“I write it in a way that people can read it”: How teachers and adolescent L2 writers describe content area writing

Adolescent writers in second language settings often spend the majority of their school days in content area courses, such as math, science, and social studies, where they must negotiate challenging literacy tasks in their second languages with little explicit writing instruction. While genre scholars have built an extensive body of knowledge about texts and textual practices across disciplines, little is known about how linguistically diverse secondary students and their teachers understand school-based writing in different content areas. Taken from a larger ethnographic study of adolescent second language writers’ negotiation of writing tasks across the curriculum, this article explores the ways in which four students and their teachers describe their expectations for content area writing tasks assigned and completed in humanities and biology courses. Based upon interviews, classroom observations, and student texts, this article suggests that adolescent L2 writers and their teachers in this study vary in their descriptions of content area writing, that students may or may not see themselves in the writing roles that teachers envision for them, and that there are both social and linguistic issues underlying students’ decisions to use certain types of language on writing tasks. These findings suggest that adolescent L2 writers would benefit from content area writing instruction that draws upon content area teachers’ existing expertise and encourages discussion among teachers and students about writing.

► Although genre scholarship is well established in the field of second language writing, little is known about how adolescent L2 writers and their teachers understand genre.
► Interviews, observations, and student texts from four adolescent L2 writers and two of their content area teachers suggest limited overlap in their descriptions of genre and audience.
► Students often do not see themselves in the writing roles teachers envision for them.
► Social and linguistic issues help to explain students’ decisions to use certain types of language on writing tasks.