Transnational students in Mexico: A summer writing workshop as a way to improve English writing skills

Abstract

Transnational students, that is, those who have had one or more years of schooling in the US and are now in school in Mexico, make up a sizeable and growing population. For these students, the language of the home, Spanish, abruptly becomes the language of school and what was the language of school and socialization outside the home, English, is all but removed from their sphere. However, English is a language with which they identify. Further, in my interviews with them, transnational students express a desire to maintain English and express concern over lack of opportunities to do so. Thus, a writing workshop was offered for three weeks in the summer of 2015. The four member instructional team made up of US university students and a professor engaged the workshop participants in warm-up activities, mini-lessons, sustained writing periods and sharing of work. Some gains were found in the areas of mechanics, content and spelling, but the study’s greater contribution is as a case study on which to design an improved workshop in the future.