Alliance for Literacy: Teaching Non-Native Speakers and Speakers of Nonstandard English Together

Abstract

Some colleges and universities their students of English as a second language from native speakers of nonstandard English for instruction in composition, with the possibility of subsequently dividing students within each category, that is, native and non-native, according to skill levels. This primary division we can visualize as a vertical line dividing the population of learners on the basis of language origin, and the assumption in this type of program is usually that the two groups of students are given separate but equal training in college writing skills. However, other schools, out of choice or of necessity, do not non-native speakers from native speakers of nonstandard English, but rather divide the total population of learners, at all writing levels, horizontally on the sole basis of the stages of linguistic and rhetorical development they have attained, normally determined through placement testing. 1 Although it may seem more logical or more efficient to teach the two groups of students separately, evidence from the fields of second language acquisition and sociolinguistics supports the combining of these groups for instruction in basic writing and beginning composition. This support comes from the fact that these two groups share three important features: goal, strategy, and position. First of all, the goal-that of acquiring competence in standard written English-is the same for both groups. Secondly, learners in the two groups will employ similar strategies in approaching that goal. Third, the stages of acquisition, by both types of speakers, of the sort of English needed