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Currently, linguistic minority students – students who speak a language other than English at home – represent 21% of the entire K-12 student population and 11% of the college student population. Bringing together emerging scholarship on the growing number of college-bound linguistic minority students in the K-12 pipeline, this ground-breaking volume showcases new research on these students'preparation for, access to, and persistence in college. Other than studies of their linguistic challenges and writing and academic literacy skills in college, little is known about the broader issues of linguistic minority students'access to and success in college. Examining a variety of factors and circumstances that influence the process and outcome, the scope of this book goes beyond students'language proficiency and its impact on college education, to look at issues such as student race/ethnicity, gender, SES, and parental education and expectations. It also addresses structural factors in schooling including tracking, segregation of English learners from English-fluent peers, availability and support of institutional personnel, and collegiate student identity and campus climate. Presenting state-of-the-art knowledge and mapping out a future research agenda in an extremely important and yet understudied area of inquiry, this book advances knowledge in ways that will have a real impact on policy regarding linguistic minority immigrant students'higher education opportunities.

'… A well-organized volume with a strong emphasis on pedagogy.'– Trudy Smoke, Hunter College/City University of New York, USA'Generation 1.5 is the most interesting topic of concern in ESL today, yet publications are few and far between.... The editors clearly know what they're doing…. They know the field, know the subject matter, and understand the problems…. This volume contributes to the thinking in the field.'– Linda Lonon Blanton, University of New Orleans, USABuilding on the work that has been done over the past decade, this volume provides theoretical frameworks for understanding debates about immigrant students, studies of students'schooling paths and language and literacy experiences, and pedagogical approaches for working with Generation 1.5 students. Generation 1.5 in College Composition: is designed to help both scholars and practitioners reconceptualize the fields of College Composition and TESOL and create a space for research, theory, and pedagogy focusing on postsecondary immigrant ESL students provides both important new theoretical work (which lays the underpinnings for serious pedagogical innovation) and important new pedagogical approaches. Because of their varied and complex language and literacy profiles, Generation 1.5 students are found in developmental English courses, college ESL courses, and mainstream college writing courses. This volume is directed to preservice and inservice teachers, teacher educators, and researchers involved with educating Generation 1.5 students in these and other contexts.

An increasing number of students graduate from U.S. high schools and enter college while still in the process of learning English. This group--the'1.5 generation'--consisting of immigrants and U.S. residents born abroad as well as indigenous language minority groups, is rapidly becoming a major constituency in college writing programs. These students defy the existing categories in most college writing programs, and in the research literature. Experienced in American culture and schooling, they have characteristics and needs distinct from the international students who have been the subject of most research and literature on ESL writing. Furthermore, in studies of mainstream college composition, basic writing, and diversity, these students'status as second-language learners is usually left unaddressed or even misconstrued as underpreparation. Nevertheless, research and pedagogical writings have yet to take up the particular issues entailed in teaching composition to this student population. The intent in this volume is to bridge this gap and to initiate a dialogue on the linguistic, cultural, and ethical issues that attend teaching college writing to U.S.-educated linguistically diverse students. This book is the first to address explicitly issues in the instruction of'1.5 generation'college writers. From urban New York City to midwestern land grant universities to the Pacific Rim, experienced educators and researchers discuss a variety of contexts, populations, programs, and perspectives. The 12 chapters in this collection, authored by prominent authorities in non-native language writing, are research based and conceptual, providing a research-based survey of who the students are, their backgrounds and needs, and how they are placed and instructed in a variety of settings. The authors frame issues, raise questions, and provide portraits of language minority students and the classrooms and programs that serve them. Together, the pieces paint the landscape of college writing instruction for 1.5 generation students and explore the issues faced by ESL and college writing programs in providing appropriate writing instruction to second-language learners arriving from U.S. high schools. This book serves not only to articulate an issue and set an agenda for further research and discussion, but also to suggest paths toward linguistic and cultural sensitivity in any writing classroom. It is thought-provoking reading for college administrators, writing teachers, and scholars and students of first- and second-language composition.