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Purpose: This poetic inquiry investigates second language (L2) learners' experiences of English language learning and examines the role of emotions in the language learning process. Design/methodology: The methodology chosen in the current study is qualitative, case-study research through which 209 English poems written by twenty-one Japanese EFL college students were coded and categorized into several thematic issues. Findings: This study reveals fourteen different thematic issues and twenty-two different emotional responses regarding their English language learning experiences. Poetry illustrated here not only expresses their positive and negative emotions but also represents their challenges, desires, hardship, and failure in their language learning journey. Originality/value: This study also exemplifies how poetry writing as a form of 'meaningful literacy' (Hanauer 2012) can transform the traditional EFL classroom and provide some pedagogical and methodological implications for L2 poetry writing in the EFL context.

Any discussion of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is incomplete without an understanding of the assessments that go along with them, since test makers were an integral part of the panels designing the standards. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is one of the two consortia (along with Smarter Balanced) developing tests for multiple states that align with the CCSS. This article shows how teachers perceive the impact of the CCSS and high-stakes assessment, particularly the PARCC, on a linguistically diverse school in the Southwestern U.S. The authors begin by reviewing work focused on how the creators of the CCSS and the associated assessments have overlooked ELL student populations. They then present findings from a multi-year study involving teacher interviews and classroom observations, focusing particularly on the following: psychological effects on students, the challenges of developing a literacy test for a homogeneous population, accessibility and accommodations, and computer-based administration.

In this Retrospective we celebrate the fifty-year anniversary of Donald M. Murray's Teach Writing as a Process Not Product by reflecting on its impact on the field and continued usefulness to teachers and scholars of Writing Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]