This presentation at the 2017 TESOL Annual Convention and Exhibit in Seattle examines questionnaire and interview data regarding multilingual writers’ experiences using Directed Self-Placement (DSP) in a first-year composition program at a four-year university. We validate DSP as an empowering tool allowing multilingual college writers to build autonomy by deciding the writing course that meets their needs.

1. Directed Self-Placement
for Multilingual Writers:
5 Ways It Empowers Choices
Melanie Gonzalez, Ph.D. & Julie Whitlow, Ph.D. | Salem State University, Salem, MA, USA
TESOL 2017 International Convention, Seattle, WA, USA

2. Multilingual college writers
• Increase in number of multilingual writers enrolling in U.S. universities
• ELs rising from high school
• Generation 1.5 students (or resident ELs or early arriving immigrants)
• International students
• Expected to write at a college level in a language that may not be their first (L1)
• How do postsecondary institutions place these populations into the most appropriate first year
university writing classes?

3. Placement into 1st-year composition
• Generally relies on a college entrance assessment, writing sample, etc. to determine:
• readiness for post-secondary, college-level writing
• if developmental or introductory courses are best
• placement into the level of coursework best suited to students’ preparation and skills
(Crusan, 2010).

4. How are these assessments used?
• Many standardized tests (ACT, SAT, TOEFL) are not designed as writing placement tests
• Assessments can be costly
• Money needed to develop the tests/prompts, train raters, and pay for scoring
• For writing assessment (i.e., an essay), many administrators opt for cheaper, faster methods
• Politics, differing definitions of writing, power, and control—are intertwined (Crusan, 2006, 2010;
Royer & Gilles, 2003)

5. Power and assessment
• The person in power determines ways that writing will be assessed
• If (due to time, money, philosophy) a person defines writing as mechanics, usage, grammar, and
spelling (MUGS—the subskills of writing), the assessment of choice will be primarily some
multiple-choice instrument (Crusan, 2010)

6. Power and assessment
• We choose the methods
• We score the essays
• We tell students what courses to take
• Students have more control over their educational options

7. Royer and Gilles findings (1998; 2003)
• Chose ENG 098 simply felt that it was the course for them
• Felt they needed to “brush up” before tackling ENG 150
• Reasons centered on behavior and self-image—not test scores or grades
• Students saw themselves as poor readers and writers
• In the past, instructors had done the “seeing” for them

8. Directed Self-Placement (DSP)
• A method of placing students into a first-year composition course
• Students self-evaluate their writing skills and make a decision about the best composition course
to take
• Students have some guidance from the institution, but it is their decision

9. Statements in favor of DSP
• Blakesley (2002)‘‘ . . . being placed or classified, naturally breeds resistance among those who feel
its effects’’ (p. 9).
• DSP is ‘‘an act of restoration . . . to the extent that it asks students to learn from the past to make
decisions about their future’’ (p. 29), and calls DSP ‘‘a superior method of placement to . . .
standard writing placement’’ (p. 29).
• White (2008) ‘‘DSP proposes a radical solution to the persistent problems of over-testing,
negative labeling, and student discomfort with required coursework’’ (p. 139) … recommends it as
an answer to the “perennial problems associated with placement.”
• CCCC Committee on Second Language Writing (2009) advocates DSP as a viable and appropriate
placement method for multilingual writers.

10. Royer and Gilles proposed
• Inform students about the different composition classes offered and the kinds of writing that will
be expected of them for each required course
• Emphasize importance of selecting the right course to match abilities
• Students answer questions about the kinds of readers and writers they are
• Students place themselves using the information given to them about the courses, the answers on
their questionnaires, and their honest examination and evaluation of their writing abilities
• Students decide for themselves the most appropriate course and if they are ready and able to do
the work of the course

11. Evidence for multilingual adults
• More than a decade before Royer and Gilles’ work with L1 students, LeBlanc and Painchaud
(1985) discussed using self-assessment for adult ESL learners.
• ‘‘When adults place themselves in a classroom learning situation, they have a very fair idea of
why they are doing so, of what they expect from the course’’ (p. 675).
• They also present counterevidence that ‘‘good students tend to underestimate themselves while
students who have arrived at a plateau tend to overestimate their ability’’ (p. 675)

12. Additional findings supporting DSP
• DSP for writing seats accountability squarely on the shoulders of those who purportedly know their
writing skills better than anyone else: the writers themselves
• Teachers seem pleased when placement responsibility lies with the students
• Greatly reduces the costs associated with placement
• Test security issues are eliminated
• Student decision-making about when and where to do the writing reduces anxiety
• Student involvement in decision making increases responsibility for learning—many students who have
used DSP succeed because they placed themselves in a certain class and feel the need to prove
something (Royer & Gilles, 1998; Gere, Aull, Green, & Porter, 2010)

