WAC and Second-Language Writing

As second language (L2) students—which include L2 international visa students, refugees, and permanent residents as well as naturalized and native-born citizens – become more recognized as integral to US higher education, so does the need to provide writing support for these students beyond ESL courses and ESL sections of first year composition.  The CCCC Statement on Second Language Writing and Writers urges WAC/WID administrators to “offer faculty development in second language writing that should include information about second language writing development, information about second language populations at the institution, approaches for designing writing assignments that are culturally inclusive, and approaches for assessing writing that are ethical in relation to second language writing.”  While the CCCC Statement provides specific suggestions for instructors of WI courses in relation to writing assessment design, writing assessment, and textual borrowing, the Statement does not provide specific information on how WAC administrators should make the kinds of changes suggested.  This WAC Clearinghouse site is dedicated to providing space for WAC/WID professionals to share resources they’ve developed for supporting L2 writers as they write across the curriculum, in the majors, in graduate programs, and into the workplace. 

WAC/WID professionals are in the position to not only build support for L2 student writers, but to advocate for them, by working as change agents to create an institutional landscape that is more equitable to and inclusive of L2 writers, where L2 writers are valued for the unique cultural, rhetorical, and linguistic resources they bring to their writing.

On this site, you will find specific suggestions for approaches to advocating for L2 writers through WAC/WID and links to resources useful for bringing a multilinguistic and multicultural lens to faculty development, programming, practice, and research.  As this site grows, each suggestion will be linked to related resources developed at a range of institutions.  If you have developed a resource related to the below suggestions (or have a new suggestion to add), contact the editor of this site, Michelle Cox, at michelle.cox@bridgew.edu.