Metropolitan writing practices in a local context : a Southern theory-informed critical discourse analysis of knowledge production and dissemination in the discipline of second language writing in Thailand
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2022
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2565
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eng
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291 leaves
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b215497
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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National Institute of Development Administration. Library and Information Center
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Kiatipong Rerkwanchai (2022). Metropolitan writing practices in a local context : a Southern theory-informed critical discourse analysis of knowledge production and dissemination in the discipline of second language writing in Thailand. Retrieved from: https://repository.nida.ac.th/handle/662723737/6921.
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Metropolitan writing practices in a local context : a Southern theory-informed critical discourse analysis of knowledge production and dissemination in the discipline of second language writing in Thailand
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Abstract
The dominance of metropolitan academic writing practices has been examined
in many studies in various fields. However, the focus of these studies seems to be on
journals published by publishers based in the Global North, defined in this study as
the U.S. and European countries (Dados and Connell, 2012). This dissertation shifts
the focus from Anglophone-based artefacts and contexts to academic journals and
textbooks produced in Thailand, a country located in the Global South, a term
referring to countries located outside North America and Europe. It is aimed at
exploring the extent to which periphery scholars conform to or deviate from
metropolitan writing practices, while also attempting to account for such conformity
and/or deviation. To achieve these goals, two sets of data consisting of 34 academic
articles in PASAA, a local non-Anglophone academic journal, and 6 locally-produced
college-level English writing textbooks were examined using the integrated southern
theory-informed critical discourse analysis. The analysis involved quantitative
analysis and deductive coding procedures to identify the presence and absence of
writing practices which have been found to be characteristic of metropolitan writing
practices, including claim of universality, reading from the center, metropolitan
conventions of scholarly writing, the use of the English language, and the
employment of Anglophone-based cultural content. Further, to account for the
authors’ choices to either conform to or deviate from such writing practices, the three
layers of critical discourse analysis—that is, text analysis, discursive practices, and
sociocultural practices—were examined. As an interdisciplinary project, text analysis
included close reading, which is a hallmark practice in the humanities, and transitivity analysis, which is a common text analysis in the social sciences. Data regarding
discursive and sociocultural practices were collected from document research;
surveys; academic public talks; and interviews with an academic journal editor, two
journal reviewers, and two experts on genre studies. The analysis reveals that, despite
evidence of conformity, writing practices of scholars publishing in local venues also
seem to deviate from the metropolitan conventions in varying degrees, which could be
ascribed to particular rhetorical situations and the influences of American ideologies
(particularly, the culture of publish or perish and capitalism) that seem to be
backfiring. Based on the findings, this dissertation argues that in contrast to previous
literature pointing to a rather total domination of metropolitan writing practices in
academic knowledge production and dissemination, other alternative writing practices
in fact can find a footing in locally-produced journal articles and textbooks, meaning
that there is still space and hope for nonmetropolitan writing practices to thrive. This
understanding is important because it could help raise the status of local journals and
textbooks, from being ascribed of as low quality and of less value, to be ones that
could provide space for scholars in the Global South to express their identities and
creativities, and to some extent to challenge the Anglophone dominance, in order to
create a more democratic knowledge production and dissemination. Moreover, for this
challenge to be sustainable, editors, reviewers, and writers should work in tandem;
that is, editors and reviewers might consider being more generous to alternative
writing practices, and researchers should also prioritize their local audience and be
aware of the ideologies that are working their writing practices.
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Thesis (Ph.D. (Language and Communication))--National Institute of Development Administration, 2022