualism on the aforementioned fields, and then express some reservations about adopting these frameworks. Lastly, we will make recommendations for future research and pedagogical applications that draw from the combined knowledge of IR, ELF, and translingualism to promote the disciplinary growth of EAP and ESP in an ever-changing, globalized world.

2. IR and EAP/ESP writing studies The origins of IR can be traced to Kaplan’s (1966) seminal work on contrastive rhetoric (CR), which initiated the systematic analysis of the influence that one's first language (L1) and culture has on the structure of L2 writing. Connor (1996) defined CR as “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 L1, attempts to explain them” (p. 5). Although groundbreaking at the time, CR was based on the assumption that all speech communities have their own distinct cultures that can be compared, and thus was criticized for ignoring different writing patterns within languages and language families, as well as variations in the writing of individuals (see Kubota, 1999; Spack, 1997). Connor (2002) responded to these criticisms by presenting a series of advances in CR inspired by Atkinson’s (1999) call for a dynamic view of culture in TESOL. To further develop a more comprehensive theory, Connor (2004) renamed the field intercultural rhetoric and advocated for greater sensitivity to the contexts in which writing occurs and to the complex interactions that take place between readers and writers through texts. She also called for making use of corpus data and conducting ethnographic studies to supplement text analysis. The change in preferred term from CR to IR signaled a move away from looking at two pieces of writing as culturally and rhetorically disparate and toward viewing them as negotiations within and between cultures. The evolution of IR established three basic tenets for the study of writing (Connor, 2008): (1) texts must be understood as part of the social contexts in which they were written;

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(2) culture is complex and dynamic; and (3) written discourse encounters necessitate negotiation and accommodation. The first tenet of IR, which stemmed from Fairclough’s (1992) pioneering work on critical discourse analysis and Gee’s (1999) theory of “big D” discourse, led to texts being viewed in context rather than as isolated products. For example, when Feng (2008) compared successful grant proposals in the humanities and social sciences written in Chinese and English, she found a number of structural and stylistic similarities, but also notable differences (e.g., content vs. research orientation, negative vs. critical evaluation) that could be partially attributed to political and economic conditions within the local ~ as’ (2011) study of metadiscourse features in a corpus of business management research articles contexts. Likewise, Mur Duen written in English and Spanish concluded that the former had a greater number of hedges and self-mentions due to a wider target audience and higher degree of competition for publication, while the latter had fewer of these due to the assumption that the readers would all be members of a small, well-informed discourse community. These studies underscore the importance of carefully examining social situations and practices before making claims about underlying cultural factors. The second tenet of IR (i.e., culture is complex and dynamic) was shaped by Atkinson’s (2004) introduction of overlapping domains used to map culture, based on Holliday’s (1999) distinction between “large cultures” (e.g., national, ethnic) and “small cultures” (e.g., corporate, classroom). A detailed picture of intersecting forces emerges whenever one considers the many cultures present in a given situation. For example, international graduate students in the U.S. bring not only their national and ethnic cultures to bear on their academic work, but also the cultures of the educational institutions they previously attended, the universities they are currently attending, and the academic disciplines they are entering. We know from genre-based approaches to EAP/ESP that discourse communities have goals and expectations that characterize certain genres, as well as social practices for producing and consuming those genres (Swales, 2004). Thus, a scientist in Beijing writing for publication in English would likely adopt the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRaD) structure for research articles (Cargill & O'Connor, 2006), in much the same way that an American business executive working in Hong Kong would want to know what a corporate disclosure document looks like before meeting with local shareholders (Bhatia, 2008). Recognizing culture as multiple and dynamic is particularly important in EAP/ESP classrooms, where students from different countries, language backgrounds, and even fields of study can come together, often with added diversity in terms of age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Several studies (Abasi, 2012; LoCastro, 2008; Petri
c, 2005; Uysal, 2008) have adopted this dynamic understanding to examine how cultures and languages intersect within writing classrooms, but Canagarajah (2013a) insisted that IR still fails to capture the full extent of fluidity and hybridity that exists in a cosmopolitan world where interactions are “not fully based on culture” (p. 204). While this may be true, there are obvious problems with following the fragmentation of culture to its logical conclusion, as Xiaoming Li (2005) pointed out: If we erase the borders of all group identities, splintering culturally identified and grouped ESL students into unique individuals (i.e., just as unique as any native speakers), how do we acknowledge, still less attend to, the special needs of our students who come from non-English-speaking linguistic and educational backgrounds? If we have learned anything about language and discourse from postmodern theory, we have also learned this: no name, no representation. (p. 122) Even the