Generation 1.5 Meets College Composition

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.

"...is an important contribution to the limited amount of research currently available on the special problems and distinguishing traits of this population....The studies in this volume range from informative to very stimulating, and are generally well written....the authors are clearly conversant with the population of students in question, and their conclusions seem to be on the mark."
&&&8212;TESL-EJ

"This text is a valuable contribution to the field of ESL composition because it focuses on a specific population of students that needs and merits sustained attention in college and university settings. ESL and composition researchers and instructors as well as graduate students will find value in this publication."
&&&8212;Contemporary Psychology

"...few researchers have examined the linguistic needs of this population, creating a gap in our knowledge of how best to intervene with these students. Generation 1.5 Meets College Composition: Issues in the Teaching of Writing to U.S.-Educated Learners of ESL is one of the first attempts to fill that void. This noteworthy volume brings together the current research on U.S.-educated learners of ESL, or Generation 1.5, a reference to U.S.-educated immigrant students who are caught somewhere between the cultural and linguistic experiences of the first and second generations....For researchers in L2 writing and ESL teachers in postsendary education, this volume represents a significant first step in our understanding of this population."
&&&8212;Studies in Second Language Acquisition

"Deals with a significant and growing population of ESL college students...and raises important questions as to how students are placed into and exit from ESL programs....This is a timely and important topic for investigation....The contributors to this book seem unafraid to adopt a particular point of view--that ESL researchers and teachers can improve the quality of programs and instruction by listening to and taking seriously what ESL students have to say about the teaching-learning experience....There is great value in looking at this population in a somewhat unconventional way; that is, examining the larger social constraints that organize student-teacher behavior as opposed to looking exclusively at data such as test performance."
&&&8212;Steven Haber
Jersey City State College

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