A Review of “Language in the academy: cultural reflexivity and intercultural dynamics”

In higher education, language use is prevalent, though often marginalized. Two prominent examples would be the conducting of tutorials and the writing of academic essays. Why do we conduct tutorials in a certain way and not in others? What are the expected roles for tutors and students in a tutorial? Where do such expectations come from? What are the requirements of writing an academic essay? Why are such requirements emphasized? For many academic practitioners, these issues may surface in their academic career but are seldom questioned. We teach or learn in a certain mode, assuming that this is the only mode of teaching or learning and thus ignoring or even condemning any other modes of teaching or learning that are valued in other cultures. However, as contemporary higher education has become increasingly internationalized, taken-for-granted language practices need to be reviewed and subjected to critique. Turner’s book Language in the Academy: Cultural Reflexivity and Intercultural Dynamics is a systematic attempt to address a number of issues related to language use by showcasing existing practices, uncovering their intellectual cultural history, comparing and contrasting the practices with those of a different culture and highlighting occurrences of transformation of language practices effected during intercultural encounters. In the hope of interculturally rewriting language in the academy, the book is intended for EAP (English for academic purposes) practitioners, modern foreign language teachers/researchers and those focusing on learning and teaching in higher education more generally (13). The book has 14 chapters, with the first chapter providing an overview, and the rest of the book a detailed discussion of a number of major themes regarding language practices in higher education. In Chapter 1, Turner provides a general overview of what she intends the book to achieve. Through analyses of intercultural encounters that occur in higher education, especially those between tutors and students, she aims to provide a range of interpretative possibilities for understanding such encounters. Related to this aim, she intends to frame language practices as an object of cultural theory, seeing preferred ways of language practices in pedagogic academic contexts as ‘linguistic and rhetorical inscriptions of cultural values’ (3). Furthermore, she advocates a cultural reflexive approach, examining how the Socratic and Confucian pedagogic heritages perform alongside each other and subtly transform practice and performance in intercultural communication. In Chapter 2, ‘Language, language pedagogies and intercultural communication in contemporary higher education’, Turner discusses issues related to ways of language use in higher education which many ‘home’ and international students may find unfamiliar. To address such a need, language-related pedagogies such as study skills, EAP and ‘academic literacies’ emerge to induct both ‘home’ and international students into the academic culture. But often norms and ways of using language for academic purposes are fluid and