ABSTRACT
Increasing numbers of limited English proficient (LEP) students whose native language is not English are moving through U.S. public schools and entering institutions of higher education. In Minnesota, for example, a recent front-page newspaper story read: “the number of students [in the state] who speak little or no English has more than tripled in the past 10 years to about 27,000-roughly the size of one of the state’s largest school districts” (Smith, Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 24, 1997, p. 1). Of course, many of these students intend to enter colleges and universities, and will need to have good writing skills to earn postsecondary degrees. But what are the English language writing skills of these students? What sort of writing instruction do they need or receive, particularly at the secondary level? Few studies have examined the nature of LEP student writing instruction in high schools, or looked at literacy instruction across classroom contexts. Although there is an increasing amount of research on emergent literacy in bilingual children (e.g., Edelsky, 1982; Hudelson, 1984; Urzua, 1987), research on writing instruction for older students (middle school and high school) who are learning to write for academic purposes is much harder to find (but see Adamson, 1993; Harklau, 1994).
