English 495: Tuesday, April 26

Today's readings represent a wrap-up of sorts to our semester-long readings. So, I will first mention some thoughts on those readings and then do a wrap-up on some of my own thoughts that have emerged from the work done and lessons learned during this semester.

"All writing teachers are potentially, if not already, l2 writing instructors," writes Matsuda in his section of the article "On the Future of Second Language Writing." Matsuda makes an excellent point--and one that I fully get--when he notes that L2 writing does not just take place in the L2 composition classrooms on the collge campus. It can take place just as easily in any course or program that these students move on to. To say that only a certain number of individuals are "L2" instructors seems slightly off to me, unfortunately sort of like saying that a person does not teach a certain race or a person part of the country because he or she just does not understand that particular dialect of English used. Differences and diversity will always abound in the classrooms; all teachers must accept this at some point.

I am curious about the argument that not enough of the "best" teachers of L2 writing work in programs where PhD's are not offered. I do understand what is being said here to a point, but I also think that these influential people can affect the students in any educational context that they find themselves in. If their college has but a master's degree, perhaps they are influencing those bright students to then pursue a PhD that they had never thought about before--thus moving the L2 writing field ahead a little bit more in the process.

Yet, even the L2 students themselves could have a hand in moving the L2 writing field forward. In Casanave, Santos is quoted as writing, "Students first need to become proficient in conventional academic discourse in order to be able to challenge those conventions" (pg. 202). Whether one agrees with Santos' logic here is not the point. Rather, the important element is that those L2 students, the students often thought of as having the least amount of power in the political world that is language learning, can also have a hand in changing how people view second language writing.

As I wrote this blog, I began to consider my own views on second language writing, specifically on how they changed over this semester. At the beginning, I can only call my thoughts on that type of writing as completely "foreign," to say the least. The second language process was a complete mystery to me, as were the important components of grading, giving feedback, and so on. Although I do not want to give anything priority this semester, I think that one of the most important things this semester to come about was simply my greater awareness for the cultural and political aspects always involved in second language writing, that most people in the U.S. do privilege one dialect and consider it to be standard when that just is not so. Many more World Englishes exist that also deserve to be both recognized and implemented. I think that this awareness is something that all teachers regardless of the type of student that they teach should be aware of.