Rhetorical and Linguistic Flexibility

This chapter discusses different “trans” understandings of writing and English in relation to questions of rhetorical and linguistic flexibility. These are considered in the context of new evolutions in world dynamics that have highlighted growing interconnectedness and globalization. The chapter raises questions about the relationship between what we see in writing research and what we teach about writing in multilingual contexts, as well as between academic expectations versus professional ones for language use and writing. Five models for language and writing in this transnational context are presented and compared: translingualism, metrolingualism, plurilinguisme, cosmopolitanism, and heteroglossia. Finally, implications for research and teaching grounded in these models are considered.