Undergraduates in a Second Language: Challenges and Complexities of Academic Literacy Development

by Ilona Leki

Overview

This is the first book-length study of bilingual, international, and immigrant students in English writing courses that attempts to fully embed their writing experiences within the broader frame of their personal histories, the human context of their development, and the disciplinary contexts of their majors. It addresses the questions: How useful are L2 writing courses for the students who are required to take them? What do the students carry with them from these courses to their other disciplinary courses across the curriculum? What happens to these students after they leave ESL, English, or writing classes? Drawing on data from a 5-year longitudinal study of four university students for whom English was not their strongest/primary language, it captures their literacy experiences throughout their undergraduate careers. The intensive case studies answer some questions and raise others about these students’ academic development as it entwined with their social experiences and identity formation and with the ideological context of studying at a US university in the 1990s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351538114
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/25/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ilona Leki

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface.Introduction. "You Need Really Understand": An Undergraduate in Engineering. "Don't Have Easy": Nursing in L2. "Suddenly You Get Recognized": The Power of Community. "Yuko Can Handle Intimidation": Becoming a Social Worker. University Literacy. Social and Ideological Contexts of Literacy Developments. Conclusion. Appendix A: Interview Guides. Appendix B: Main Coding Categories for Student Interviews.

Editorial Reviews

"Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop.... I cannot emphasize too strongly how important (and rare) it is for a professional book to be so very readable, so compelling.... The combination of the solid scholarship, the theoretical framework, and vivid depiction of the students’ lives, make this book one that will be read by many and that will be influential."—Stephanie Vandrick, University of San Francisco

"Few studies like this exist that document the writing that students do and the attitudes toward writing that they have over their entire undergraduate experience.... The case studies are rich and revealing, and give curriculum designers and writing teachers, both L1 and L2, much to think about. Above all, [this book] makes us question long- and dearly held assumptions about writing at the undergraduate level." —Christine Pearson Casanave, Temple University, Japan

From the Publisher