A Mixed Composition Class?

In America, undergraduates are required to take an English composition class in their first year. At MU, first-year international students can choose to go to the regular section or international section of English1000. This inspires me to ask a question: Should we separate international students from native English speakers (NES) in composition classes? Can students (both groups) benefit from a mixed composition class?

Nizar Ibrahim and Susan Penfield address this question in “Dynamic Diversity: New Dimensions in Mixed Composition Classes.” In a class that contains 15 international students and 10 American students, they find that the diversity of students’ cultural backgrounds is conducive to both ESL and NES students. They admit that in the beginning they do encounter challenges because of students’ different levels of language skills. Therefore, they emphasize the importance of developing personal relationships with students to know individual needs and help students to communicate with each other. In this regard, I am not sure to what degree should teachers develop personal relationships with students.

Also, is the enhancement of the interaction and mutual understanding conducive to their writing? The authors’ answer is yes. They argue that students utilize cultural diversity as important resources to choose their topics and develop their arguments in compositions. For example, a Singaporean student examines gun control in her writing because one of her American colleagues gives her food for thought. In terms of grammar, they give students editing exercises and grammatical feedback. They discover that ESL students and NES students can help each other when they do editing exercises because NES students may have a feel for the language but they do not know the rules while ESL students know the rules but they don’t have a feel for language. I have reservations about this argument because I heard that sometimes essays by ESL students can be entirely incomprehensible, which will make mutual editing impossible.

Finally, they argue that a mixed composition class helps to prepare students for other classes during their academic career where ESL and NES students are not separated. I agree that students can benefit from cultural diversity, but I have a question about assessment and evaluation in a mixed composition class. I assume that teachers should use the same standards to evaluate both ESL and NES students in a mixed composition class. But I am not sure if this thought is fair to ESL students who just start to learn the very basic notion of writing.

Works Cited:

Ibrahim, Nizar, and Susan Perifield. “Dynamic Diversity: New Dimensions in Mixed Composition Classess.” ELT Journal 59.3 (2005): 217-225