This excerpt from an article by linguist Olga Griswold provides a general overview of Generation 1.5 developmental writers. Note Prof. Griswold’s point about not placing such students in ESL sections of Composition:
Generation 1.5 learners are a broad category with varying migration, linguistic, and educational histories, and, therefore, varying language and literacy needs. They comprise young immigrants, students born in the US and growing up in large linguistic enclaves, children experiencing frequent transnational migration, and in-migrants from non–English-speaking US territories (Roberge, 2009). Such students tend to develop complex linguistic and cultural identities that affect both their opportunities and motivations to acquire Standard written English (Chiang & Schmida, 1999; Harklau, 2000; Haswell, 1998).
Many consider themselves either native speakers of English or native bilinguals (Holten, 2002; Huster, 2011; Janssen, 2005) and actively resist the “ESL” label (Talmy, 2005, 2008). Their educational histories, however, may be beset with interruptions, prejudicial treatment, limited or absent L1 support, or inadequate ESL instruction upon first entry into the American school system (Benesch, 2008; Gándara & Contreras, 2009; Menken, Kleyn, & Chae, 2012; Olson, 2010; Roberge, 2002; Soto, 2013). Thus, Generation 1.5ers acquire high levels of oral proficiency in spoken English, but they frequently lack some aspects of grammatical competence, which leads to ESL-like errors in writing (Holten & Mikesell, 2007; Huster, 2011; Janssen, 2005; Mikesell, 2007; Reid, 2006; Schwartz, 2004; Singhal, 2004; Thonus, 2003). As a result, they are regularly placed in ESL classes in college.
Not only does the ESL placement clash with (and is damaging to) the students’ sense of identity and language ownership (Talmy, 2004), but it is also not pedagogically effective. Traditional college ESL classes rely on the pedagogy aimed mostly at international students, who learn English as a foreign language with a heavy emphasis on grammatical terminology and formal rules. Generation 1.5 learners acquire English through oral input and interaction rather than formal instruction (Reid, 2006) and are often unfamiliar with grammatical terminology (Foin & Lange, 2007). Like monolingual native speakers, they rarely possess the declarative knowledge of English grammar. (Griswold 110-111)
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