Academic Writing and Interdisciplinarity

Book excerpt: Applied linguistics as a discipline embodies a wide canvass of knowledge pertaining to language studies. One dimension of this knowledge that has whetted the appetite of scholars is student academic writing. Professor Chandrasoma´s book critically explores academic interdisciplinarity, a relatively new area of student writing in our contemporary contexts, from different perspectives: approaches to ESL/EFL/EAP, disciplinary integration, linguistic capital, pedagogical practices in applied linguistics, generically diverse assessment tasks, extra-disciplinarity, pedagogic desire, curricular issues, and socio-economic imperatives. His work also offers a comprehensive study of how student writers grapple with interdisciplinary knowledge in the academy. In Chapter two, the author introduces a typology of interdisciplinarity, and he substantiates his claims with empirical evidence, thus demystifying its abstract and vague definitions abounding in the literature. This is an area where he really breaks fresh grounds. The intellectual intensity of this book emerges largely from the novel concepts introduced in his discussions on interdisciplinary integration in the university curricula in the last two decades. Since almost every discipline has crossed its boundaries, student writing has become a more complex and intricate academic exercise as has never been before. Professor Chandrasoma emphasizes the need for knowledge for specific purposes programs peripheral to the currently used English for academic/specific purposes programs in universities in order to enculturate novice student writers into the new culture of interdisciplinary integration. This seminal work proposes critical interdisciplinarity as a sustainable pedagogical practice to cope with a plethora of difficulties encountered by student writers at various stages of constructing their texts. The book meets a long felt need as evidenced by the paucity of literature on interdisciplinary studies in particular reference to student writing. Hence this book is an asset to language teachers, academic support advisors, curriculum developers, researchers in linguistics, and student writers. As far as academic disciplines are concerned, the book has a specific focus on English language (ESL/EFL/EAP), applied linguistics, and education. The book will also serve as an invaluable resource for various programs where academic literacies are vital. In particular it lends itself to programs such as foundation studies, developmental education, and interdisciplinary studies both at graduate and postgraduate levels in universities and colleges.