An Annotated Bibliography/Webliography
of TESOL Materials for Writing Program Administrators
Compiled by
Kristine Hansen, Brigham Young U, and Joe Janangelo, Loyola U Chicago
Introduction
The bibliography/Webliography that follows is based on the premise that composition programs in the United States are about to reach a demographic tipping point—if they haven’t already. This tipping point will come as sections of composition fill with more and more students for whom English is a second (or third or fourth) language. These students will not necessarily be of the type that we might expect, i.e., international students studying for a time in the US on a student visa or so-called multicultural students from the various ethnic minorities that have long been a part of the American population. Such students will be part of the mix, of course. Additionally, there will be increasing numbers of students who are or will be permanent US residents and who have either come to this nation as immigrants or refugees or have been born after their parents came here as immigrants or refugees. Sometimes these students are called “Generation 1.5” or “cross-over students” to indicate that they occupy a middle position between their parents’ linguistic and cultural identity and full assimilation into the language and culture of the USA.
To give you some reason why we believe a tipping point is here or imminent, we present some statistics from the US Department of Education:
- From 1979–1999, the US population of 5- to 24-year-olds grew 6 percent.
- From 1979–1999, the number of 5- to 24-year-olds who spoke a language other than English at home grew by 118 percent.
- From 1979–1999, the number of 5- to 24-year-olds who spoke English with difficulty grew by 110 percent.1
Here are some more statistics from Michael Fix and Jeffery Passel of the Urban Institute:
- During the 1990s more than 14 million immigrants moved to the US.
- Between 2000 and 2010 another 14 million immigrants are expected to move to the US.
- The foreign-born population of the United States has tripled over the past 30 years.
- In 2000, 20 percent of all children under 18 were either foreign-born or first-generation US-born.
- By the year 2015, it is projected that 30 percent of school-aged children will be first- or second-generation immigrants.2
These learners will not be concentrated mainly in coastal and border states. States in the Midwest and Intermountain West have seen enormous increases in the number of such students. In Illinois, for example, during the last decade enrollments of Hispanic undergraduates grew by 80 percent.
We believe these demographic changes mean that we who lead and who work in writing programs should prepare quickly for increasing numbers of students whose English language proficiency and cultural backgrounds will be very different from what we in the past have considered “normal.” As John Trimbur and Bruce Horner, in their 2002 CCC essay “English Only and U.S. College Composition” (Vol. 53, pp. 594–630), have argued, composition programs tend to be strongly defined by assumptions of monolingualism and monoculturalism. Trimbur and Horner assert that composition teaching has been shaped by a “chain of reifications” that represent language itself as static, clearly bounded, and evaluated by a narrow canon of rules. These reifications also construct social identity in terms of nationality, and they amount to a tacit language policy that is in many ways complicit with the English Only movement.
As we face increasing diversity in our students’ language abilities, repertoires, and communities, it is vital to question our own assumptions and preparation so that we can make our teacher education programs, our materials, and our curricula responsive to, and effective for, a changing student population. To that end, we offer the following as a starting point for our WPA colleagues (and for their graduate students and colleagues) to help you become acquainted with some valuable scholarship on teaching English to L2 (English as a Second Language), ELL (English Language Learners), EFL (English as a Foreign Language), and ESP (English for Special Purposes) students.
We hope these materials will save writing teachers a great deal of time and effort, and that they will inspire further learning. We do not claim that this project is either complete or comprehensive, only that we find the items in it to be of high quality. We invite interested persons to communicate with us about items that might be added at a later date.
Comprehensive Websites with Many Valuable Links
Bibliographies and Research Review Essays
Bedford Bibliography for Teachers of Writing
Includes 30 entries on teaching second language writers; goes up to 2001.
Leki, Ilona, Alister Cumming and Tony Silva. “Second-Language Composition Teaching and Learning.” Research on Composition: Multiple Perspectives on Two Decades of Change. Ed. Peter Smagorinsky. New York: Columbia U Teachers College Press, 2006. 141–169.
A review essay that focuses on three major aspects of L2 writing research: (1) core issues in pedagogy and assessment; (2) contextual factors influencing ESL writers in academic contexts; (3) characteristics of L2 writers, writing processes, and texts. Includes 14 pages of references.
Phillips, Talinn and Charles Nelson. Second Language Writing Bibliographies.
Includes recent articles categorized by overview of the field, contrastive rhetoric, the role of first language in composing, grammar instruction, teacher feedback, peer review, the place of the personal, role of technology, writing task design and assessment, writing program administration, writing centers, and writing across the curriculum.
Silva, Tony, Colleen Brice and Melinda Reichelt. An Annotated Bibliography of Scholarship in Second Language Writing: 1993–1997. Stamford, CT: Ablex, 1999.
