Mya Poe

Rethinking Multilingual Writers in Higher Education: An Institutional Case Study explores the complexities of multilingual students as language users and learners, emphasizing the distinctive assets that they bring to their education and the ways in which institutions of higher education can better meet their needs.Teachers, university administrators, advisors, and other support staff will gain an understanding of the resources, challenges, and successes of this growing student population and become better equipped to provide them with the best possible educational opportunities. Through mixed-methods case studies focusing on the Northeastern University Writing Program and Writing Center, the authors unpack the complexity of multilingual students’ identities and languaging to challenge deficit and homogenizing narratives that overlook their linguistic assets and diverse educational experiences. Working within and against university categories for collecting information about students and assessing their writing, authors point out the limits of terms such as “international” and the problems with dichotomous L1/L2 and native/nonnative speaker labels. Finally, the book offers lessons learned about the importance of conducting program self-study to inform research and pedagogy for higher education institutions around the world.This book will appeal to writing studies and linguistics scholars with interests in multilingualism, assessment, and mobility, as well as institutional stakeholders and researchers of higher education and multicultural education.

Case studies and pedagogical strategies to help science and engineering students improve their writing and speaking skills while developing professional identities.To many science and engineering students, the task of writing may seem irrelevant to their future professional careers. At MIT, however, students discover that writing about their technical work is important not only in solving real-world problems but also in developing their professional identities. MIT puts into practice the belief that "engineers who don't write well end up working for engineers who do write well," requiring all students to take "communications-intensive" classes in which they learn from MIT faculty and writing instructors how to express their ideas in writing and in presentations. Students are challenged not only to think like professional scientists and engineers but also to communicate like them.This book offers in-depth case studies and pedagogical strategies from a range of science and engineering communication-intensive classes at MIT. It traces the progress of seventeen students from diverse backgrounds in seven classes that span five departments. Undergraduates in biology attempt to turn scientific findings into a research article; graduate students learn to define their research for scientific grant writing; undergraduates in biomedical engineering learn to use data as evidence; and students in aeronautic and astronautic engineering learn to communicate collaboratively. Each case study is introduced by a description of its theoretical and curricular context and an outline of the objectives for the students' activities. The studies describe the on-the-ground realities of working with faculty, staff, and students to achieve communication and course goals, offering lessons that can be easily applied to a wide variety of settings and institutions.