Strangers Here Ourselves: How NNESTs Work with Multilingual Writers NNEST/SLW Intersection TESOL 2009, Denver, CO Ryuko Kubota University of British Columbia

Introduction My roles:  Author  Work with academic writers (mentor for undergraduate and graduate students, reviewer of manuscripts for publication)  Language instructor Hauntedness:  Appearing and disappearing of nonnativeness in writing

Appearing (Observing self)  Processing time  Composing and editing  Reading  Product  Voice  Discoursal self (Ivani č, 1998)  Uncertainty of how my writer identity is perceived

Disappearing (Observing self)  Planning and brainstorming for composition  Finished product in print

Appearing (working with academic writers)  Inappropriate or unclear surface features of texts could negatively affect comprehensibility.

Disappearing (working with academic writers)  NS writers struggle too in aligning themselves with the expectations of the academic community. Excerpt from NS MA student’s thesis proposal: “This can present a challenge to a language minority child who starts school with a different family language background that their peers because they have experienced the world a differently and may not interpret social interactions in the classroom that same as their English- speaking peers.”  Competent NNS academic writers stand comparison with competent NS academic writers.

Appearing (working with language learners)  Depending on the proficiency level  Surface features of the text (lexical choice, syntactic control, rhetorical strategies)

Disappearing (working with language learners)  Compelling content, clarity, approach  Heritage speakers with near-native oral proficiency struggle with writing.

Negotiating hauntedness: Implications for NNS writers  Capitalize on your strengths by making your content and ideas original and compelling.  Make use of L1 wherever applicable  multi- competence (Cook, 2005)  Work with a competent copyeditor to polish the final product.  Be confident; you are much more competent than many NS writers.

Reference  Casanave, C. P., & Vancrick, S. (Eds.) (2003). Writing for scholarly publication: Behind and scenes in language education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  Cook, V. (2005). Basing teaching on the L2 user. In Llurda, E. (Ed.), Non-native language teachers: Perceptions, challenges and contribution to the profession (pp ). New York: Springer.  Hinkel, E. (2002). Second language writers’ text: Linguistic and rhetorical features. Mahwah: NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  Ivani č, R. (1998). Writing and identity: The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.