Beyond the “Foreign” Language Requirement: From a Monolingual to a Translingual Ideology in Rhetoric and Composition Graduate Education

Abstract

This article links language requirements in rhetoric and composition graduate programs to a dominant monolingualist ideology in composition studies. It argues that future faculty can be best prepared to conduct disciplinary work in the context of linguistic heterogeneity through a variety of collaborative pedagogical practices that reflect and advance a “translingual” language ideology.

Notes

1. ¹I would like to thank the RR reviewers Louise Phelps and Paul Kei Matsuda, editor Theresa Enos, as well as Bruce Horner, Karen Kopelson, and Susan Ryan for their helpful comments on previous versions of this article.

2. ²I use this term to invoke recent arguments for a “translingual” orientation or approach to composition studies (Bou Ayash; Canagarajah; Horner et al.; Lueck; Paudel) as well as other terms and arguments with which translingualism is often associated, such as transcultural literacy (Gilyard; Lu) or repositioning (Guerra).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carrie Byars Kilfoil

Carrie Byars Kilfoil is an assistant professor of English at the University of Indianapolis. Her work on language and the material conditions of composition teaching and research has appeared in JAC and Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education: From Theory to Practice.