Overview

This study explores second language composing processes and rhetorics through the data-rich perspective of ethnography, a unique approach to the study of second language rhetorics and one that leads to increased understanding of cross-cultural written communication. Moreover, most second language composing studies are not longitudinal in scope. Although this study draws the bulk of its data from five colleague-researchers before they begin their studies in the United States, the study concludes with additional data collected after the participants complete their degrees. The results provide intriguing insights into second language pedagogy as well as manifold dimensions of cross-cultural communication.

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9780820420509

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For students, teachers, and scholars interested in learning about contrastive rhetoric or expanding the knowledge base they already have in this critical area of composition studies, Alexandra Rowe Henry's book provides a very interesting, highly readable, ethnographic account replete with rich detail of many of the ways that first language education and writing skills impact on second language performance. Her insights will prove quite helpful in rethinking key issues in second language composition and in shaping pedagogical strategies most appropriate to our students' needs. (Barbara Kroll, California State University, Northridge) Debates among ESL writing researchers have at times polarized the profession into advocating mutually exclusive and overly simplistic positions. Professor Henrys study of ESL writers, one of the few which includes qualitative data and considers contrastive rhetoric from the point of view of the processes, works to undermine such unproductive debates and makes an important contribution to the development of our understanding of the complex and subtle interactions of a number of variables which converge in L2 writing. (Ilona Leki, University of Tennessee, Knoxville) There is much to commend this book. It makes a contribution to the fields of second language writing research and pedagogy and contrastive rhetoric. (Thomas Ricento, Studies in Second Language Acquisition)

Author Information

The Author: Alexandra Rowe Henry is the Director of the English Programs for Internationals at the University of South Carolina. She received her M.A. in Linguistics and her Ph.D. in English, with a specialization in Composition and Rhetoric, from the University of South Carolina. She has taught composition for more than twenty years, both in the United States and abroad. She has served as consultant and teacher trainer in Mexico, South Korea, Russia and Poland.

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