Welcome to The Devil's Tongue 2016-2017!

Welcome to The Devil's Tongue reading group!

When I started The Devil's Tongue reading group last fall, this is what I had to say on why the reading group exists:

"Inspired by Dr. Rich Rice's writings and teachings, I am interested in learning how various Englishes and how various levels of those Englishes and their derivatives (e.g. technical communication) are taught throughout the world. Presented with the opportunity to engage in critical analysis of Xiaoye You's Writing in the Devil's Tongue: A History of English Composition in China with Chinese scholars at Texas Tech University, I invite my friends and colleagues to join in synchronous and asynchronous discussion of this book. Please post online and/or join us in person, or merely share your experiences of teaching abroad in English, the devil's tongue.

Purpose: You writes (xii), "This book has been written for both composition teachers in the United States and English teachers in the rest of the world. The purpose is to bring the parties together to generate productive conversations." Let's come together to generate productive conversations!" 

Working with several international scholars from around the world, in the U.S. and abroad, I enjoy meeting new people and sharing in diverse intellectual conversations about why and how we educate--especially non-native English speakers. Previously, in The Devil's Tongue reading group, we read and discussed the following books:


West Meets East: Best Practices from Expert Teachers in the U.S. and China. Grant et al. share their research in comparing pedagogical practices in U.S. and Chinese elementary in schools. We learned a lot about our students' and teachers' experiences that shaped the students we see in higher ed. This helped us learn how to adapt our teaching to accommodate such diverse students in the present era.









Faculty Development and Student Learning. Condon et al. share their multi-year research among two writing programs in U.S. universities discussing: "recent research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to assessment of faculty development and its effectiveness, the authors show that faculty participation in professional development activities positively affects classroom pedagogy, student learning, and the overall culture of teaching and learning in a college or university."





This year, I have worked with Dr. Rice to continue our readings every other week on the topics of

• Managing Cultural Differences
• Careers Around the World
• how digital humanities have developed in the U.S. and abroad, and
• how digital humanities have become the binding thread of managing cultural diversity and leading our students to careers through effective and purpose-driven higher education.

We'll be reading selections from Moran and Abramson's Managing Cultural Differences; Crompton and Lane's Doing Digital Humanities; and Briscoe, Hall, and Mayrhofer's Careers Around the World.

In addition to these readings, we often share our personal and professional experiences. The group aims to bring scholars together for intellectual discussion and fun. This year, I hope we might also include some "field trips" to various TTU events, museums, sites, and resources.

Our reading group is comprised of me, a PhD student in Technical Communication and Rhetoric; Dr. Rich Rice, our faculty advisor; graduate students of TTU; TTU English Department's current visiting scholars from China and South Korea; previous visiting scholars; and scholars from U.S. universities. Some scholars are participating synchronously face-to-face, while others are contributing asynchronously online. We welcome questions and comments from anyone anywhere in the world. Please join us. Feel free to email me directly: brandy.bippes (at) ttu.edu.

I'm looking forward to working with you in The Devil's Tongue this year!
Brandy