Politics of Second Language Writing, The

Description

The Politics of Second Language Writing: In Search of the Promised Land is the first edited collection to present a sustained discussion of classroom practices in larger contexts of institutional politics and policies.

Sujets

• Politique
• English
• Language
• Lettres et linguistique
• Foreign Language study

Informations

• Publié par: Parlor Press, LLC
• Date de parution: 04 août 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781602359826
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Second Language Writing
Series Editor, Paul Kei Matsuda
Second language writing emerged in the late twentieth century as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry, and an increasing number of researchers from various related fields—including applied linguistics, communication, composition studies, and education—have come to identify themselves as second language writing specialists. The Second Language Writing series aims to facilitate the advancement of knowledge in the field of second language writing by publishing scholarly and research-based monographs and edited collections that provide significant new insights into central topics and issues in the field.


The Politics of Second Language Writing
In Search of the Promised Land
Editors
Paul Kei Matsuda
Christina Ortmeier-Hooper
Xiaoye You

Parlor Press
West Lafayette, Indiana
www.parlorpress.com


Parlor Press LLC, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906
© 2006 by Parlor Press
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The politics of second language writing : in search of the promised land / editors, Paul Kei Matsuda, Christina Ortmeier-Hooper, Xiaoye You.
p. cm. -- (Second language writing)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-932559-33-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 1-932559-11-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 1-932559-37-X (adobe ebook)
1. Language and languages--Study and teaching. 2. Rhetoric--Study and teaching. I. Matsuda, Paul Kei. II. Ortmeier-Hooper, Christina, 1972- III. You, Xiaoye, 1974-
P53.27.P65 2006
808’.040711--dc22
2006020017
Cover design by Paul Kei Matsuda
Printed on acid-free paper.
Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paper, cloth and Adobe eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 8 1 6 Robinson St., West Lafayette, Indiana, 47906, or e-mail [e-mail].


Contents
Preface
The Politics of L2 Writers in U.S. K-12 Schools
1 Writing Development and Biliteracy
Danling Fu and Marylou Matoush
2 Reforming High School Writing: Opportunities and Constraints for Generation 1.5 Writers
Kerry Enright Villalva
The Politics of L2 Writing Support Programs
3 The Legacy of First-Year Composition
Ilona Leki
4 Improving Institutional ESL/EAP Support for International Students: Seeking the Promised Land
Ryuko Kubota and Kimberly Abels
5 No ESL Allowed: A Case Exploring University and College Writing Program Practices
Angela M. Dadak
6 The Role(s) of Writing Centers in Second Language Writing Instruction
Jessica Williams
The Politics of English Writing for Academic and Professional Purposes
7 Understanding Context for Writing in University Content Classrooms
Wei Zhu
8 EAP and Technical Writing Without Borders: The Impact of Departmentalization on the Teaching and Learning of Academic Writing in a First and Second Language
Guillaume Gentil
9 Different Writers, Different Writing: Preparing International Teaching Assistants for Instructional Literacy
Kevin Eric DePew
10 Globalization and the Politics of Teaching EFL Writing
Xiaoye You
The Politics of Second Language Writing Assessment
11 The Politics of Implementing Online Directed Self-Placement for Second Language Writers
Deborah Crusan
12 Investing in Assessment: Designing Tests to Promote Positive Washback
Sara Cushing Weigle
The Politics of the Profession
13 Mapping Postsecondary Classifications and Second Language Writing Research in the United States
Jessie Moore Kapper
14 Institutional Politics in the Teaching of Advanced Academic Writing: A Teacher-Researcher Dialogue
Christine Norris and Christine Tardy
15 Shifting Sites, Shifting Identities: A Thirty-Year Perspective
Stephanie Vandrick
Coda
16 Toward a Promised Land of Writing: At the Intersection of Hope and Reality
Barbara Kroll
Contributors
Editors
Index for Print Edition


Preface
The “Promised Land” . . . is one in which each and every NNES [Nonnative English-Speaking] student at an English-medium campus would have access to programs of study and support systems that are designed to promote mastery and excellence in academic English in ways that most address the local and specific needs of those students, whoever they may be and at whichever campus they are studying.
—Barbara Kroll
Scholarship on second language writing has grown exponentially over the last few decades. While a majority of work done in second language writing addresses instructional issues, the focus of much of this scholarship is on what happens in the classroom as opposed to how the institutional contexts outside the classroom shape instructional practices. Although classroom issues are important, such narrow focus on the classroom is problematic because instruction is always situated in and shaped by larger institutional contexts. No amount of theoretical knowledge will be useful in shaping classroom practice unless we also understand how classroom practices are shaped by institutional policies and politics. To help remedy this imbalance, the 2004 Symposium on Second Language Writing brought together second language writing specialists in the United States and Canada to explore the intersection of institutional policies and politics and classroom practices.
As we heard the reports of various efforts and struggles involved in negotiating the balance between theoretically sound and ethical instructional practices on the one hand and the demands of institutional policies and politics on the other hand, we came to realize that none of us had it easy; we were not alone as we searched desperately for the Promised Land, to borrow Barbara Kroll’s phrase from her Symposium presentation, which quickly became the running theme of the two-day event. After the Symposium, we asked the presenters to develop their presentations into manuscripts suitable for print publication, and this volume is the result.
The Politics of Second Language Writing: In Search of the Promised Land is the first edited collection to present a sustained discussion of classroom practices in larger contexts of institutional politics and policies. We refer here to policies on assessment, placement, credit, class size, course content, instructional practices, teacher preparation, and teacher support and to politics in terms of the relationships and interaction between second language writing professionals and their colleagues at the program, department, school, college, and university levels and beyond. Authors in this collection explore—through critical reflections and situated descriptions of their instructional practices in larger institutional contexts—how instructional policies and politics affect instructional practices. Such descriptions would provide an understanding of how classroom practices are not neutral, pragmatic spaces but ideologically saturated sites of negotiation.
The primary audience for The Politics of Second Language Writing includes those who are involved in the teaching, research, and administration of second language writing. By including contextualized descriptions and discussions, this collection provides insights that will help second language writing specialists understand and critically reexamine how institutional policies and politics shape instructional practices. The secondary audience includes members of programs and departments where second language writing courses and programs are located—which include second language specialists and composition specialists who do not necessarily see second language writing as their area of expertise. This book focuses largely on situations at North American institutions, where, perhaps because of the influence of composition studies, the interest in exploring issues of institutional contexts has been most conspicuous. However, we hope this publication will inspire similar discussions focusing on other parts of the world.
As we prepare this volume, we have also come to a greater awareness of the politics of second language writing research: The field has grown most significantly in the United States over the last three decades; it has predominantly dealt with writing in English rather than in other second languages; and all contributors to this first volume on the politics of the profession are based largely in the United States. While we address this political imbalance in a small way with the inclusion of chapters by Guillaume Gentil and Xiaoye You, we acknowledge the limitation of this volume and hope more efforts will be made to consider the politics of second language writing in other geopolitical contexts.
Overview
This volume is organized roughly by the level of instruction: K-12 education, language support programs in higher education, English for academic and professional purposes, assessment, and the politics of the profession. Part 1, “L2 Writers in U.S. K-12 Schools” explores the dynamics and politics that affect the writing development and writing opportunities of second language writers in middle school and high school. In Chapter 1, Danling Fu and Marylou Matoush argue that political pressure of the “English Only” movement has undermined the value of biliteracy for nonnative English speaking students. The chapter describes Fu’s research on the writing development of the Chinese-speaking students in a middle school located in New York’s C