most complex view of culture may fail to explain every aspect of a single intercultural interaction. But without some awareness of the values and expectations that each participant brings to that moment of contact, the chances for successful communication are surely diminished. This bring us to the third tenet of IR (i.e., written discourse encounters necessitate negotiation and accommodation), wherein texts are understood to be interactions between producers and consumers of information, who must both be willing to make adjustments in terms of substance and style to understand one another better. The importance of this exchange can be seen in correspondence between international scholars writing for publication and the gatekeepers (i.e., editors and reviewers) of the English-medium journals to which they submit (see Li, 2006; Lillis & Curry, 2010). It is also visible in virtual communities where global netizens use English to form new subcultures (see You, 2013). IR provides a useful lens for looking at how multilingual writers can traverse languages and cultures e big and small e in a variety of genres, from newspaper editorials (Abasi, 2012) and travel brochures (Yang, 2012) to discussion boards for online courses (Temples & Nelson, 2013; Xing et al., 2008). With emphasis on negotiation and accommodation, IR is positioned to engage in ongoing conversations about the evolution of EAP/ESP writing. As Connor (2011) indicated, IR can help to expand our understanding of ELF by identifying preferred writing styles and structures in comparable genres across languages and varieties, as well as providing social, cultural, and historical explanations for such preferences and highlighting instances where different varieties of English have been used successfully. A good example is Connor’s (1999) study of an international fish brokerage company in Turku, Finland, where a local businessperson regularly communicated with both native and non-native English speaking (NNES) buyers and sellers. Although the initial goal was to gather authentic written communication that could lead to the creation of a business English textbook, the resulting chapter became a pioneering study of pragmatic competence through negotiation and alignment strategies in an ELF setting. As previously mentioned, however, the connections between IR and ELF still need to be strengthened.

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3. ELF and EAP/ESP writing studies Much of the EAP/ESP-related ELF research to date has focused on spoken interactions in academic or professional settings (e.g., Baker, 2009; Firth, 2009; Mauranen, 2012; Mauranen, Hynninen, & Ranta, 2010; Pullin, 2013). This is, in part, because writing in general e and academic writing in particular e tends to be tied to notions of a Standard Written English (SWE) based on British or American norms (J. Flowerdew, 2013). In addition, published writing is typically revised and edited to conform to these standards (Mauranen, 2012). That said, the globalization of business and technology, coupled with the internationalization of Anglophone universities, academic conferences, and peer-reviewed journals, has prompted a number of inquiries into the growing presence of linguistic and rhetorical variety in academic and professional texts, including unpublished manuscripts (Mauranen & Carey, 2015) and blogs (Vettorel, 2014). Using the ELFA (English as a Lingua Franca in Academic settings) corpus of spoken discourse from conferences, lectures, seminars, and thesis defenses, Mauranen et al. (2010) have shown how to construct a globally effective rhetoric that is not necessarily tied to NES norms. Jenkins (2011) pushed for the development of written academic English in a similar direction, which could be used in journals and other publications (e.g., newsletters, conference proceedings) that already have international audiences. For Baker (2013), such a development appeared to be inevitable: Given the extensive use of ELF in both business and academic contexts and the accompanying move away from NES norms that this implies, it seems equally appropriate that this should apply to both spoken and written forms of communication. Here CR/IR has been of great value in contributing to our understanding of the variety of rhetorical structures that are employed in the composition of seemingly equivalent texts across different socio-cultural contexts, discourse communities, and time frames. (p. 31) To better understand how ELF and IR could together inform the teaching of EAP/ESP writing, Lynne Flowerdew (2015) conducted a case study of post-graduate science and engineering students in a grant proposal-writing module. First, she instructed them to use rhetorical moves analysis (adapted from Connor & Upton, 2004) to identify the global and local expectations of the genre in sample texts and then figure out how to negotiate apparent differences. Next, she had the students check their queries against two large-scale corpora to determine the frequency and collocations of certain words and phrases in academic English. By introducing discussions of ELF and WE into the module, Flowerdew (2015) found that the students became less concerned with adhering to perceived standards and more with the overall quality and communicative effectiveness of their proposals. The challenge for many writers, then, is to discern which structures and conventions can be modified and which must be maintained for effective intercultural communication to occur. As a leading figure in the branch of EAP known as English for Research and Publication Purposes (ERPP), John Flowerdew (2013) cautioned that, while ELF has spread to certain areas of academia, such as lectures and informal writing (e.g., email), most so-called “international” journals continue to resist anything other than SWE. He attributed this resistance to the presence of gatekeepers who, regardless of their L1 background, revert to British or American academic norms as a default when making decisions on submitted manuscripts. Using text ~ as (2013) confirmed that Spanish finance scholars attempting to publish in English-medium journals histories, Mur Duen often felt compelled by editors and reviewers to make their linguistic and rhetorical choices conform to Anglophone con~ as, 2011). ventions, even when IR research had shown the features to be common in Spanish academic writing (see Mur Duen Linguistic and cultural differences can also cause problems with the negotiations that occur as manuscripts move toward publication. For example, Yongyan Li’s (2006) case study of a doctoral student in the Physics Department at a Chinese university uncovered several instances of miscommunication with the gatekeepers of English-medium journals. While acknowledging that bias against NNES writers may have played a part, Li concluded: “Learning to cope with such sociopolitical aspects actually constitutes part of the publication game that all publication-committed people in present-day academia, no matter what their mother tongues, need to learn to play” (p. 475). Novice scholars must look beneath the surface-level presentation of research to spot the types of questions, methods, organizational patterns, and findings that are accepted by journals in a given field, and to see where there may be room to maneuver. To locate evidence of shifting norms and expectations, Rozycki and Johnson (2013) analyzed a corpus of 14 award-winning articles published in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions since 2006 e most written by NNES researchers e and found frequent “non-canonical grammar” use, similar to what has been reported in spoken ELF (e.g., subject-verb discord, article omission). A follow-up interview with the editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions confirmed that “if the English is ‘good enough,’ it can be published” (p. 165). The authors suggested that teachers of engineering students outside of Anglophone countries could modify their writing instruction “to focus on the structure or format of the research paper, and
s-Sanz (2016) looked at abstracts from the journal spend less time on text-level grammar” (p. 166). Interestingly, when Lore Social Science Research, she found that NNES writers often reduced the number of moves in the traditional IMRaD structure (e.g., fewer gap statements), while simultaneously articulating them in innovative ways that reflected cross-cultural hybridization. Such studies can provide students with a better sense of the variations already present in their fields, although Rozycki and Johnson (2013) advised that those “who wish to pursue advanced degrees in Anglophone countries must be made aware that there are differences between global and local expectations, and that canonical grammar use will be expected in academia, as a mark of in group identity” (p. 166). Another concern is that, rather than building on decades of work already done on EAP/ESP writing, ELF seeks to supplant it. Tribble (2017) expressed frustration with the way that genre-based pedagogies, which have been successfully employed in

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EAP/ESP programs for decades (e.g., Cargill & O'Connor, 2006; Swales, 2004), are cast as “assimilationist” by researchers like Jenkins, while ELF is held above reproach due to its “critical” stance. He also felt that the distinction between experts and apprentices, vital to the genre approach, was being falsely equated with the highly problematic NES/NNES dichotomy, and thus in danger of being abandoned. Hyland (2016) argued that divide between NES and NNES has made scholars from nonAnglophone countries who seek to publish in English-medium journals feel at a linguistic disadvantage, when in fact the process of socialization into academic discourse communities can be protracted and painful for anyone, regardless of their L1. Relief comes from gaining familiarity with the goals and expectations of the community through its available cultural resources (e.g., journals) and experience with writing and revising for publication. That is not to say that English-medium journals could not do more to accommodate a steady influx of international contributors. Lillis and Curry (2010) observed that, too often, recommended revisions reshape not only the language of NNES writers, but also their intended meaning. As a counter-measure, they called on gatekeepers and other “literacy brokers” (e.g., teachers, colleagues, proofreaders) to be more mindful of preserving diverse perspectives. Haberland (2011) also urged tolerance of variety on the part of gatekeepers and readers, but recognized that highly proficient writers have invested significant time and effort in mastering academic discourse and, thus, may wish to see certain standards maintained. Multilingual scholars may also choose to write in English to attract a wider audience, as Bocanegra-Valle (2014) found in her study of the LSP journal Ib
erica, which publishes in five languages: English, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Yet, nearly 70% of its submitted manuscripts are written in English, despite the majority of submissions coming from nonAnglophone countries. Furthermore, “native-like” proficiency in English may be positively associated with development and Westernization in certain parts of the world. As a result, it can generate local resistance to more internationally-oriented perspectives on EAP/ESP writing, as Gonerko-Frej (2014) found while promoting ELF in her native Poland. To counter some of the criticisms and mischaracterizations of ELF, Jenkins (2015) proposed a re-theorization that moves beyond the previous focus on form (or what she dubbed “ELF 1”) and, later, variability (“ELF 2”) to enter a new phase that positions multilingualism at the center of all research endeavors (“ELF 3”). In doing so, she made gestures toward other theoretical frameworks, such as translingualism (Canagarajah, 2013b), that accentuate the flow between languages and the emergent, unstable aspects of communicative repertoires that occur in global communities.

