Reflections and refractions on the JSLW special issue on voice Dwight Atkinson* Graduate School of Education, Temple University Japan, 2-8-12 Minami Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0047, Japan In an earlier JSLW article Ramanathan & Atkinson, 1999), my coauthor and I discussed the use and appropriacy of the term voice in teaching second language writing. Like other folk terms in L2 writing and applied linguistics e.g., native speaker, critical thinking, standard language, culture), voice turns out to be an exceedingly complex concept Ð one which any single treatment can only scratch the surface of. In the following reflections on the articles in this special issue, I therefore try: 1) to add my own small dialogic ``voice'' to the continuing discussion of this important topic and 2) to do so by focusing especially on points relating to the concerns expressed in our earlier article Ð that ``voice'' as most popularly used, especially in L1-oriented English composition instruction, may index a dominant communicative ideology that disadvantages or excludes students who are not party to it. Before doing so, however, let me give some necessary background by stating in detail what we were trying to do in our 1999 article see also Atkinson, 2000). Our attention had first been drawn to the notion of voice as we were conducting a year-long qualitative comparison of an English composition program and an ESL program at the same large U.S. university Atkinson & Ramanathan, 1995). In this study, we examined how the expectations, requirements, and philosophies underlying the teaching of writing in the two programs agreed or disagreed with each other. The study had been undertaken in response to anecdotal evidence that they differed greatly, and because undergraduate international students were typically required to transit both programs, we felt this might be cause for concern. Our findings did in fact indicate large distances separating the aims and underlying philosophies of the two programs, although we did not conclude that 1060-3743/01/$ ± see front matter D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII:S1060-374301)00035-2 * Tel.: +81-3-5441-9842; fax: +81-3-5441-9822. E-mail address: dwightatki@aol.com D. Atkinson). Journal of Second Language Writing 10 2001) 107±124