College English Jul 2006

The Myth of Linguistic Homogeneity in U.S. College Composition

Paul Kei Matsuda

Abstract

The author suggests that English-only classrooms are not only the implicit goal of much language policy in the United States, but also assumed to be already the case, an ironic situation in light of composition’s historical role as “containing” language differences in U.S. higher education. He suggests that the myth of linguistic homogeneity has serious implications not only for international second-language writers in U.S. classrooms but also for resident second-language writers and for native speakers of unprivileged varieties of English, and that rather than simply abandon the placement practices that have worked to contain—but also to support—multilingual writers, composition teachers need to reimagine the composition classroom as the multilingual space that it is, where the presence of language differences is the default.

Journal
College English
Published
2006-07-01
DOI
10.58680/ce20065042
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy multilingual writers translingualism
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Citation Context

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