Syntax and Ethics: Voices of Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers in American Classrooms

This paper articulates the ethical implications of syntactical maneuvering, or the invention of a minor language within language. It draws on the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze to shed light on a fundamental aspect of our languaging practice. It promotes an alternative understanding of power: power as the capacity to affect and to be affected, with focus put on the latter, in order to advocate an ethos of self-cultivation. The paper also cautions against mistaking all syntactical maneuvering as embodying a minor sensibility. My SECOND presentation directly addresses the conference theme of voice