The purpose of this study is to investigate the acquisition of discipline-specific literacy in a second language, specifically how English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) nursing students learn to write successfully in the B.S. nursing program at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is hoped that lessons from this longitudinal study will be useful to other nursing programs that have had little success in getting their ESL students through their program. This study, which began in the fall of 1999, follows three nursing students who are non-native speakers of English through the completion of their written assignments in their first and second year nursing courses. Data were collected through interviews with students and instructors, and through a content analysis of course syllabi, assignment handouts, students' papers, and instructors' written feedback. Preliminary findings suggest the importance of clear and consistent guidelines for assignments, handouts and tasks that break tasks down into manageable chunks, a process approach that allows for extensive written feedback from instructors and input form classmates, explicit criteria for evaluation, and repeated practice of new genres in a variety of contexts. Appendices with study data are included. (Contains 12 references.) (KFT)