ABSTRACT
The following scenario is fictional, but it represents a situation that is quite prevalent. An international student—we will call her Mariko—comes to the United States to study English with the goal of attending a U.S. university. She enrolls in an intensive English program at the university she is interested in attending, and spends nine months building her academic English skills. Nine months later, she passes the program’s final exams in reading and writing and obtains an admissible score on the institutional TOEFL. Her university application requires several writing samples in which she outlines her reasons for wanting to attend that particular university, as well as her future life plans. She has fulfilled all of the necessary requirements and appears to have the requisite literacy skills for success. She is admitted to the university.
