ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the experiences of five generation 1.5 students with a writing proficiency exam (WPE) at a large public urban university.1 It focuses on the impact that passing or failing had on the students’ accommodation or resistance to the norms and values about language and literacy that were embedded in the discourses of standard language ideology and standards of the high-stakes testing process. As we examine the students’ invocation of these discourses, we see how the students regarded the notion of standard language. We also see how they saw themselves, in terms of such things as writing ability and attitudes toward ESL status. Additionally, we find forms of resistance to the WPE, such as the suspicion of racism, the belief that the university did not adequately prepare students for the exam, and the discourse of joy in writing.