Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the future of the sociolinguistics of science—emphasize that English’s historical moment of dominance in scientific practice is exactly that, a moment that is already in the process of passing. It argues that the section on pedagogy for using search engines and corpus tools freely available online to study genres of disciplinary communication; and shows how these might be used in the classroom to teach about the specific writing expectations of sub-fields in the sciences. The book suggests another ‘wave of thinking’ about scientific discourses that can look at the ‘spontaneous assemblages of human and nonhuman actors’ while staying mindful of multiple levels of economic political structures proper to Marxist analyses. It presents a compelling case for exploring Twitter conversations to better understand how scientists engage disagreeable, and sometimes angry, publics that are dead set on disproving a finding.