Writing Between Languages: How English Language Learners Make the Transition to Fluency, Grades 4-12

Danling Fu’s book Writing Between Languages; How English Language Learners Make the Transition to Fluency provides an alternative way to teach ELL students more effectively so they can be competent in the English language. Throughout her book, she proves that students can make a smoother transition to English if they are given the opportunity to bring their literacy knowledge from their native language and allowed to write in both languages as well. Dr. Fu provides us with students’ work examples to illustrate the power of students’ writing when they are supported in using their first language while developing expertise in English. Dr. Fu provides her readers with really great strategies for helping ELL students’ progress as writers of their second language. I particularly like the idea of allowing the students to write in their native language in the beginning. By having students express their feelings in their native language, you learn a lot more about your students and their abilities. Also, Dr. Fu introduces the idea of code-switching and explains to us the benefits of it. Students use code-switching to communicate through words and fully empress themselves. It is important to encourage code switching in the beginning because when ELLs are forced to use only the limited English proficiency they have, the writing can be pedestrian and flat, but if allowed to use their own language to express themselves, they can write vivid pieces.While I was required to read this book for one of my undergraduate education class, I did not expect to learn this much from it or even enjoy it; however I was shock on how relatable some of the author’s points were. As someone who was an ELL student in grade school, I can truly relate to the students that were presented in the book. I think it would have been easier for me to learn the language if I was not forced to write strictly in English. It was sort of discouraging when I see my peers expressing their thoughts and I could not fully do it. The strategies that Dr. Fu mentioned seem to be very beneficial in the classroom. All of the strategies that are presented in this book can be applied equally in the ELL classroom and their general classroom regardless of the student’s native language. I would highly recommend this book to educators because we will all be dealing with students who do not have much English background. We may encounter a student who struggles with English overall because they have not been exposed to the language in their life. Therefore, we should be able to provide the support and resources that the student needs to be able to learn the language effectively. I will definitely keep this book on my shelf because I know that I could use all of the good strategies with ELL students as well as my other students.

This book is great. While some may think the ideas are a bit idealistic, there is SO much that is fantastic about it. Fu really has a different take on writing and ESL/ELLs.As a foreign language teacher who is also studying ELL, I saw a lot that I could use in my FL classroom as well.I love this book!

Fu makes great points throughout this book, and has a great writing style. It is a very enjoyable read!

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What a wonderful book. I purchased it for a class I was taking, the class is over but the book will stay on my bookshelf.

Excelllent book. A great help for ESL writing teachers.

Great book thanks

Very user friendly and readable.