There has recently been growing interest in the relationship between second language (L2) writing development and the institutional contexts in which this process is embedded. The present study examines this relationship by reporting on an eight-month qualitative investigation of international university students and their perspectives on the impact of feedback practices for L2 writing development in content courses. Drawing on interviews with five focal students and four focal instructors, as well as on writing samples and course documents, this study illustrates the powerful but often unspoken impact that institutional factors such as departmental budgets and prescribed grade distributions have on L2 writers and their instructors. These factors are shown to constrain students’ and instructors’ abilities to discuss how discipline-specific writing is structured and how it might be negotiated and ultimately understood. Implications focus on the challenges of helping L2 students develop academic writing skills without also addressing the institutional factors that underlie writing and feedback practices.
Inspiré de la notion de bilittératie comprise comme « la conjonction de la littératie et du bilinguisme », l’article qui suit rend compte d’études de cas multiples en cours avec des étudiantes universitaires multilingues développant des littératies universitaires simultanément en français et en anglais. Des entretiens et des documents textuels et vidéo décrivant les pratiques d’écriture des étudiantes ont servi à l’analyse des prises de position et des idéologies des étudiantes à l’égard de pratiques interlinguistiques et du développement de la bilittératie. Les perspectives des étudiantes témoignent de leurs divers positionnements par rapport à leurs langues d’héritage, d’expertise et d’affiliation, ainsi que de leurs expériences de littératies préuniversitaires. Les représentations des étudiantes font également écho à certaines tensions retrouvées dans les écrits liées aux idéologies qui prônent la séparation des langues, le souci de protéger les langues minoritaires et le potentiel éducatif de synergies interlinguistiques.
Postsecondary immersion programs reflect a growing demand for educational programs designed to allow learners to develop advanced levels of literacy in a second language through content and discipline-based language interactions. Little is known about the impact of these programs on students. Drawing on data collected through individual interviews and focus group interactions, this paper focuses on the insights and personal reflections of students at the University of Ottawa, site of the largest tertiary French immersion option in Canada. The data gives voice to firsthand accounts of what it means to study in these programs and offers avaluable glimpse at the challenges, risks and distinctive incentives associated with the completion of one’s undergraduate education through the medium of a second language. Implications focus on recommendations for the design of successful university immersion programs.
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