Discovering and valuing competency: a case study of placement essays of new freshmen from Hawaii high schools

Abstract

Current composition research has provided limited insight into the writing of nonstandard-dialect speakers. Reasons for this include the way empirical approaches eliminate variables to attain validity and reliability. However, by removing variables researchers also can create methods which ignore diversity. Case studies and similar ethnographic approaches which employ multiple methods to generate diverse kinds of data to provide various perspectives can highlight characteristics and patterns which may prove unique to a specific group. Students from Hawaii high schools represent as diverse a population as any in the United States. A case study which attempts to discover difference between those who successfully place in freshman English and those who place in developmental tracks by analyzing the placement process also highlights competencies. Especially important is concern over the influence Hawaiian creole or "pidgin" has on these students' writing. Analyzing the strategies of responding to the various topics (narration, description, comparison, persuasion, and definition) reveals rhetorical influences, competencies, and limitations of those who passed the placement and those who failed. The analysis also reveals the rhetorical sources of what had been previously seen as language development problems, especially concerning sentence boundary errors such as fragments and comma splices, which highly correspond with specific rhetorical response strategies. The analysis also shows that Hawaiian pidgin did not significantly interfere with the writing of those students who speak it. Teachers and evaluators must reconsider those assumptions they hold about basic writers and nonstandard-dialect speakers.