Papers by Vaidehi Ramanathan
Advocating a position of self-critique, whereby we revisit our old research sites to dis-assemble... more Advocating a position of self-critique, whereby we revisit our old research sites to dis-assemble our prior thinking in relation to our current cognitions, this paper offers, among other things, a critical revisitation and Derridean interpretation of one of my previous long-term, ethnographic endeavours: my extended work with the memories and lifehistories of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Gathered over the span of three and a half years, this body of research was devoted to countering several psycholinguistic strains characterizing Alzheimer speech. Revisiting that work given my current cognitions raises, among other things, Derridean questions about ‘originals’. If it seemed that the scholarship first produced was the ‘original’, is the (present) paper produced as a result of critical re-visitation an original of a different, receding (or progressing) kind? Uncovering ways in which I, in retrospect, interpret Alzheimer’s discourse from a Derridean perspective raises ...
Issues in Applied Linguistics, 1996
Advanced writing courses in manyfreshman composition programs stress the importance of teaching c... more Advanced writing courses in manyfreshman composition programs stress the importance of teaching critical thinking skills where studentsboth LI and L2are encouraged to examine and question the social world they inhabit. Derived from an analysis of 12 current freshman composition textbooks, we identify three common "channels" through which student-writers are inducted into the critical thinking practice. These three channels are: (1) using informal logic as a way of developing students' reasoning strategies, (2) developing and refining students' problem solving skills, and (3) developing students' ability to analyze hidden assumptions in 'everyday arguments. ' This study calls attention to the problematic nature of these "channels " and to some implications of transferring these channels in L2 writing classrooms. We believe that critical thinking is largely a sociocognitive practice that draws significantly on shared cultural practices and norms that mainstream students have (had) access to. ESL student-writers, however, given their diverse sociocultural backgrounds, have not necessarily been socialized in ways that would make induction into critical thinking a (relatively) smooth process (Atkinson & Ramanathan, 1995). Using critical thinking textbooks (written by and large for LI students) then, in L2 writing classrooms has complex consequences. Based on our current examination and previous study (Ramanathan & Kaplan, 1996a), we propose a discipline oriented approach to teaching writing, especially for non-native student-writers. The plethora of materialsprograms, textbooks, appraisal kitspublished on critical thinking (CT) over the last decade points partially to how problematic this notion has become in education-related circles. National appraisals on the state of education belittle rote memory and cry out for the inclusion of thinking/ reasoning skills in curricula as the fourth 'R' (Siegel, 1990). The Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession (1986) and the Holmes group (1986) stress the importance of teaching thinking skills to both students and teachers. The Commission on the Humanities (1980), the College Board (1983) and the National Education Association (Futrell, 1987) similarly promote the incorporation of teaching thinking skills in current curricula; many mainstream universities in the U.S. require their students to take CT courses. Not only does there seem to be much debate over what the phrase means and how to define it (Ennis, 1962; Glaser, Issues in Applied Linguistics
Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 2018
Communication & Medicine, 2016
This paper addresses issues around the automatic repetition of particular memories in the narrati... more This paper addresses issues around the automatic repetition of particular memories in the narratives / blog accounts of individuals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Based on a long-term project that examines how people with various bodyrelated conditions and ailments write or speak about their bodies, the focus of this paper is on 80 blog accounts wherein individuals with PTSD write both about living with the condition and about their steps towards healing themselves. The paper pays special attention to how the act of repeated blogging counters the paralyzing repetition in their heads, leading them to re-cognize particular distressing life-events and thus creating alternate episodic structures (Gee 1992). In particular, the article addresses: What insights about repetition and memory are we able to glean from PTSD pathographies, and in what ways does current scholarship in narrative analysis, applied sociolinguistics, and psychology permit a more complex understanding of ...
