The CATESOL Journal

This article examines the special academic language challenges of second language (L2) learners who enter U.S. schools as adolescents through a case study of a female Taiwanese immigrant. It describes her English language learning history, her performance on a university writing placement test, and her subsequent writing development and academic progress at a four-year university. The study considers social and educational contexts of learning that may hinder literacy development, both oral and written. It underscores the importance of providing English language learners ample opportunities for meaningful, negotiated interaction and extended discourse production in secondary classrooms, both English as a Second Language (ESL) and mainstream.