how literacy is taught and learned transnationally. Specifically, I examine how the transnational political economy of English literacy is negotiated discursively at one US-based IEP (Northwest IEP) through teacher and student talk. From this discourse analysis, I suggest that, in addition to the difficult and time-consuming tasks of language learning, students in my study were involved in and recipients of another, much less visible type of literacy management: the ongoing valuing and defining of each other’s prior literacy-related knowledge vis-à-vis their and other students’ access to global Englishes. Thus, Northwest IEP did more than situate students in relation to privileged English literacy. That institution also served as a broker for the shifting status and subsequent privileging of global Englishes. This dynamic gives insight into how multilingual spaces come to mediate the broader transnational political economy of English literacy. Ultimately, this research shows the value of looking into institutes at the periphery of US higher education, which broadens the field’s linguistic terrain to situate US-based composition as one of many actors across the transnational landscape of higher education.
micklethwait on 30 Oct 14Ugh. I can't annotate the PDFs. Janopoulos might have some useful info on writing proficiency exams, but from 1995. Ann M. Johns (2001) has some best practices opinions for international comp and (1991) for English competency exams. Matsuda and Jablonski (n.d.)--seems to contradict what I said about the difference in L1 and L2 learning needs being only a difference of degree. Wolfe-Quintero and Segade, "University Support for Second-Language Writers Across the Curriculum" (1999)--looks promising. Angelova & Riazantseva (1999)--case studies of international students learning the conventions of academic writing in the US. Zawacki & Habib (2010) "'Will Our Stories Help Teachers Understand?' Multilingual Students Talk about identity, academic writing, and expectations across academic communities." As a side note: working with these kinds of sources could make an interesting WAW theme for a Comp II-international section.