Teaching multilingual learners in Canadian writing-intensive classrooms: Pedagogy, binaries, and conflicting identities

Abstract

In this article, we attempt to bring new analytic lenses (Canadian, European, from applied linguistics and sociolinguistics) to the fields of composition and second language writing in North America. Specifically, we focus on the challenges that linguistic diversity poses to instructors teaching Writing Intensive (WI) classes at West Coast University (WCU) in Vancouver, Canada. First, we highlight aspects of the rich and varied multi-/plurilingualism of students at the university. We then look at how writing to learn, a cornerstone of Writing Intensive Learning, can present particular challenges to multilingual students who write in English as an additional language and who may lack the necessary proficiency in academic literacy to learn through writing. We present excerpts from interviews with eight WI instructors from different disciplines at the university, in which they describe their understandings of multilingualism, pedagogical responses to linguistic diversity in their classes, and perceptions of their roles as WI instructors. In their responses, participants described a number of pedagogical dilemmas, conceptual binaries, and conflicting professional identities. In our conclusion, we highlight an institutional backdrop that challenges the professional identities of WI instructors, and close by considering the implications of our findings at institutional level and in the writing-intensive classroom.