ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the process of needs analysis and pedagogical planning in a twosemester core composition sequence for “non-native speakers” at the University of Houston (UH), a large, urban, public institution that describes itself as “the most ethnically diverse research university in the [United States]” (University of Houston, 2006). Traditionally positioned as an option for students educated outside of the U.S., the nonnative sequence has increasingly attracted U.S. high school graduates as the number of international students dropped after 9/11 and immigrant students who previously were dispersed throughout sections of the general composition sequence discovered it as an option. These changing demographics-and our growing awareness of them-have posed a challenge: how to meet the needs of diverse students with a single set of courses.
