"I Don't Know if That Was the Right Thing to Do": Cross-Disciplinary/Cross-Institutional Faculty Respond to L2 Writing

This chapter investigates faculty expectations for student writing, specifically L2 writers of English, across disciplines at a flagship university and an urban community college in the southwest. Drawing from a faculty survey and follow-up interviews with faculty from various disciplines, the authors argue that study participants tend to hold multilingual writers to a monolingual standard, but that they are conflicted and/or ambivalent about this practice. The survey and interview data show, first, that markers of nonnative speaker status or any features that depart from Standard American Academic English often discourage and even preclude engagement with higher order concerns like ideas and argument. Second, the data show that study participants want native-like prose but do not necessarily expect it, despite what they may claim. Third, the data suggest that many faculty across disciplines are open to discussions about language variety and working with multilingual writers.