Cross-cultural composition 2.0: Mapping/remapping spaces of language minority students in the contact zones

Abstract

My dissertation “Cross-cultural composition 2.0: Mapping/remapping spaces of language minority students in the contact zones” examines the curricula, syllabi, course materials, pedagogical approaches, and theories and practices of first-year composition courses. Having traced the issues, I theorize the pedagogy—cross-cultural composition 2.0 (CCC 2.0), which is a construction of democratic, inclusive, and representational space in first-year composition courses. CCC 2.0 is a juncture of multicultural materials, including students’ cultural and prior academic experiences, Web 2.0 tools (wikis, facebook, blogs, MySpace, Google group/sites, Flickr, twitter, podcasting, and YouTube), and theories of composition studies. I incorporate these elements/theories to create safer spaces for language minority students and native English speaking students in first-year composition courses from a glocal (global and local) perspective. Hence, my dissertation aims to encourage students to constantly engage in various critical dialogues in a non-threatening environment to prepare them as critical, philosophical, and analytical writers/communicators in the contact zones.

In CCC 2.0, students not only develop cross-cultural and global communication skills, but they also use Web 2.0 and language as tools to create multiple truths/realities in their academic and professional writings. Moreover, my dissertation seeks to create safer spaces where students’ cultural rhetorics, rhetorical modes, and rhetorical strategies are validated in first-year composition courses outside of the Anglo-American rhetorical tradition to meet needs, values, and expectations of the twenty-first century globalized world.