“Disciplinary portfolios” and EAP writing instruction

Abstract In the 1990s, there has been an emerging interest among L2 compositionists, especially those operating in an EAP/ESP context, in the needs of “a relatively understudied but growing group: NNS graduate students” (Casanave & Hubbard 1992). These students face the often daunting task of learning how to read and write effectively within a specific discourse community whose expectations and practices may well seem difficult to identify, let alone control as L2 academic writers. Helping these NNS writers function successfully within their chosen discourse communities involves, among other tasks, finding ways of sensitizing them to the demands and tendencies of those communities. This paper discusses the contributions portfolios can make within a discourse community awareness framework through a “disciplinary portfolio” pedagogy. The paper outlines the case for such a pedagogy and describes a teaching situation in which the disciplinary portfolio has been employed.

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