13. CCCC’s (2006) position statement on
writing assessment
• Decision-makers should carefully weigh the educational costs and benefits of timed tests,
portfolios, directed self placement, etc.
• Timed writing may suggest to students that writing always cramps one for time and that real
writing is always a test.
• Machine-scored tests may focus students on error-correction rather than on effective
communication.
• Students should have the right to weigh in on their assessment.
• Self-placement without direction may become merely a right to fail, whereas directed self-
placement, either alone or in combination with other methods allows students to make choices
that empower them.

14. CCCC’s (2009) position statement for
multilingual writers
“Second language writers include international visa students, refugees, and permanent residents as
well as naturalized and native-born citizens of the United States and Canada. Many of these
students have grown up speaking languages other than English at home, in their communities, and
in schools; others began to acquire English at a very young age and have used it alongside their
native languages. To many, English may be a third, fourth or fifth language. Many second language
writers are highly literate in their first languages, while others have never learned to write in their
mother tongues. Some are even native speakers of languages without a written form. Some
students may have difficulty adapting to or adopting North American discursive strategies because
the nature and functions of discourse, audience, and rhetorical appeals often differ across cultural,
national, linguistic, and educational contexts. At the same time, however, other students--
especially graduate students--are already knowledgeable about the discourse and content of their
respective disciplines, even if their status as "international" or "second language" may mask their
abilities. Furthermore, most second language writers are still in the process of acquiring syntactic
and lexical competence—a process that will take a lifetime.”

15. But what about misplacement?
• Overestimation
• Underestimation
• However, when students are informed about the course expectations and the responsibilities
that accompany their course selection, the concerns of misplacement are greatly reduced

16. Implementation of DSP
• DSP’s form depends on the institutional constraints, its writing program, students, and
instructors.
• PowerPoint presentations, web sites, and brochures outlining the most important issues
concerning DSP.
• Quite frequently, questionnaires are used to ask questions about past and present reading and
writing practices, habits, and experiences (Crusan, 2010a, p. 144).
• An online system affords global accessibility, an important component for institutions admitting a
large undergraduate nonnative-English-speaking population.
• These myriad versions of DSP are ‘‘site-based, locally-controlled, context-specific, and accessible’’
(Huot, 2002, p. 105) and thereby adhere to current writing assessment theory (CCCC Committee
on Assessment, 2006; CCCC Committee on Second Language Writing, 2009).

17. Adoption of DSP

18. Adoption of DSP

19. Adoption of DSP

20. Case of Salem State University
• One of the largest state universities in
Massachusetts
• Located 13 miles north of Boston
• Enrolled 1,897 freshmen in Fall 2016
• 36 % students of color
• 2% international students
• Commonwealth requires a writing sample
from all incoming first year college students

21. DSP at Salem State University
Prior to DSP
• Incoming first year students wrote an essay
based on a faculty determined prompt during
orientation.
• Three faculty raters read each essay and
placed students into one of the first year
courses.
• Very time consuming and costly.
• Students had no part in the decision.
First-Year Writing Course Offerings
• ENL 105 Introduction to College Writing (3 cr.)
• ENL 108 Academic Writing for Multilingual
Writers (3 cr.)
• ENL 110 Foundations of Writing (3 cr.; W-1)
• ENL 109 Foundations of Writing ESL (3 cr.; W-1)

22. DSP at Salem State University
Implementation of DSP
• Provided information about DSP and
instructions for completing it in First Year
Advising packet
• Access to DSP materials: course information,
questionnaire, and essay prompt through
Canvas
• Complete before or during Freshmen
Orientation
• During orientation, first year advisors and a
DSP reader from the English department are
available
• Called “Writing Self-Placement (WSP)” at SSU
First-Year Writing Course Information Provided
• Syllabi and information about goals of each
course
• Interviews with course instructors
• Interviews with students
• Sample assignments
• Sample student writing earning various
grades
• Exemption information

23. Adoption of DSP

24. Case of Salem State University
• Survey multilingual writers about their
experience with DSP
• 43 responses in three classes during the
first month of the Fall 2015 semester:
• 1 section of ENL 105
• 1 section of ENL 108
• 2 sections of ENL 109
• Close to 100% response rate

25. Q1: Choose the description that best fits your
opinion of your language abilities

26. Q2: How long have you been living in the United
States?

27. Q3: How many years of your education before
university was completed in the United States?

28. Q5: If you did complete the WSP on Canvas, which
first year writing course did you select?

29. Q9: After you selected a course in the WSP, did you
change your mind or change your first selection?

30. Q11: Now that classes have started, do you feel that
you are in the best first year writing course for you
and your writing needs?

