Exploring the Translingual Possibilities in English Academic Writing for Publishing Purposes

Hacer Hande Uysal

Hacettepe University

English is now the lingua franca of scientific knowledge and research publication. However, written academic discourse in English is highly standardized and embedded in Anglo-American cultural rhetoric, which does not allow deviations from its strict linguistic and rhetorical norms. Recently, this imposition of English rhetorical norms on NNS scholars has raised the issues of linguistic and cultural hegemony. The diffusion of powerful Anglo-American rhetoric through writing instruction has been a significant concern as a threat to other cultural rhetorics worldwide. To resist this hegemony, practicing translanguaging in writing or code-meshing L1 and L2 rhetoric was suggested as a critical pedagogical model to add creativity and diversity to academic writing. This paper explores the possibility of translingual practices or code-meshing L1 and L2 rhetoric while teaching English academic writing for scholarly publishing purposes.