National Council of Teachers of English

Statement on Second Language Writing and Multilingual Writers

Conference on College Composition and Communication, January 2001, Revised November 2009, Reaffirmed November 2014, Revised May 2020

Part One: General Statement

The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) recognizes campuses around the world as fundamentally multilingual spaces, in which students and faculty bring to the acts of writing and communication a rich array of linguistic and cultural resources that enrich academic life and should be valued and supported. The aim of this document is to provide broad research-based guidelines for teachers and administrators to advocate for multilingual writers in all spaces of universities and colleges, including first-year writing, undergraduate and graduate courses across the curriculum, writing centers, and intensive English programs. The secondary aim of this statement is to promote social justice for all multilingual members of the academic community, students, faculty, and staff in order to make visible otherwise underutilized linguistic and literacy resources. This document is divided into sections detailing guidelines for writing classes, writing programs, teacher preparation, and teaching contexts as well as a selected bibliography of helpful resources.

Read the full statement [1].