31. Q13: Do you think that WSP (where students
choose a writing course themselves instead of
someone else choosing your course for you) is a
good way for first year students to choose a writing
course?

32. Q15: Please explain your opinion about whether
WSP is a good way for students to be placed in a
first-year college writing course based on your
experiences this semester.
• “In my opinion, the WSP is a good way to give students more freedom to choice what is they
really want to study. And that is make students have more enthusiasm at there study life.”
• “It is a good way for students to be placed in courses themselves because, we as students, know
how we write and learn and it is best for us to place ourselves.”
• I think the WSP is a good way for student to integrate classes that might be good for them. when
you chose a class that you really want you have much more chance to success in.

33. Q1: Instructor responses: Which first year writing
course(s) are you teaching this semester?

34. Q2: Do you have one or more students whom you
would consider multilingual in your first year writing
course?

35. From instructor of 105 (not a designated
multilingual section)
“I do feel the multilingual writers did well to self-place into ENL 105. They've made
advances in building writing confidence, gained facility working with different
strategies of the writing process, and (perhaps most of all) had the opportunity to
explore the shaping influence of their multilingual backgrounds on their writing
experiences. On another note, multilingual students in my classes have really
enhanced the class as a community: single-language learners have been very
receptive to hearing of multilingual writers' experiences. It's helped reveal much
about writing, its possibilities and challenges.”

36. Conclusions – 5 ways DSP empowers
choices
① Affords students agency, especially our ML writers
② Trusts students’ ability to self-evaluate; that what they have to say and how they evaluate
themselves matters
③ Student-centered philosophy avoids resentment that might occur when students are told they
need to take an “extra” writing course
④ Allows for more reflective and realistic writing production that more closely mirrors authentic
writing
⑤ Reduces anxiety around the transition to college-level writing

37. Challenges we still face
• Coordination amongst multiple offices – first-year advising, admissions, student recruitment
• Identifying and ensuring access for our international students
• Ensuring DSP materials linguistically accessible to a variety of language proficiencies
• Address cultural differences and implications of DSP
• Professional development for faculty not trained in second language writing instruction

38. In summary
Due to these considerations, we advocate Directed Self-Placement as a means of determining the
most appropriate placement for multilingual writers.

39. References
• Blakesley, D. (2002). Directed Self-Placement in the University. Writing Program Administration, Vol. 25, No. 3
• Butler, Y. G., & Lee, J. (2010). The effects of self-assessment among young learners of English. Language Testing, 27(5), 5–31.
• CCCC Committee on Assessment. (2006). Writing assessment: A position statement. Retrieved from
www.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/writingassessment
• CCCC Committee on Second Language Writing. (2009, November). CCCC statement on second language writing and writers. Retrieved from:
www.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/secondlanguagewriting
• Crusan, D. (2002). An assessment of ESL writing placement assessment. Assessing Writing: An International Journal, 8, 17–30.
• Crusan, D. (2006). The politics of implementing online directed self-placement for second language writers. In P. K. Matsuda, C. Ortmeier-
Hooper, & X. You (Eds.), The politics of second language writing (pp. 205–221). West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press.
• Crusan, D. (2010). The Promise of Directed Self-Placement for Second Language Writers, TESOL Quarterly 44.
• Crusan, D. (2010a). Assessment in the second language writing classroom, Ann Arbor, MI:
• University of Michigan Press.
• Gere, A. R., Aull, L., Green, T., & Porter, A. (2010). Assessing the validity of directed self-placement at a large university. Assessing Writing,
15, 154–176.
• LeBlanc, R., & Painchaud, G. (1985). Self-assessment as a second language placement instrument. TESOL Quarterly, 19(4), 673–687.
• Royer, D. J., & Gilles, R. (1998). Directed self-placement: An attitude of orientation. College Composition and Communication, 50(1), 54–70.
• Royer, D. J., & Gilles, R. (Eds.). (2003). Directed self-placement: Principles and practices. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
• White, E. M. (2008). Testing in and testing out. WPA: Writing Program Administration, 32(1), 129–142.

40. Thank You!Julie Whitlow, cwhitlow@salemstate.edu
Melanie Gonzalez, mgonzalez@salemstate.edu