Includes 676 entries with brief non-evaluative summaries. Contains author and subject indexes. Picks up where Tannacito’s bibliography left off.
Tannacito, Dan. A Guide to Writing English as a Second or Foreign Language: An Annotated Bibliography of Research and Pedagogy. Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
Includes nearly 3500 annotated entries of published and unpublished research on ESL writing conducted between 1937 and 1993. Contains author and subject indexes.
Journals
ELT Journal (Oxford)
The journal links the everyday concerns of practitioners with insights gained from related academic disciplines such as applied linguistics, education, psychology, and sociology.
TESOL Quarterly
A journal of theory and practice for ESL teachers, teacher educators, teacher learners, researchers, and applied linguists.
The Internet TESOL Journal
Articles on collaborative writing, using video games, and many other topics.
Journal of Second Language Writing Online (Elsevier)
Articles on personal characteristics and attitudes of L2 writers, their composing processes, features of their texts, readers’ responses to L2 writing, assessment, contexts for L2 writing, etc. Website offers a search function.
WPA:Writing Program Administration Journal, Vol. 30, No.1–2, Fall 2006.
This special issue of WPA Journal, guest-edited by Paul Kei Matsuda, Maria Fruit, and Tamara Lee Burton Lamm, contains a letter from the guest editors, four articles, and five book reviews on issues related to L2 writers and WPAs. Among the articles is Gail Shuck’s essay, “Combating Monolingualism: A Novice Administrator’s Challenge,” which won the 2005–2006 Best Article Award for work published in Writing Program Administration.
Teacher Preparation
Ariza, Eileen N. Whelan, Carmen A. Morales-Jones, Noorchaya Yahya, and Hanizah Zainuddin. Why TESOL? Theories and Issues in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, 3rd ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 2006.
Although the subtitle states the book is for K-12 teachers, it would also be valuable to college teachers. A comprehensive, concise, and accessible one-volume introduction, it lays out what teachers of ESL students should know about the students, linguistics, and teaching and assessing learning. It includes information about legal matters affecting ESL students, a glossary of professional terms, and a CD-ROM workbook.
Ball, Arnetha and Ted Lardner. African American Literacies Unleashed: Vernacular English and the Composition Classroom. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2005.
This book outlines three kinds of changes that composition teachers can make to change the way they approach language diversity in the classroom: (1) acquiring knowledge about African American Vernacular English (AAVE); (2) self-interrogation regarding beliefs and prejudices; (3) personal and professional change, including a dozen classroom strategies that enhance the success of AAVE speakers.
CCCC Statement on Second Language Writing and Writers
Adopted in 2001, the statement gives guidelines on placement, assessment, class size, credit, teacher preparation, and teacher support. Includes a brief bibliography.
Fox, Helen. Listening to the World: Cultural Issues in Academic Writing. Urbana, IL: NCTE,1994.
Proposes reasons why the US academic world view and writing style are so foreign to international students and offers ways to help “world majority students” make sense of expectations for academic writing in American universities.
Leki, Ilona. Understanding ESL Writers: A Guide for Teachers. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 1992.
Intended for teachers new to teaching ESL students, contains chapters on the history of teaching ESL writing, models of second language acquisition, ESL and basic writers, characteristics of ESL students, classroom expectations and behaviors, writing behaviors, L2 composing, contrastive rhetoric, sentence-level errors, and responding to ESL writing.
Matsuda, Paul Kei, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper, eds. Second-Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006.
Situates second-language writing within composition studies, identifies characteristics of second-language writers, explores theoretical implications of seeing ESL learners at the heart—not the margins—of the classroom, proposes curriculum designs, and discusses how to respond to and assess second-language writing.
Silva, Tony, and Paul Kei Matsuda, eds. Landmark Essays on ESL Writing. Mahwah, NJ: Hermagoras Press, 2001.
Includes 16 essays published between 1962 and 1997 on topics ranging from assessment and linguistic matters to cultural thought patterns and ideology.
Silva, Tony, and Paul Kei Matsuda, eds. On Second Language Writing. Mahwah, NJ: LEA, 2001.
A collection of essays on theory, research, instruction, assessment, ideology and politics, and articulation with other fields.
Silva, Tony, and Ilona Leki. “Family Matters: The Influence of Applied Linguistics and Composition Studies on Second Language Writing Studies—Past, Present, and Future.” The Modern Language Journal 88 (2004):1–13.
Compares and contrasts monolingual composition studies with studies of ESL writing. Shows how applied linguistics, the parent discipline of second language acquisition and composition, takes a positivist, realist, objectivist, empirical, manipulative, and explanatory view of language and of itself, as well as its role and instructional objectives. Composition studies, on the other hand, tends to emphasize the relativist, subjectivist, hermeneutic, and dialectical nature of reality and of the field.
