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Multiple Language Learners

This page is an effort to bridge the theoretical and practical divide between approaches to Multiple Language Learners (MLL) and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) pedagogy. Below you will find an abbreviated list of resources that respond to some of the questions the two approaches provoke.

What is the significance of MLL students on our campus? How does this relate to WAC?

Hall, Jonathan. " WAC/WID in the Next America: Re-thinking Professional Identity in the Age of the Multilingual Majority" The WAC Journal 20 2009: 33-47. Hall calls for the conscious inclusion of multilingual pedagogy in WAC curriculum.

Matsuda, Paul Kei, and Jeffrey Jablonski. " Beyond the L2 metaphor: Towards a mutually transformative model of ESL/WAC collaboration." Academic.Writing 1 (2000): 1-8. Matsuda and Jablonski reconsider the second-language metaphor often used in WAC and they advocate for cooperation between MLL and WAC.

Zamel, Vivian. "Strangers in academia: The experiences of faculty and ESL students across the curriculum." College Composition and Communication 46.4 (1995): 506-521. Available on JSTOR. Zamel analyzes faculty and MLL students' perspectives on writing to discuss the writing assignments that would prove most effective for MLL students.

How can we approach this multilingual reality in our classrooms?

Jonathan Hall and the Writing Fellows at York College created this CUNY-specific handout for an April 2010 CETL Presentation. It offers facts and tips for faculty teaching Writing Intensive courses with MLL students. The handout includes helpful links, such as:

Still curious? Find below two extensive bibliographies on these themes.

" WAC and Second-Language Writing Bibliography." WAC Clearinghouse. Colorado State University, n.d. Web. 16 May 2012. An extensive, general bibliography of sources on WAC and L2 (second language) writing.

Cox, Michelle. " WAC/WID and second language writers." WPA-CompPile Research Bibliographies 8 (2010): 1-13. Organized by theme, Cox's bibliography targets WAC administrators' approaching multilingual learners.