Generation 1.5 Meets College Composition: Issues in the Teaching of Writing To U.S.-Educated Learners of ESL

by Linda Harklau (Editor), Kay M. Losey (Editor), Meryl Siegal (Editor)

An increasing number of students graduate from U.S. high schools and enter college while still in the process of learning English. This group--the "1.5 generation"--consisting of immigrants and U.S. residents born abroad as well as indigenous language minority groups, is rapidly becoming a major constituency in college writing programs. These students defy the existing categories in most college writing programs, and in the research literature. Experienced in American culture and schooling, they have characteristics and needs distinct from the international students who have been the subject of most research and literature on ESL writing. Furthermore, in studies of mainstream college composition, basic writing, and diversity, these students' status as second-language learners is usually left unaddressed or even misconstrued as underpreparation. Nevertheless, research and pedagogical writings have yet to take up the particular issues entailed in teaching composition to this student population. The intent in this volume is to bridge this gap and to initiate a dialogue on the linguistic, cultural, and ethical issues that attend teaching college writing to U.S.-educated linguistically diverse students.

This book is the first to address explicitly issues in the instruction of "1.5 generation" college writers. From urban New York City to midwestern land grant universities to the Pacific Rim, experienced educators and researchers discuss a variety of contexts, populations, programs, and perspectives. The 12 chapters in this collection, authored by prominent authorities in non-native language writing, are research based and conceptual, providing a research-based survey of who the students are, their backgrounds and needs, and how they are placed and instructed in a variety of settings. The authors frame issues, raise questions, and provide portraits of language minority students and the classrooms and programs that serve them.

Together, the pieces paint the landscape of college writing instruction for 1.5 generation students and explore the issues faced by ESL and college writing programs in providing appropriate writing instruction to second-language learners arriving from U.S. high schools.

This book serves not only to articulate an issue and set an agenda for further research and discussion, but also to suggest paths toward linguistic and cultural sensitivity in any writing classroom. It is thought-provoking reading for college administrators, writing teachers, and scholars and students of first- and second-language composition.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

Reviews

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of type of books that parallels those that many of us have read, which changes the way that we see a particular part of our field. I have never heard of the term generation 1.5, but this book taught me the term, which means students who came to this country at a young age or who might have actually have been born here, but raised in an ethnic conclave to the point that by the time they get to school, they write with ESL markers.

All of this intrigues me, but it raises serious questions regarding what constitutes an ESL student.

This book deals with those students who are often labeled as 1.5 and the difficulty that they must endure as a result of being somewhere between ESL and mainstream courses and how schools attempt to find ways to address their needs.

The essays in this book were well worth reading and forced me to consider much about the acquisition of English and the gray area of what constitute a native and nonnative speaker.

An interesting and thought provoking book to say the least.

[Moira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it's a good introduction to the issues surrounding ESL writing as it plays out on US university campuses. I liked that it was a collection of studies that each reached their own small conclusions instead of a text that generalizes. However, the weakness of the book is that by the end of it I felt slightly cheated out of the practical strategies for dealing with ESL students that I had originally picked up the book for. I did find the texts that used extensive interviews with the students to be helpful, as these students were very recognizable to me and it helped me to read the analyses of their situations. For teachers, I would recommend looking to the studies that include interviews with students and teachers, and skipping the studies that are more of a general overview of the strengths and weaknesses of different college ESL programs.