Florida International University is a minority majority institution and a major learning destination for many international students. As such, students entering the English Composition classrooms bring with them a rich and diverse linguistic heritage that informs their relationship to English. Here are helpful resources and information to help teachers understand and navigate concerns that arise in such a classroom environment.
Supporting Multilingual Student Writers is Ming Fang’s slideshow about working with multilingual writers at FIU.
“Writing Across Borders” is an eye-opening video from Oregon State University about how culture affects writing imperatives, writing values, and writing aesthetics.
Cynthia Chinelly writes that “Too often, multilingual writers are homogenized and their diverse literacy experiences are ignored. This is problematic because different literacy backgrounds mean students will face different challenges when learning to master academic English. The following chart depicts the three most common linguistic backgrounds of multilingual students and a few considerations about their literacy background. Note that this, like any chart, is a simplification of a more complex reality.”
Robert's Teaching Portfolio 