Abstract
As intercultural communication becomes routine for many technical communication practitioners worldwide, a nuanced understanding of cross-cultural communication practices and productive ways to teach them is essential for everyone who educates the next generation of technical communicators. The collection Teaching Intercultural Rhetoric and Technical Communication: Theories, Curriculum, Pedagogies and Practices, edited by Barry Thatcher and Kirk St.Amant, provides a wealth of resources for academics, corporate trainers, and practitioners aiming to address the pedagogical exigencies of globalization in technical communication. The collection is organized in three different sections: Section 1, “Teaching Approaches,” contains chapters about practical strategies applicable to classroom instruction; Section 2, “Curricular Perspectives,” focuses on general curricular considerations as well as examples of technical communication curricula in different countries; and Section 3, “Connecting Instruction to Professional Practices,” highlights how knowledge about intercultural rhetoric is transferred from places of learning to the workplace in different national and international organizations.
One of the strengths of this collection is that most chapters do not focus solely on a single aspect of teaching intercultural rhetoric but also provide connections between the major pedagogical points featured in the other sections of the book. A good example is Yvonne Cleary’s chapter in Section 1 (about teaching approaches) that discusses not only pedagogical practices but also curricular considerations (the topic of Section 2). Another strong point of the book lies in the diversity of its contributors. Its list of contributors includes professors and practitioners from various countries as well as academics from the United States. Accounts from India, France, Israel, and New Zealand provide rare insights into the state and specific contexts of technical communication instruction in these countries and also describe diverse strategies used to teach intercultural communication in academic and workplace training programs. These various accounts underline the global interconnectedness of technical communication and highlight the importance of localizing the pedagogical strategies presented in the book.
The authors in Section 1 introduce practical approaches for addressing specific aspects of technical communication in the classroom. In the first chapter, to increase students’ intercultural awareness, Cleary suggests adopting a four-part framework that includes incorporating intercultural rhetoric in all courses throughout the curriculum and involves activities by both students and faculty outside the classroom. Thus, students are encouraged to get to know other cultures directly through opportunities provided by study-abroad programs, foreign language instruction, online forums, and international professional organizations. In addition, Cleary argues, faculty can internationalize technical communication programs by forging strong working relationships with international colleagues and representatives of transnational corporations.
The visual aspect of teaching intercultural communication is at the forefront of the second chapter, in which Charles Kostelnick suggests that instructors can create an easily accessible gateway into complex issues of intercultural communication by asking students to analyze visuals from different cultures. He explains that when students encounter visuals from different countries and are asked to design visuals for other cultures, they had better understand the connection between culture and rhetoric. Kostelnick also argues that teaching students about the two most prevalent approaches to intercultural visual design, modernist and postmodernist, will enable them to find the right balance between universalistic and particularistic approaches to design. Kostelnick provides instructional resources, including a list of questions to be asked in the analytical assignment and four different intercultural visual-design assignments.
Fostering intercultural collaboration is the focus of the third chapter in Section 1. Poornima Padmanabhan starts out by explaining the connections between outsourcing, the high number of software companies, and the rise of the technical communication profession in India. She then points out that in India, most technical communicators receive more professional training on the job than in universities, so developing practitioners’ intercultural collaboration skills is one of the most important tasks of technical communication instruction in Indian contexts. The chapter concludes with seven practical strategies that can be used not only with Indian counterparts but also in other countries in order to equip students and inexperienced practitioners with important intercultural teamwork skills and rhetorical competencies. While Padmanabhan highlights the salience of on-the-job training in India, Makarand (Mak) Pandit, in another chapter on India in Section 2, focuses on India’s formal education, describing the curriculum of the first technical communication program at the University of Pune. As it becomes clear from Pandit’s thorough program description, the curriculum reflects the influence of the software industry in India’s technical communication and is aimed at preparing students for careers in the information technology businesses that are so prevalent in the country.
In the final chapter of Section 1, Emily A. Thrush and Angela Thevenot urge technical communication instructors to take advantage of linguistic diversity in U.S. technical communication classrooms. The practical advice in this chapter helps instructors to tailor their teaching practices to the needs of international (often nonnative-English-speaking) students. Thrush and Thevenot suggest that the presence of international students in the classroom can be a great instructional resource because interactions with these students provide invaluable lessons in intercultural communication for native-English-speaking students. To illustrate this, the authors describe an intercultural class project where native and nonnative speakers work together to explore cultural difference in global contexts.
In the first chapter of Section 2, Shelley L. Smith and Victoria M. Mikelonis discuss the difficulties involved in internationalizing the technical communication curriculum; they suggest using a theoretical framework to teach intercultural communication in a way that addresses developing intercultural sensitivity. Further, they emphasize that faculty can only be effective at teaching about cultural differences after they have personally experienced the value of transformational learning that challenges deeply seated cultural assumptions. To that end, they describe a faculty training unit (including a schedule) that is aimed at expanding instructors’ consciousness about cultural differences.
