Beyond the L2 Metaphor : Towards a Mutually Transformative Model of ESL/WAC Collaboration

Abstract

metaphor sometimes used teaching discipline-based academic is that the experience of learning to write various academic contexts is like learning a new (L2) . This approach is critically examined here, and its implications for across the (WAC) programs at the college level are discussed. It is argued that uncritical use of the metaphor can mask the difficulties of learning a second and lead to marginalization of second-language writers WAC programs and the professional discourse of composition studies general. In addition, it is proposed that specialists both WAC and English-as-a-Second-Language have much to learn from each other. Mutually beneficial ways of achieving interdisciplinary collaboration between the two fields are considered. (Contains 14 references.) (MSE) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Beyond the L2 Metaphor 1 Beyond the L2 Metaphor: Towards a Mutually Transformative Model of ESL/WAC Collaboration Paul Kei Matsuda and Jeffrey Jablonski Purdue University Learning to write the disciplines is often difficult because students tend to be unfamiliar with discipline-specific practicessuch as linguistic and discourse conventions, audience expectations as well as dominant cultural and epistemological assumptions. To many undergraduate and graduate students, the experience of learning to write various academic contexts is akin to learning a new language. To characterize this experience, the analogy of the disciplines as a second language has been invoked by some across the curriculum (WAC) specialists. We want to argue, however, that the second-language metaphoror, for short, the L2 metaphorneeds to be approached critically because the disciplines, after all, is not the same as learning a second language. Our first goal this paper, then, is to critically examine the WID as a second language metaphor and consider its implications for WAC programs. Specifically, we want to argue for a critical approach to the use of this metaphor because, as we will discuss, its broad and uncritical use can mask the complexity of second-language learning and can lead to the marginalization of second-language writers WAC programs as well as the professional discourse of composition studies general. By critiquing the use of the L2 metaphor composition studies, however, we do not mean to suggest that second-language studies have nothing to offer WAC specialists; on the contrary, we believe that specialists both WAC and English as a second (ESL) have much to learn from one another. The second goal of this paper is to consider mutually beneficial ways of achieving interdisciplinary collaboration between WAC and ESL specialists. BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE ANDU.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS Office of Educational Research and improvement BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) tais document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 6 Points of view or opinions stated this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Beyond the L2 Metaphor 2 The Uses of the L2 Metaphor Composition Studies In general, the L2 metaphor is useful because it can encourage specialists composition studies to learn from second-language studies. As Tony Silva, Ilona Leki and Joan Carson recently argued Broadening the Perspective of Mainstream Composition Studies, insights from second-language acquisition and ESL pedagogy could help composition studies develop a more global and inclusive view of writing (402). In Understanding ESL Writers, Leki also wrote that in certain ways theories about and insights into second-language acquisition may be useful for all teachers, since researchers, theorists, and teachers have pointed out that even one's native language, learning to write is something like learning a second language (10). prime example of the use of the L2 metaphor by a WAC specialist can be found A Stranger Strange Lands, Lucille Parkinson McCarthy's classic study of a college student various disciplinary classrooms. In this study, McCarthy characterized the experience of Dave, a white, middle-class college student, by comparing it to the process of learning a second languageor second languages. She wrote: As I followed Dave from one classroom situation to another, I came to see him, as he made his journey from one discipline to another, as a stranger strange lands. In each new class Dave believed that the he was doing was totally unlike anything he had ever done before. This metaphor of a newcomer a foreign country proved to be a powerful way of looking at Dave's behaviors as he worked to use the new languages unfamiliar academic territories. (234)

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