L2 writing in WAC/WID

When discussing the ways of uniting second language writing and WAC, Matsuda and Jablonski mention that “ESL specialists may be called upon as outside consultants” in WAC programs (p. 5). While this is probably how L2 issues are usually addressed in such programs, it seems to me to ignore or implicitly accept the isolation of ESL from WAC, though the authors are supporting “collaboration.” Hall seems to have a better understanding of this problem, as he points out, “Where traditionally the teaching of writing is thought to be the exclusive province of the Writing Program or the English Department, the teaching of MLLs is still generally conceived as the job of the ESL program. In both cases, of course, it’s everybody’s job” (p. 38). Just as the purpose of WAC is to make faculty and students realize that writing is not isolated to the English Dept, there needs to be pedagogies in place that promote the campus as a place for multilingual learners, not a pedestal that learners must reach after trading in local languages for English. Of course, that begins with teacher training. Both Hall’s and Matsuda and Jablonski’s articles bring up this point. Changing the program begins with opening teachers’ perceptions and making them more aware of these discussions and issues—though it’s hard not to see the path of what Hall terms “Next America,” the issue needs to be confronted directly on a regular basis.

Hall also notes that “The exact mixture [of L2 learners] will be different on every campus, and so each WAC program needs to rigorously asses local needs and trends” (p. 35). For this very reason, the authors of both articles advocate not a step-by-step model but a set of guidelines. Both articles set out similar basic principles (that WAC teachers or specialists need to notice this growing multilingual population, etc.) These are loose models of pedagogy, adjustable to unique campus needs. I am not very familiar with WAC/WID and its success (or lack of), so I’m wondering how much progress has been made for L2 writers in this pedagogy. (The articles are from 2000 [Matsuda and Jablonski] and 2009 [Hall], but I do not see many hints of advancement between the two.)

References

Hall, J. (2009). WAC/WID in the next America:: Redefining professional identity in the age of the multilingual majority.

Matsuda, P. & Jablonski, J. (2000). Beyond the L2 Metaphor. Towards a mutually transformative model of ESL/WAC Collaboration: http://wac.colostate.edu/aw/articles/matsuda_jablonski2000.pdf