In the next chapter, Deborah C. Andrews and Brent Henze also emphasize the importance of gaining a deeper understanding of cultural differences by becoming immersed in a foreign culture; however, they do so in the context of four professional communication courses conducted in combination with study-abroad programs in various locations and formats. Based on their experience with these courses, the authors provide a set of recommendations (e.g., maintain small class sizes and consider local technology constraints) that are useful for instructors who plan to teach such courses.
Section 2 also contains two chapters that address the intersection of translation and intercultural technical communication. Based on the findings from a case study conducted during a professional training seminar with American and Japanese businesspeople, James Melton outlines four competencies that contribute to the success of intercultural training programs. Linguistic competence ranks high in contributing to such success because speaking the language of communication partners at any level can increase empathy and the likelihood of agreement between people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Effective translation skills, Melton points out, also contribute to the success of intercultural training. He identifies effective translators not only by their knowledge of the target language but also by their cultural and contextual knowledge and collaboration skills. Dacia Dressen-Hammouda’s chapter describes the curriculum of a master’s degree program in intercultural technical communication in France that emphasizes writing and rhetorical skills as opposed to translation, which is typically the focus of traditional technical communication programs in France. While Dressen-Hammouda does acknowledge the importance of teaching translation skills in France, she affirms that technical communication students here could also greatly benefit from more writing-centered instruction, which would increase audience awareness and knowledge of genres and rhetorical principles. She concludes with cultural and localization advice for technical communicators who plan to work with French practitioners.
Section 3 maintains the truly international character of this collection. Specifically, chapters in this section connect aspects of technical communication education with a variety of workplace contexts in several countries. Lyn F. Gattis explains how the concept of contextual reading can help students who participate in international internships to move successfully through different stages of employment. She argues that when technical communication students are prepared by their instructors to critically evaluate each new situation that they encounter in internships abroad, they will be better able to align their practices with cultural and organizational expectations. According to Gattis, incorporating cross-cultural case studies, organizational analysis, action-oriented reflection, and real-life projects are also ways in which instructors can promote students’ development of contextual reading skills that are helpful when encountering foreign workplace cultures. Thomas L. Warren’s chapter acquaints the reader with working procedures of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and uses this organization’s decision-making process to illustrate how consensus can be reached when stakeholders from many different countries are involved in establishing international standards. He highlights that the key to successful cross-cultural communication in international working groups and committees that need to agree on written standards is to adhere to another standard, the ISO directives (checklists containing technical draft requirements). Thus, Warren argues, through a close study of directives and standards, technical communication students can learn much about working in intercultural teams to produce documents for international audiences. He includes several exercises using ISO material that can be incorporated into teaching intercultural rhetoric in the technical communication classroom.
Authors of the last two chapters explain how the technical communication profession has taken root in their respective countries in response to the emergence of specific industries. They describe the educational practices that have developed to accommodate the need for such professionals. Leah Guren’s chapter on technical communication in Israel illustrates that localizing the general pedagogical practices used elsewhere is absolutely necessary in Israel in order to train practitioners who can function in its fast-paced, multicultural and multilingual, high-tech industries. She argues that because technical communication instruction only exists in the form of commercial training programs in Israel and because people entering the profession through these training programs are adults training for a new occupation, instruction in these programs needs to be theoretically based but highly practice oriented. In addition, she argues that specific instruction about Israeli workplace culture is necessary because many program participants are recent immigrants to Israel. The connection between the emergence of the technical communication profession and the information technology industry is also emphasized in Richard Draper’s chapter on New Zealand. Although some higher education institutions participate in technical communication education in New Zealand, the guidelines used in their programs are highly influenced by the practices of the most prominent high-tech company in the country. According to Draper, although the field of technical communication is relatively young in New Zealand, educational institutions there were among the first to offer technical communication courses online.
These final chapters echo the book’s overall commitment to the wide range of issues that need to be addressed when teaching intercultural rhetoric in technical communication courses and programs. They also point to the variety of national, cultural, linguistic, and corporate environments for which technical communication students need to be prepared. To aid instructors and corporate trainers in this challenging task, the collection can be used as both a reference source about pedagogical and workplace practices in specific countries and an instructional resource that provides carefully developed assignments and program guidelines. In addition, the pedagogical approaches and program guidelines discussed in the book are built on clearly identified theoretical foundations. Thus, the book successfully achieves the goal outlined in the Introduction—to help educators “provide students with a foundation of theory and guided practices” (p. 3) that are crucial for succeeding in the globalized workplace.