Crossing Language (Policy) Boundaries Development of Bilingual First-Year College Writing Courses Dr. Sharon Merritt Fresno Pacific University CABE 2016, San Francisco

Introduction U.S. Universities are historical sites of monolingualism. Horner and Trimbur (2002): First Year Composition (FYC) programs have played an important role in promoting English-only policies Composition studies has expanded basic writing to include “second language writing” – “second” language is almost always English Teaching to writing in LOTE nearly always purview of World Languages

Translingualism New area of pedagogical and research interest in Composition studies Definitions: “existing in multiple languages” “operating between different languages” Kellman (2003) – translingual writers are “authors who write in more than one language or in a language other than their primary one” Wikipedia page on “translingualism”

Today’s report Effort to develop 2-course FYC writing sequence Crossing de facto language policy boundaries Bilingual academic writing experience Both Heritage Spanish language students and advanced students of Spanish as a second language

Motivation Personal – my bilingual college experience Ph.D. work in dual language immersion – the needs and resources of heritage Spanish language students, and former DL students University’s desire to affirm the value of a diverse student body and faculty – linguistic diversity is connected Bilingual 1 st generation students – language as resource

Space in Language Policy De facto English monolingual policy – nothing says we have to work in English only! Hornberger (2006): NCLB has monolingual English bias, but doesn’t forbid the use of LOTE – liminal spaces for bilingualism Univ. revision of core curriculum – CTW courses focusing on themes, crossing disciplinary boundaries, engaging in innovative course design

Early Responses and Faculty Collaboration Sounding out Core Curriculum (GE) and faculty leadership Finding faculty from the Spanish Department – to support, teach, promote Jill Pellettieri, Assoc. Professor, Applied Linguistics and Second Language Writing, became department chair Later bilingual, knowledgeable English department faculty We got the go-ahead from administrators

The Curriculum CTW Theme: Language and Identity Materials in both English and Spanish One quarter in Spanish, one in English CTW 2: information literacy and research writing First compromise: could not team teach the courses, and make them truly bilingual or translingual Serial monolingual courses

The Curriculum (cont.) Comparable writing assignments in each course – Personal writing – Differing points of view on an issue – Synthesis of several sources (whether we gave the sources or the students found them) The heart of the courses: the meanings of bilingualism (Wei 2000), the movement between and uses of two different languages in spoken and written discourse.

Checkpoints and Obstacles Surprisingly few serious obstacles, significant university buy-in Approval by FYC/Core curriculum committee Started by calling it “dual language” to avoid negative associations of “bilingual” Our aim: get the courses on the books by 2011, begin teaching in 2012 English Dept. more open than Spanish Dept.!

Checkpoints and Obstacles (cont.) Identifying and contacting small pool of appropriately prepared students Must have sufficient literacy in Spanish – Heritage students and Spanish Language AP Selection of CTW courses during summer orientation Connection to Residential Learning Communities Increasing the appeal: making them part of a Pathway requirement; making them count for Spanish major/minor Completed approval process spring 2013, offered for 1 st time, fall 2013

Update: Changes and Responses will mark 4 th year courses have been held, with same tenured faculty teaching each year Full courses, 19 students Disconnected from Residential Learning Communities to open to more students No longer connected to a Pathway Curious practice in student placement: some don’t realize they are being placed in bilingual courses! But they stay…

Student Responses About their own language abilities About the meanings of bilingualism About the fluid nature of identity About language and identity

Conclusions Valdés (2004): teachers need to cross both disciplinary and professional boundaries to understand the situation of language minority students – English, L2 writing, applied linguistics Guerra (1997): Language minority writers develop “intercultural literacy” – moving back and forth between and in and out of discourse communities” Hoping these courses continue to serve language minority writers and elective bilinguals in imagining new possibilities for themselves.

Thank you! Sharon Merritt Director, MA in Teaching Fresno Pacific University