4. Translingualism and EAP/ESP writing studies While ELF has focused its attention largely on the non-Anglophone world, translingualism set its sights squarely on the American university, where the number of international students enrolled continues to grow every year and composition classrooms have become more linguistically and culturally diverse. According to Canagarajah (2013b), a key concept in translingualism is that “communication transcends individual languages” (p. 6). That is, languages mutually influence and complement one another, often in creative ways that allow unique voices to emerge. The use of multiple languages in the same context is not to be seen as interference or evidence of incomplete mastery. Rather, the pursuit of linguistic heterogeneity should be valued, with differences taken as “resources to be preserved, developed, and utilized” (Horner et al., 2011, p. 304). Of course, not all users of English have the same communicative repertoires at their disposal, but they can remain engaged in making meaning through the mobilization of multiple linguistic resources via codemeshing. In written language, codemeshing has been characterized by multilingual writers’ tendency to create new words and phrases through their negotiations with SWE and other codes, sometimes weaving together two or more varieties of English (e.g., African-American Vernacular English, Indian English) or other languages (e.g., Spanish, Arabic) in a single text. This act can involve individual lexical items, as well as larger syntactic and rhetorical structures that serve a communicative purpose (Canagarajah, 2011). Rather than asking whether or not it is appropriate to draw from different linguistic resources, translingualism asks writers e and readers e to consider how, when, where, and why to do so. According to Krall-Lanoue (2013), this requires starting a dialogue with students to negotiate meaning rather than correcting perceived errors: “Regardless of what might be more appropriate or correct, the significance of translingual reading is that it opens up a conversation for talking about reading, language choices, and meaning making” (p. 230). To that end, Canagarajah (2013b, pp. 135e152) offered four negotiation strategies to help with the use and interpretation of codemeshing in written texts: envoicing, recontextualization, interaction, and entextualization. Each of these strategies represents different aspects of the negotiations that take place between readers and writers. Envoicing strategies address what motivates writers to codemesh and set the stage for negotiation to begin; recontextualization strategies evaluate the target genre and discourse conventions to establish a solid basis from which to negotiate meaning; interactional strategies are adopted as writers and readers co-construct meaning; and entextualization strategies involve the shaping of a text over time and space in response to negotiations. The enactment of these strategies is dynamic and reciprocal, and interlocutors can adopt the ones that advance their rhetorical objectives and disregard those that do not. The primary aim of translingualism is to find productive ways for students and teachers to go against the grain of dominant systems of discourse and to explore alternative ways of reading and writing (Lu & Horner, 2013). Despite growing popularity in composition studies, translingualism has only begun to delve into the pedagogical applications of its theories (see, for example, Canagarajah, 2016; Krall-Lanoue, 2013; Pandey, 2013), with many teachers and students left struggling to balance the expectations of dominant discourses with their own rhetorical sensibilities as they strive to develop translingual awareness. As Matsuda (2014) explained:

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Asking students to mix languages for an audience who does not share those resources e in some cases, the teacher e therefore requires additional considerations. If the teacher is a monolingual user of the dominant variety of English who does not normally code-mesh, asking linguistically diverse students to do so in the teacher's presence would not go over well. The reverse is also true: imagine someone who grew up speaking the dominant variety of English trying to speak African American English; the result would likely be embarrassing, if not offensive. (p. 483) Unlike composition classes in the U.S., which are designed for undergraduates to familiarize themselves with a range of genres and modalities, some of which may be rather personal (e.g., literacy autobiography), EAP/ESP courses typically focus on highly technical forms of writing (e.g., lab reports, letters of application) with specific discourse community expectations in mind. In either case, writers must understand that “translanguaging is a rhetorical choice. It is not a mechanical activity independent of the specific communicative situation. One has to carefully assess the extent to which one can codemesh in a given context” (Canagarajah, 2011, p. 404). Codemeshing occurs in many different public spheres, but the current conception of successful writing in most academic and professional domains continues to be measured, at least in part, by the extent to which a writer abides by certain conventions (e.g., constructing and supporting arguments, citing sources). As Ruecker (2014) suggested, educators need to take students’ perspectives into consideration before introducing translingual practices into the classroom. If students want to engage in codemeshing, then the teacher should create space for that. But if they wish to learn dominant discourses, then that choice needs to be respected too. We must acknowledge that our students face social, economic, and educational pressures to compose in SWE. At the same time, we would be remiss if we did not provide them with the negotiation strategies needed to succeed in a globalized world. Below we make recommendations for how IR could help to strike a balance between these seemingly divergent goals when introducing translingualism and ELF into EAP/ESP writing classrooms.

