Clarifying the relationship between L2 writing and translingual writing: An open letter to writing studies editors and organization leaders

We are writing as a concerned group of second language (L2) writing professionals to call attention to a problematic trend developing among writing studies scholars based in North America: a growing misunderstanding that L2 writing and translingual writing are somehow competing with each other or, worse yet, that one is replacing the other. Because of the influential role that professional organizations and journals play in the field of writing studies, we wish to emphasize the importance of encouraging the development of L2 writing and translingual writing as related yet distinct areas of research and teaching. In this letter, we suggest ways of facilitating a more productive understanding of the role of both approaches to writing in writing studies organizations and journals.With growing language diversity in writing classes across the United States, members of the L2 writing community have long advocated for the need of all writing professionals to be aware of the linguistic diversity of their student populations and how to best serve them. L2 writing scholars at CCCC have been working for decades to develop resources and strategies for supporting writing teachers and program administrators in working more effectively with L2 writers. Because of the growing diversity of higher education, L2 writing specialists have called for all writing researchers, instructors, and administrators to have training in working with L2 writers.The broadening interest in language diversity brought on by the increasing popularity of translingualism is certainly welcome, as it is long overdue in writing studies. Recently, however, there seems to be a tendency to conflate L2 writing and translingual writing, and view the latter as a replacement for or improved version of L2 writing. This is not consistent with our understanding of the field of L2 writing.L2 writing is an international and transdisciplinary field of study that is concerned with any issues related to the phenomenon of writing in a language that is acquired later in life. Second language or L2 is a technical term that refers to any language other than the first language. Although the term, if taken literally, may seem to exclude people with multiple first languages, L2 writing scholars are often the first to critique those assumptions in their own publications and presentations. Within the field, there are various theoretical, methodological, and ideological perspectives, and they do not presuppose any particular ideological orientation. In fact, much of what has been discussed under the term translingual writing has long been part of the conversation in the field of L2 writing.Translingual writing is a particular orientation to how language is conceptualized and implicated in the study and teaching of writing. It emphasizes the fluidity, malleability, and discriminatory potential of languages. It challenges the static view of language and writing, privileges the view of multiple languages as resources, and calls for a more agentive use of various language resources in constructing and negotiating meaning, identity, and even larger ideological conditions. Translingual writing is valuable in that it highlights issues that fall between traditional conceptions of L1 and L2 writing-issues that have traditionally been addressed by writing studies scholars informed by insights from sociolinguistics. Although translingual writing and L2 writing overlap in their critique of the historically monolingual, English Only focus of composition studies, translingual writing has not widely taken up the task of helping L2 writers increase their proficiency in what might still be emerging L2s and develop and use their multiple language resources to serve their own purposes. As a field, L2 writing has also been addressing the ideological concerns highlighted in translingual writing as well as the task of helping L2 writers develop and use their multiple language resources to serve their own purposes. …