Locating and Supporting the Developing Pedagogical Language Knowledge of College Writing Instructors

Abstract

The role of language in the study and teaching of writing has long been a subject of controversy and debate for scholars and teachers. Despite a history of language “erasure” in composition studies (Connors, 2000; MacDonald, 2007), however, composition scholars now find themselves traversing a “new linguistic frontier” (Matsuda, 2013). Scholars are, for example, (re)considering the role of language-related “standards” in writing assessment practices, designing innovative approaches to help students develop their linguistic repertoires, and demonstrating heightened awareness of the presence and needs of multilingual writers. Missing from these conversations, however, is a consideration of what writing instructors are expected to know about language, possibilities for transforming this knowledge, and how they are supposed to develop this knowledge. Scholars in related disciplines such as general education, language education, and second language writing have explored the complexity of teacher cognition and its impact on teaching effectiveness, but teacher knowledge development has been largely unexplored in the context of mainstream college writing instruction. This dissertation uses qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the developing language-related knowledge, beliefs, and teaching practices of novice college writing instructors at a large research institution in the U.S. Using insights from these instructors as well as published scholarship, I develop a model of “pedagogical language knowledge” that elucidates the multitude of ways writing instructors transform various sources of knowledge to navigate a broad range of language-related issues in the college writing classroom. This model helps draw attention to the complexity of teachers’ knowledge and could also be used to help designers of writing teacher education find ways to better support teachers’ developing language-related knowledge. This dissertation follows the interdisciplinary work of Aull (2015), Lancaster (2016), Hyland (2007), Matsuda (2013) and others invested in ensuring that teachers of writing are also confident teachers of language; it envisions a new generation of linguistically aware teachers ready to support students “who are now coming to us from all corners of the world” in navigating a broad range of language-related situations (MacDonald, 2007, p. 619).