Prompts - Materializing Transligualism

Rhetorical Analysis Prompts

Ainsley Kelly’s rhetorical analysis prompts ask students to analyze texts in genres and languages of their choosing. In this assignment, academic English is not given priority over other discourse; students learn that it’s how language is used that matters. Ainsley’s students have written on the way memes are used to subvert censorship in political discourse in China, grassroots theater in China. One student created a Chinese comic for children.

TJ Walker’s assignment sequence targets multiple skills, moving from rhetorical analysis to literacy narrative, to research paper. Throughout, students analyze diverse language practices and consider the rhetorical impact of linguistic choices that diverge from “standard” American English.

Kelly Prompt 1

Kelly Prompt 2

Walker Prompt

Research and Inquiry Prompts

Emily George, Holly Shelton, and Sumyat Thu contributed word inquiry prompts. In Holly’s words, “The Word Inquiry assignment specifically focuses on rhetorical attunement within and across languages, and has students connect to different ways people use the 'same' word or concept based on different experiences and purposes.”

Sunao Fukunaga and TJ Walker’s research sequences target synthesis, inquiry, and argumentation through themes of language, identity, and perspective.

George Prompt Fukunaga Prompt	Shelton Prompt 1	Thu Prompt Walker Prompt
	Shelton Prompt 2

Literacy Narrative Prompts

Ahmad Alharthi, Avram Blum, Sunao Fukunaga, Sara Lovett, Alex Smith, and Sumyat Thu all contributed critical approaches to the familiar literacy narrative genre. These prompts ask students not only to identify their language practices, but also to synthesize, contextualize, and analyze these practices and their stakes. Sara and Sumyat’s prompts encourage students to take multimodal approaches. Sunao and Alex each offer a sequence of assignments to scaffold the critical literacy narrative, and Sara’s includes readings and lesson plans.

Alharthi Prompt Smith Prompt 1

Blum Prompt Smith Prompt 2

Fukunaga Prompt Thu Prompt

Lovett Prompt

 Multimodal Prompts

Many prompts can be adapted to incorporate multimodality, but Zhenzhen He-Weatherford’s assignment sequence foregrounds multimodality as a central skill. Multimodality, like translingualism, conceives of language as fluid and plural. Like languages, modes and genres overlap and challenge norms in ways that help students understand the rhetorical effects of language in a broader sociopolitical context.

He-Weatherford Prompt