Understanding the writing of Generation 1.5 students and the implications on writing instruction: what Generation 1.5 students can teach us about writing instruction

Thesis (M.A., English (Composition)) -- California State University, Sacramento, 2009.As I conducted research for my thesis, I realized how more compositionists and\ud educators at both the college and secondary levels are discussing how they can help the\ud "remedial " students in their classrooms. One area that still needs further investigation is\ud multilingual/bilingual basic writers, in particular Generation 1.5 writers.\ud It is important that educators understand that Generation 1.5 students may have\ud different writing needs than the monolingual or native speaker. Instructors need to be\ud aware that Generation 1.5 students, in particular, have specific needs that need to be\ud addressed in the writing classroom. Four instruments were used to determine students writing experiences, including\ud their strengths and weaknesses in writing. One instrument was the initial survey given during the basic writing classes. This survey was used to determine who I would chose to\ud interview for my study.\ud Two students were chosen for the study. The second instrument would be the\ud interviews with these students.\ud Teacher surveys were also given. The surveys were given to all the English 1\ud instructors and Learning Skills 86&87 instructors during the spring 2008 semester at\ud CSUS. The surveys were placed in the instructors boxes. All surveys were collected\ud during the spring 2008 semester.\ud In addition to the surveys, I analyzed a sample of their writing from the topic\ud "Pay As You Go. " Both students wrote an essay on this topic. In order to be able to\ud compare and contrast their writing I chose the third draft of their first essay to analyze. This study will help instructors effectively teach Generation 1.5 students because\ud it will give them a more in depth look at the difficulties that Generation 1.5 students have\ud with their writing. Moreover, this study will help instructors develop their own\ud curriculum that I would consider to be good teaching practices.English (Composition