Rather, second-language writing should be seen as an integral part of both composition     studies and second-language studies, and specialists in both professions should try to   transform their institutional practices in ways that reflect the needs and characteristics of      second-language writers in their own institutional contexts. (Matsuda 714)

I agree that the world between composition and ESL should be combined, but how could this be implemented in a university. Students in a composition class who are comfortable with the language would speak freely as they do many times in classroom discussion, while ESL students’ who have trouble with the language may feel threatened or apprehensive to speak. I feel it all depends on the level of the students. I have seen higher level ESL students be integrated into composition classes and witnessed their amazing jump to becoming comfortable with the language. I have also seen ESL students in composition courses where they never speak and fail because the teacher misinterprets their ESL influenced writing as “bad writing.”

A program like Matsuda suggests would involve training teachers on how to work with ESL students. Also a curriculum would need to be created to bridge the gap between composition students and ESL students. The entire process would cost institutions a lot of money. Also, writing teachers would need to collaborate to develop a curriculum that supports both ESL students and regular composition students.

 Matsuda’s suggestion reminds me of bell hook’s “Rebel’s Dilemma” when Hooks brings up the idea of Decolonization. Composition courses would, in a way, need to be decolonized in order to support ESL students with little experience in western composition. They would need to rid themselves of the concept of a strict academic writing model, because ESL students would bring a new dynamic to the composition courses.

 I would love to see the two classes comingled because it would be the first step to reforming the concept of Academic Writing. Fusing different cultural writing techniques into western writing techniques could create a new writing standard.