5. IR as a bridge between EAP/ESP and ELF/translingualism We live in a world in which English has become a lingua franca for people across linguistic, cultural, and national boundaries. However, the way we respond to the differences that emerge from encounters with speakers and writers from various backgrounds remains unsettled. Both ELF and translingualism open up the possibility that, despite the continued dominance of American and British English in many academic and professional fields, other varieties e and even other languages e are having a sizeable impact on how written and spoken communication is carried out in these settings. Such developments should be viewed in a positive light rather than dismissed as “bad English.” Thus, scholars and educators need to advocate for greater tolerance of linguistic and rhetorical variety in their own institutions and disciplinary communities. At the same time, we recognize that the needs of students remain paramount, especially in the fields of EAP and ESP. Here, we echo Harwood and Hadley (2004) call for a “critical pragmatism” that strikes a balance, or at least manages the tension, between teaching dominant discourse conventions and critiquing those same conventions with an eye toward improving them. Discourse communities are undoubtedly altered by new membership, but that does not change the fact that dominant discourses can stand as barriers to entrance into many of those same communities. Learning how e and when e to accommodate, modify, or resist these discourses can have serious consequences for writers once they leave the classroom. Although the negotiation aspect of language is significant, the grounds upon which negotiations are based also retain value in IR; for example, one cannot successfully codemesh without borrowing from relatively stable, pre-existing languages that are combined in some novel way (Atkinson & Matsuda, 2013). While the extended negotiation strategies described by Canagarajah (2013b) can draw attention to diversity in EAP/ESP writing practices, IR and its established tenets can prepare writers to start using those strategies in specific academic and professional contexts. By analyzing the rhetorical features of texts in comparable genres across languages and cultures at different stages in the writing process, scholars and students can gain a better sense of where variations occur, which ones constitute lingua franca or translingual phenomena, and which of these phenomena can be successfully deployed in particular contexts for specific purposes. In many ways, this reflects Lea and Street’s (1998) academic literacies approach, which encourages students and teachers to understand discourse practices in context rather than making a priori assumptions as they move into e and between e disciplines or fields. As an ELF scholar, Gonerko-Frej (2014) accepted the criticisms leveled against traditional CR (e.g., that it could lead to stereotyping), but considered it useful for helping writers to identify unique rhetorical features, such as the “polot” (i.e., stylistic flair) in Polish, that may be considered desirable in one language or culture, but easily dismissed in another (pp. 80e82). Awareness of such differences could help students to gain new perspectives on their own writing. Gonerko-Frej added that CR/IR could foster cross-cultural understanding and enrich English by helping multilingual writers to locate spaces where new concepts and values can be introduced and eventually integrated into the language. Also coming from an ELF perspective, Baker (2013) favored IR research that concentrates less on the distinct languages and cultures that interlocutors bring with them and more on the subsequent interactions that may produce new forms of both. For EAP/ESP writing studies, that would mean focusing on texts that display a degree of hybridity, which could, in turn, further the development of ELF in academic and professional settings. By recognizing the presence e or absence e of cultural factors in the creation of such texts, we can gain a deeper understanding of the complexities involved whenever two or more languages converge.

