'ESL trouble spots': Composition handbooks, ideology, and the politics of ESL writing and global English

This dissertation examines the emergence of separate chapters for English as a Second Language writers in composition handbooks, and then uses these ESL chapters as a springboard to discuss several broader issues. The first chapter is a genre analysis of composition handbooks and the argument is made that the ESL chapters in handbooks reflect the uneasy, monologic relationship between mainstream composition and second language composition. At the same time, it is argued that mainstream composition is not solely responsible, as the ESL chapters can also be considered symptomatic of the pragmatic, non-ideological theories of ESL writing which have in part contributed to the static and universalized constructions of ESL students in the ESL chapters in handbooks. The second chapter analyzes the role of ideology in second language writing theory and the debates about contrastive rhetoric. The final chapter studies the spread of English as a global language and the way in which English language teaching has both been a contributor to and a product of global English.