Sean Farrell, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA

Grujicic-Alatriste, L., & Grundleger, C.C. (Eds.) (2020). Second language writing in transitional spaces: Teaching and learning across educational contexts. University of Michigan Press.

College writing instructors and composition studies scholars have long maligned the five-paragraph essay as lacking in authenticity, arguing that it reinforces bad habits and fails to challenge student writers to make full use of their linguistic and rhetorical repertoires. Such complaints, the editors of Second Language Writing in Transitional Spaces argue, are evidence of a lack of communication across educational contexts. From elementary school to middle school, from middle school to high school, and from high school to college, these key transition points are under-researched and misunderstood, especially as they relate to English Language Learners (ELLs). Aimed primarily at researchers, the ten chapters in this edited collection offer a crucial intervention into the field of second language writing by examining teaching across the full educational continuum, from K-16.

Chapter 1 uses a case study approach to show the challenges faced by instructors bridging the divide between elementary and middle school ELL writers. It ultimately suggests the need for a top-down approach that encourages collaboration between teachers and provides training on teaching models like the “writer’s workshop.” Chapter 2 advocates for the Language Experience Approach, which can help young writers develop their literacy skills and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. This approach connects oral literacy with print literacy, scaffolds the L2 with the L1, and provides a metalanguage for ELLs to describe their linguistic challenges.

Chapter 3 argues for the application of the Teaching-Learning Cycle, a genre-based approach with four steps: modeling, guided practice, shared practice, and independent practice. This approach provides scaffolding for ELLs in two distinct contexts, at the elementary and tertiary levels. Chapter 4 reports on an innovative training program for pre-service teachers in which the teachers work directly with local youths to develop a multimodal reflection project. Such projects involve multiple spaces and semiotic modes and produce teachers more capable of developing curricula that adopt a critical stance.

Chapter 5 describes the policy differences between three educational contexts: K-12, community colleges, and four-year institutions. The authors argue that by pooling their resources, educators can discover not only differences but also similarities that can be exploited to maximize learner experiences. They also argue for a more locally situated approach to language education policy research, an approach that is taken up and applied in Chapter 6, which examines the local strategies that writing teachers in secondary school settings use to promote standards-based skills. Taking a balanced approach to the longtime debate over the five paragraph essay, this chapter shows that, although it can lead to formulaic writing, it can also provide useful scaffolding for students who have to take and pass standardized examinations in high school, and may be particularly beneficial for multilingual ELLs.

Chapter 7 shows that the majority of conditionally admitted college students taking a developmental writing course are familiar with argumentative and descriptive writing and believe universities should design entrance examinations based on these familiar genres. This locally-situated data provides insight into students’ beliefs. Chapter 8 presents a writing sequence for first-year composition that emphasizes student agency and multilingual resources, ultimately arguing that instructors should think carefully about who their students are and what they need when designing writing tasks.

Chapter 9 describes the transition from student to teacher, showing how two novice teachers negotiate educational praxis through the interpretation of past experiences as students. This chapter contends that novice teachers should adopt a reflective stance, whether through literacy autobiographies or through conversations with other teachers. Finally, Chapter 10 examines L2 writing textbooks to determine how they engage with the concept of “argumentation,” concluding that these textbooks deal with argument in mixed ways and do not always provide the necessary scaffolding for ELLs transitioning into academic writing contexts.

The authors writing for this collection make a convincing case for examining transitional spaces across the K-16 educational continuum. In particular, the authors in this collection show, through a combination of case studies and autoethnography, why it is crucial for more research to be conducted on how students and teachers navigate transitional spaces. Though the primary aim of this collection is to broaden the scope of second language writing research, instructors will also find useful instructional strategies in chapters 2, 3, and 8. In addition, this book will be useful for developing workshops and other professionalization materials for teacher training courses. These strengths are mitigated by some shortcomings. For instance, more work should be done on particular student populations, especially given recent research that has shown the specific difficulties faced by students from refugee backgrounds transitioning into higher education. Indeed, if there is one perspective that is largely missing from this collection, it is that of students, who may provide valuable additional insight into the kinds of pedagogical practices they are most likely to respond positively to. Despite these potential shortcomings, I still highly recommend this book, as it illuminates an element of L2 writing that is too-often neglected and provides genuine insight into the ways that researchers and teachers alike may begin to fill in the gap.