“Nameless, Faceless People”: How Other Teachers’ Expectations Influence Our Pedagogy

Abstract

As second language (L2) writing teacher educators and researchers, we have seen how powerful the image of an unsympathetic future audience for students’ writing is in teachers’ responses to language difference. In this essay, we trace how beliefs about these future audiences influence the pedagogical decision-making of two L2 writing instructors: Amy, an experienced teacher, believes students should draw on their multiple languages as resources for writing but ultimately encourages students to be selective in the use of accented writing. In comparison, Sergei, like many novice teachers, focuses heavily on correcting surface level mechanics to prepare students for a business writing community he perceives as intolerant of grammatical errors. The result is that these teachers, struggling to work ethically within first year writing as a “service course,” adopt teaching practices that do not fully align with their own beliefs or reflect best practices in the field. We discuss how teachers might articulate and reflect on their own beliefs in light of current research studies from the fields of writing across the curriculum (WAC) and business writing, and what teacher educators and WPAs can do to support such reflection.

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