Smitherman, Geneva, and Victor Villanueva, eds. Language Diversity in the Classroom: From Intention to Practice. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2003.
Contains seven essays on issues related to teaching in linguistically diverse classrooms: language and racism, language and nationalism, and the challenge of teaching writing while respecting and celebrating students’ own languages.
Writing Centers
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/586/01/
Purdue’s OWL ESL site features links to many sources for students and teachers.
Bruce, Shanti, and Ben Rafoth. ESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center Tutors. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2004.
Focuses mainly on factors relating to conducting a successful ESL tutorial, including online tutorials, creative writing, and helping students avoid plagiarism. Also touches on broader contextual issues. It includes a glossary.
Teaching Materials
http://buckhoff.topcities.com/for_university_students.htm.
Michael Buckhoff’s web site for students and teachers offers sample essays at various levels and features advice from international students that can be used to prepare writing center tutors. If you click “For Teachers” and then “For University Students,” you will find his summer 2007 ESL writing course for undergraduates. It offers several writing assignments, as well as tips for editing papers and for taking in-class essay exams.
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/
Lesson plans drawn from The Internet TESOL Journal can be found here. You will find brief articles on a wide range of topics from “Tips and Ideas for the First Day of Class,” to lessons on teaching literature, on culture, and on “A Simulation for Business English Students.” Your students can try or critique those assignments.
http://www.eslpartyland.com/
Billed as “The Cool Way to Learn English,” this site offers some “student pages” and a “teacher side.” Advice is given on teaching grammar, on developing integrated skills, and on using film and the internet to mentor student learning. The film section offers discussion points, lessons, handouts and links. Five films (e.g., Do the Right Thing and Dead Man Walking) are discussed. Students could create lessons for films that they think would work well.
http://www.rong-chang.com/
This rather “basic” site helps address some of the needs of adult learners. It is called “English as a Second Language.” While this site offers links to many lesson plans, the emphasis is on practical and workplace communication. Those in search of vocabulary can read “100 Free Short Stories.” There is a large section dedicated to immigration rules and services. Attention is paid to ESP, English for Special Purposes.
Grammar, Conversation, and Practical Communication
http://www.eslflow.com/
This site offers advice for elementary, pre-intermediate, and intermediate learners.
http://www.eslcafe.com/
Dave’s ESL Cafe offers information on jobs, as well as student and teacher forums. In “Stuff for Teachers,” there is an extensive “Idea Cookbook.”
http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu/
SchMOOze University describes itself as follows: “SchMOOze U. is a small, friendly college known for its hospitality and the diversity of the student population. It was established in July 1994 as a place where people studying English as a second or a foreign language could practice English while sharing ideas and experiences with other learners and practicers of English. Students have opportunities for one-on-one and group conversations as well as access to language games such as Scrabble and Boggle, an on-line dictionary, a virtual library and a grammar maze. Although schMOOze U. was founded with ESL/EFL students in mind, it welcomes all people interested in cross-cultural communication.”
http://www.manythings.org/
This site focuses on entry level grammar. It offers advice on slang, vocabulary, idioms, and jokes. There are also quizzes based on Voice of America’s (VOA) Special English Programs.
Developing Study Skills
http://home.gwu.edu/~meloni/eslstudyhall/
Professor Meloni’s ESL Study Hall, offered by a teacher at The George Washington University, uses a whole language approach to instruction. Advice is given on reading poetry, prose, and news stories. There are tips on vocabulary (including idioms), grammar, and U.S. culture. There are also links to reviews of the sites and to advice given by international students, although they appear to be mostly testimonials.
http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/tips/contents.htm
WritingDen Tips-O-Matic offers advice and practical examples for writing coherent sentences, paragraphs, and essays. There is advice about punctuation (e.g., quotation marks, apostrophe, the semicolon) and parts of speech (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and “frequently confused words”). Advice is also given for composing and for editing essays, and on genres such as definition, classification, and evaluation. These tips may also be used to create handouts for EFL writers.
New Media
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Backer-SchMOOze.html
This site discusses the benefits and the “possible limitations” of using MPP sites to work with L2 students.
http://www.study.com/indexEnglish.html
This site offers a link to a classroom in “Second Life.”
Computers and Composition, Volume 22, Issue 3, pp. 255–410 (2005) published a special issue devoted to “Second Language Writers in Digital Contexts,” edited by Kevin De Pew. ScienceDirect offers the TOC and abstracts at
http://tinyurl.com/2m9vcs.
1Cited by Adrian J. Wurr in “English Studies and Generation 1.5: Writing Program Administration at the Crossroads.” Reading Matrix 4 (2004): 14–23.
2Urban Institute. “U.S. Immigration Trends and Implications for Schools, 2003.” 30 March 2006, NABE Presentation.
