The Writing Crisis and How to Address It through Developmental Writing Classes.
BackgroundThe Department of Education estimates 4.4 million public school students are not native speakers of English (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015) In other words, one out of ten students comes from a different ethnic, cultural, and linguistic background. The number of non native English speaking college students also continues to increase nationwide. This phenomenon is a wake up call for mainstream higher education institutions to transform themselves into more inclusive campuses for diverse student populations.Despite the significant number of English as Second Language (ESL) learners, scant literature is available on how first generation adult immigrants shape their social and academic presence in a mainstream college environment where native speakers of English are dominant.Unlike Generation 1.5 who were educated in an American school system before post secondary schooling, first generation immigrant college students are often mainstreamed into a first year college composition class without any prior experience with an American educational system. Thus, mainstream higher education institutions should understand the challenges that immigrant students face during their first year at college in order to increase the retention rate of ESL students. Aiming at helping struggling ESL students successfully acquire 21st century literacy skills, this case study investigated the following research questions from the perspective of a first generation adult immigrant:1. How do mainstreamed immigrant students construct their academic and social presence in a mainstream first year college composition class?2. What would mainstreamed immigrant students wish for?Context of researchAngela (pseudonym) a first generation Argentina immigrant, was recruited from a first year college composition class in a mainstream public university in the Northeast. This case study used a triangular qualitative approach to enhance reliability and validity. A questionnaire was developed to collect her background information and identify more effective pedagogical practices for mainstreamed immigrant students by adopting the engagement indicators of the National Survey of Student Engagement (Center for Postsecondary Research, 2015) Electronic correspondence and semi structured interviews were conducted to verify the responses of the participant.This 64 year old Hispanic immigrant is a native speaker of Spanish. In her home country, after completing a 5 year teacher certificate program, she taught in a primary school for a while. When she was 46 years old, she came to the United State to stay with her husband, who was enrolled in a one year long medical fellowship program in Alabama. Since her first visit, she has sporadically stayed in the United States for time periods up to nine years.As a part time student, Angela was mainstreamed into a firstyear college composition class where she was the only first generation immigrant in a class of 25 students. She was pursuing a career as a librarian.At the beginning of the semester, her English oral proficiency was too limited and heavily accented for her native English speaking classmates to understand. However, as the semester went on, she created a strong academic and social presence among her classmates and earned an A at the end of the semester. The course assignments included various conventional writing, digital composition, quizzes, and oral presentations.FindingsResearch question 1. How do mainstreamed immigrants construct their academic and social presence in a mainstream first year college composition class?Angela wanted her native English speaking peers in her mainstream composition class to perceive her as a classmate who was very interested in American culture and lifestyle and would like to make a contribution to her community. On the other hand, she described herself as an over striving non traditional student "who worked very hard at achievement tasks but also felt very anxious and stressed because of [her] fear of failure" (Pintrich Schunk, 1996, p.