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A few studies have hinted at how IR and translingualism can inform each other. You (2013) looked at an online bulletin board system (BBS) that was part of an English language learning website based in Japan to see how various small cultures interacted in virtual space to construct individual and collective ethos. He found that those who posted on the BBS both followed and broke the rules of SWE, mixing in Japanese expressions as a way to bring members of the online community closer together. Similarly, Xu et al. (2016) showed how students majoring in translation studies at a Chinese university drew equally from what they had learned about argumentation in English and in their local languages when writing a BA thesis. The authors recommended introducing more diverse styles of reasoning in EAP/ESP courses, as well as exploring the social and cultural forces behind students’ preferred styles. One promising tool for analyzing professional texts written in different varieties of English, which Pandey (2013) dubbed STEPS [Structure, Theme(s), Etiquette, Purpose, and Style], seeks to remedy the “absence of globally applicable and multidimensional framework of analysis that provides a comprehensive understanding of translingual discourse across linguistic levels” (p. 219). She used this method to examine the lexical and discourse features of emails written in Indian English and concluded that having “access to a preliminary list of words and expressions frequently employed in different linguistic contexts” (p. 224) could help to broaden our understanding of audience. While this method seems promising for IR research, a fuller narrative of how to successfully deploy STEPS in the classroom is required. As these studies indicate, IR has the potential to move toward the practice-based pedagogy advocated by Canagarajah (2013a) if, as Belcher (2014) suggested, it can “continue to complicate, problematize and enrich our understanding of what community membership means for and to writers (and readers), not just with respect to the communities they are born into, but those they choose to join or hope to change or decide to create” (p. 66). Future studies should make use of corpora like WRELFA (Mauranen & Carey, 2015) and of online communities to paint a clearer picture of how multilingual writers embrace, alter, and/or resist specific conventions. Although text analysis remains central to IR research, it can be complemented with case studies or mini-ethnographies that provide insight into the myriad ways cultures are enacted through writing (Connor, 2011). We believe that by adopting an IR framework, scholars and educators alike can help multilingual writers to better understand and implement the linguistic and rhetorical options available to them in the discourse communities that they seek to enter and enrich. 6. Conclusion IR has an important role to play in conversations regarding the intersections of EAP/ESP writing studies with ELF and translingualism. Following its three major tenets (i.e., texts must be studied in the social contexts in which they were written; culture is complex and dynamic; written discourse encounters necessitate negotiation and accommodation), IR aims to account for the complexities involved in the production and consumption of texts, in multiple intergroup and intragroup behaviors, and in the face-to-face and long-distance interactions of members of various discourse communities. By allowing theories of negotiation and accommodation to enter into its analysis, IR underscores the dynamic nature of genres. 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Vettorel, P. (2014). English as a lingua franca in wider networking. Blogging practices. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Xing, M., Wang, J., & Spencer, K. (2008). Raising students' awareness of cross-cultural contrastive rhetoric in English writing via an e learning course. Language Learning & Technology, 12(2), 71e93. Xu, M., Huang, C., & You, X. (2016). Reasoning patterns of undergraduate theses in translation studies: An intercultural rhetoric study. English for Specific Purposes, 41, 68e81. Yang, W. (2012). A study of students' perceptions and attitudes towards genre-based ESP writing instruction. The Asian ESP Journal, 8(3), 50e73. You, X. (2013). The arts of swelling places: Building ethos in an online community. In D. Belcher, & G. Nelson (Eds.), Critical and corpus-based approaches to intercultural rhetoric (pp. 47e71). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Kyle McIntosh is an Assistant Professor of English and Writing at the University of Tampa. He received his Ph.D. in English from Purdue University. His research interests include second language writing, English for Academic Purposes, intercultural rhetoric, and writing assessment. Ulla Connor is the Barbara E. and Karl R. Zimmer Chair in Intercultural Communication, Chancellor's Professor of English, and Director of the Indiana Center for Intercultural Communication (ICIC) at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Her research focuses on intercultural rhetoric in academic, business, and healthcare settings. Esen Gokpinar-Shelton is a Ph.D. student in Higher Education and Student Affairs in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is the former Assistant Director for ICIC. Her research interests include intercultural rhetoric, translingualism, health literacy, and tailored communication among diverse populations.