Issues in Applied Linguistics, Jun 30, 1991
This study in linguistic stylistics examines the coherence in Sam Shepard's play Fool for Love by... more This study in linguistic stylistics examines the coherence in Sam Shepard's play Fool for Love by focussing on the relationship of speech exchanges to frames and the relationship offrames to one another. A frame, defined as the activity that the speakers are engaged in, consists of two types: (1) single-speaker frames, which involve only one speaker and an implied or passive listener, and (2) multi-speaker frames, which involve more than one speaker. The following paper, however, will examine only multi-speaker frames. Because frame analysis enables one to focus on units larger than those usually examined in linguistic stylistics, it can be seen to provide a clearer understanding of textual coherence in dramatic texts. Specifically, the study argues that both coherence in Shepard's play results when speech exchanges and frames are formed into patterns which the reader perceives as unified wholes, and that coherence may result when even discontinuous utterances are organized into a pattern which the reader can perceive as a unified whole. On a larger scale, it is shown that discontinous frames can themselves be arranged into a pattern which can be perceived as coherent by the reader, and that overall coherence depends not upon continuity between frames, but rather on the arrangement of discontinous or continuous frames into a coherent whole.
TESOL Quarterly, 2007
... private" or elite schools, most (but not all) of which are religion-based but ... Langua... more ... private" or elite schools, most (but not all) of which are religion-based but ... Language educationpolicies and practices especially take on a particular signifi-cance in this ... in an English lan-guageteacher education degree program in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and outlines ...
Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 2009
The paper offers a critical discussion of notions of self as they emerge in texts written by Alzh... more The paper offers a critical discussion of notions of self as they emerge in texts written by Alzheimer patients and their caregivers. It explores how diary-writing becomes a means of agency by which some ontological sense of 'self' gets scripted in the process of memory's slipping away. Specifically, the paper explores how two themes-namely, sure signs and repetition, and intentionality and experience-can be seen to crucially inform the patients' need to text their fading hold on language and memories into place. This need to 'fix' selves and experiences contests particular strains of poststructuralist ideas that insist that bodies are performed, fluid and changeable. Although infusing ideas about dynamism into our discourses of bodies is crucial, being aware of contexts where such discourses may not be as feasible is important as well, if only to increase our awareness of the universalizing tendencies of particular discourses. The diaries of Alzheimer patients and those who care for them give us entry into contexts in which the stabilizing (through writing) of a sense of self may be a critical way of surviving and coping. Estragon: All the dead voices Vladimir: They all speak at once Estragon: Each one to itself Vladimir: What do they say? Estragon: They talk about their lives Vladimir: To have lived is not enough for them. Estragon: They have to talk about it.
The Routledge Handbook of Language and Health Communication, 2010
The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism, 2009
This edited book addresses ways in which "bodies"-conceived broadly- get languaged, and... more This edited book addresses ways in which "bodies"-conceived broadly- get languaged, and ways in which ideas of "normalcy" and "normal" bodies are held in place and reproduced. The articles show how it is through this medium that people with ailments or "unusual" bodies get positioned and slotted in certain ways. Calling attention to a host of discourses- biomedical, societal, poststructuralist- the chapters pierce the general veil of silence that we have collectively drawn regarding how some of our most intimate body (dis)functions impact our everyday living and sense of "normalcy".
TESOL Quarterly, 1995
Nonnative-speaking (NNS) undergraduates at U.S. universities frequently proceed from ESL or Engli... more Nonnative-speaking (NNS) undergraduates at U.S. universities frequently proceed from ESL or English for academic purposes writing classes directly into freshman composition. Although this sequence of events may be an effective means of getting students into the academic writing mainstream, there have been some suggestions to the contrary. Taking an ethnographic approach, this study describes the contrasting cultural norms of academic writing and academic writing instruction at a large U.S. university. It then compares these differing viewpoints in order to identify difficulties that NNSs might experience in proceeding from the former program to the latter.
Language Policy, 2009
... through a telling anecdote of a language trainer's assessment of a telephone role play a... more ... through a telling anecdote of a language trainer's assessment of a telephone role play activity ... Beneath this intensity, bottom right, we see a small group of women dressed in bright ... and call centre phenomenon may actually inhibit or reverse the promotion of Indian varieties of ...
Kritika Kultura, 2008
This brief response addresses concerns raised by Ruanni Tupas in his reading of my book, The Engl... more This brief response addresses concerns raised by Ruanni Tupas in his reading of my book, The English-Vernacular Divide. It provides some background about my study, and attempts to uncover some researching and texting tensions I experienced when writing the book. Straddling as I am different geographic spaces-India and the US-with different discourses regarding English language learning and teaching in each space, the response details how my focus on the local and everyday became a way of showing how some discourses about English (its being a democratizing force, or the language of empowerment) run the risk of turning a blind eye to issues of poverty, access and "other languages, issues that are crucial for TESOL to address.
Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 2009
Taking the case of postcolonial India, this paper explores ways in which present temporal junctur... more Taking the case of postcolonial India, this paper explores ways in which present temporal junctures permit a probing of historical boundaries to speak of voices largely silenced from Indian historiography, namely those of British (Indian) public citizens who were committed to the assembling of “an India.” In particular, the paper discusses ways in which letters to and by Charles Andrews,
Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 2006
This article offers an interconnected, grounded understanding of how two Gandhian endeavours in t... more This article offers an interconnected, grounded understanding of how two Gandhian endeavours in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, make us rethink the notion of "education" in terms of civic and communal engagement. Drawing on local, vernacular ways of living, learning, being, reasoning, and believing-in this case Gujarati-I show how these endeavours engage in civically minded projects in the wake of two devastating events in the city, namely a massive earthquake in 2001 and horrendous Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002. The exploration is intended to not only move us all toward rethinking traditional notions of "education," but toward offering insights into how critical practice functions in non-Western contexts.
Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2003
Press. 351 pages. While anthologies by their very nature run the risk of being diffuse, un-integr... more Press. 351 pages. While anthologies by their very nature run the risk of being diffuse, un-integrated and to some extent, entities whose coherence is generally 'massaged,' Diane Belcher and Alan Hirvela's new volume, Linking Literacies, is a clear and marked exception. And it isn't only for its organization that this volume stands out. The reflection that has gone into constructing the volume; the value of the themes that the editors have deemed worthy of attention; and the foreword, interlude, and afterword that frame the essays convey degrees of clarity, precision and a sweep of the field that are rare. The book's overarching themes are connections between reading and writing (R-W), themes seriously underinvestigated in the field. While L2 writing has come into its own in the last decade or so, it has, for the most part, remained preoccupied with issues internal to the writing realm-approaches to teaching writing, peerreview, writing textbooks-with little attention paid to integrating valuable peripheral areas, such as reading. It is this effort that distinguishes this volume: not satisfied with picking holes in previously established areas of writing, it strikes out to pull in realms of reading, thus creating interest and hopefully opening up new areas of research pursuit. The book delineates four key areas in which reading and writing connections are apparent-in previous research and history, in the classroom, in the areas of textual ownership and in areas of human-computer interaction-and the readings in each section simultaneously offer comprehensive yet penetrating insight into this nexus. In the first section ''Grounding practice: Theory, research and history,'' the authors-Grabe, Carson and Matsuda-divergently frame R-W for us. Grabe's essay not only offers an extensive literature review of R-W theories, but also discusses ways in which a teacher can make explicit links between R and W in the writing classroom. Carson's essay examines R and W in three disciplines at Georgia State-biology, history and psychology-and based on interviews with students, professors, and R-W tasks in and of classes, she arrives at several valuable conclusions including that overlapping information in lectures and textbooks provides pointers to students regarding ''important'' information and that cognitively challenging tasks demand being able to ''read'' texts in ways where students learn to sift the crucial from the trivial. This is followed by Matsuda's penetrating discussion of whether the neglect of the (L2) written language was indeed a result of the rise in
Current Issues in Language Planning, 2005
At a time when connections between English and globalisation seem stronger than ever, and at a ti... more At a time when connections between English and globalisation seem stronger than ever, and at a time when the 'dominant' status of English vis-à-vis other languages is very prominent, it seems imperative for the LPP scholarship to make room for grounded explorations regarding English and its relationship to vernacular languages in non-Western educational contexts. Drawing on an eight-year ethnographic study of English-and-vernacular-medium education in Gujarat, India, this paper argues that it may be time for language planning and policy studies to adopt a situated approach that begins addressing issues around language planning-and policy-related inequities by first focusing on what is on the ground. 1 By gaining insight into how divides between English and other languages are perpetuated by the enforcement of particular policies and by understanding how institutions and humans refashion and re-plan theirs and others lives by countering language policies, such an orientation opens up a way for us to go beyond thinking of language policies as entities that 'happen to' humans by allowing us to view language policies as hybrid entities that draw their force and movement from the lives of real peoples and their motivations. Such an approach is partially intended toward countering the top-down tendency of much LPP scholarship.
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Papers by Vaidehi Ramanathan