I found Matsuda’s article on the division of labor in composition studies and ESL writing to be both informative and thought provoking.  It was refreshing for me to read an article where the history of the discipline was laid out in the beginning so I could fully understand the discourse, instead of jumping into the discussion in the middle.  Matsuda maintains that a division of labor has been created between composition teachers and ESL teachers as a result of TESL teacher’s desire for professionalism.  As the need for ESL teachers and curriculum was acknowledged, specialization in that area was called for to fill the void. However, as a result, interest in teaching composition was taken out of mainstream English classes and delegated specifically to ESL teachers.  Matsuda maintains, however, that it is not enough to simply teach English to ESL learners, because understanding of English, especially as it pertains to composition cannot be gained in the course of a few classes, or even a few years. Instead, it must be taught across the discipline, in ESL courses as well as mainstream composition courses.  Matsuda suggestions to achieve this encompass composition teachers educating themselves regarding matters pertaining to ESL and having composition teachers actively consider second language perspectives in their work.  While I agree with these tenets on principle, I believe the application of them can be more difficult than Matsuda maintains.  While in the perfect world, teachers would actively seek out a diverse background of knowledge to teach their students, I feel that for many it is unrealistic to expect that of them.  With time constraints in the classroom and demands to teach to standardized testing, there is little time left in the classroom to teach to other than the main tenets of the course.  Is this what we desire? Of course not.  However, until more time is granted to teachers to teach in a diversified manner, I believe that it is difficult to expect the merging of ESL with composition to be the norm.