Writing Center Class Spring 2018

Questions for Blog: -I think it would be helpful to review compassionate ways in which to teach ESL students about what American English expressions sound most "natural". -Following up on the empirical studies, can we review successful strategies for cognitive scaffolding? 

I have a hard time generalizing about working with non-native speakers because there’s such a wide variety of backgrounds that they come from. Some have been in the US for many years, and some have been here for only weeks or months—and even among the latter group, some have lived in other English-speaking countries for a long time. For example, in working with Germans, you frequently run into Britishisms, which may or may not be appropriate depending on the audience they’re writing for. The problem I anticipate running into more with non-native speakers is that even the more outgoing ones may be shy to think out loud in the way that Mackiewicz and Thompson talk about. Native speakers often have trouble saying exactly what they mean, but non-native speakers run into this problem more frequently, particularly those with high CALPS but low BICS. I expect that with non-native speakers, my role as a tutor would include more encouragement and more waiting, to give them space to think t...

These were interesting readings for this week because today I had two very different non-native English speaking students back-to-back as enrollments. I've worked with non-native speakers before, as an instructor in class and one-on-one in office hours, but this was the first time I've tutored non-native speakers. To add another layer of newness to this experience, neither one of the tutees was from China or Korea, where the majority of the ESL students I've taught are from, and in both cases, I realized, I was trying to adapt my active listening to different pronunciations, and my reading to different constructions and errors than those I have had in the past. One student was quite removed, seemed unclear in her expectations of the meeting and my role, and only wanted me to check her grammar to make sure her computer program did it right (but would NOT accept any higher order concerns even though organization and clarity were problems). The second student was excited, hop...

I have to say that the empirical research is just amazing. It’s a lot of work that the researchers put in this project, and seems they got very interesting results. Moreover, I believe that having a taxonomy available is the beginning for a lot of more research to come. The book was published in 2015, which is pretty recent. So, I believe it has a lot of potential for future publications on Writing Center research. As for the approach of reviewing form Higher Order Concerns (HOC) to Lower Order Concerns (LOC), I admit is very hard to concentrate only on the global issues, especially when there are a lot of mistakes on the essay. However, I think I got much better at this. I realized from my own writing that too often I would correct a paragraph to later realize that I actually did not even need that part. Also, when students get a paragraph reviewed in terms of grammar, then they feel they have to keep it, and they refuse to get rid. Therefore, it’s definitely much more efficient ...

One thing that came up in the tutoring session I observed last week was the idea of different languages placing the responsibility on the reader vs. the writer. I was excited to see that addressed in "Serving ESL Students." In the reading, Severino gives Japanese as an example of a "reader-responsible" language, "with the burden of communication and interpretation placed on the reader and listener," while in English we emphasize the importance of the writer speaking and writing clearly. I had assumed most languages work this way, with incomprehension being the fault of the writer, and have always believed that this is the best way to go about things. But now that I think more about it, I'm often catching myself using a complicated sentence construction or less common words, and changing it to make sure that the point is clear, even though something more complex gets at the idea of the thing in a better way. So, I think this will help me be less incline...

In my experience tutoring non-native speakers, I’ve often found their frustration with their own writing to be the most difficult thing for me. Native English speakers often show frustration with their writing, of course, but I’ve generally seen more of it with non-native speakers. Much of this frustration stems from grammar or language use that diverges from the rules, or the rules are flimsy in the first place: when to use articles, i-before-e, prepositions, etc. This frustration is understandable. Often the best or only piece of advice I have to offer is “you will learn it with a lot of practice” or “eventually knowing when to use ‘a’ or ‘the’ will seem natural.” But I’m never sure that is helping. I explain the rules to the best of my ability, but there is always a sentence that doesn’t play by the rules that the students get more frustrated. At this point, I usually get the overwhelming empathetic urge to help them by just doing it for them. I don’t want to see students strugglin...

In Serving ESL Students  Severino (citing Leki) states that much like L2 speech, L2 writing will likely have an "accent".  I feel that this is a concept that must be brought to the attention of all professors in any departments  in which users of non standard varieties of  English write/participate (which is to say the majority of departments, if not all). In spoken language we encounter accent both among those who speak English as an additional language, as well as dialects (regional or cultural) across groups of native English speakers.  The approach I have always assumed working with spoken language and second language learners is that the goal for pronunciation is not "native", rather it is comprehensibility without distraction or extreme effort on the part of the listener. However, in writing, it seems that professors expect "error free" and "native like" (meaning "standard", which ultimately means "white").  Why is thi...

I happened to have three non-native English speakers in the Rhetoric course I taught last semester. When grading their papers, I always tried to focus on the quality of the ideas, argumentation, and organization over grammatical or sentence-structure errors. Only when I felt as if I could not understand what they were trying to convey did I step in to address the more technical aspects of writing. I was a little scared about being misunderstood by them, or of not being of much help to them, but I came to realize that non-native English speakers (like most other students) are creative and thoughtful. On top of that, they are willing to put in the extra time and effort into assignments that are naturally more difficult for them because of the language barrier. I am excited to tutor second-language students in the Writing Center because I might be able to import some of the strategies I learn here into the class room setting. Teaching Rhetoric, I often struggle to find ways to make secon...

One thing that I’ve struggled with in helping international students is what is the students’ problem versus other peoples’ problems and the fact that I can only help the students and not their audience.  It's frustrating!  Let’s consider articles.  For many L2 English speakers articles are a perpetual stumbling block.  Research shows that native-like use of articles is one of the last features acquired if at all.  I don’t emphasize articles even in grammar classes because students just won’t get it.  I advocate for ESL grammar instructors not to take off points for article use on the final exam.  Article errors are local; they won’t interfere with the transmission of a writer’s message.  I don’t think it’s ever the goal for an L2 writer or speaker to sound like an L1 writer or speaker.  However, when I choose not to emphasize something like articles, I wonder if it does the student a disservice because some people will judge them for these ...

Here are my questions for the week: 1. On the Bedford Guide:  I found the specificity of strategies like really helpful as they seem very doable. I'm wondering which strategies/ if there are any additional ones tutors have found to be effective for students working on particularly personal pieces of writing (ex. personal essays for creative writing class), across all stages (from generating ideas to polishing line by line). 2. On the Writing Center website: My favorite resource was Lou Kelly's Invitations to write. Going through them, I found some that seemed too vague, or too long for today's distracted students. I'm wondering what everyone thinks of the possibility of adding more, maybe particularly contemporary, invitations: I'm thinking we could collect prompts that teachers of creative writing/ rhetoric classes have found particularly effective, as well as inventing our own (ex. take a sentence or phrase you found in a book/ newspaper/ magazine ...

The writing center manual suggests that enrollment students may want to work together with the tutor for 50 minutes twice a week, rather than individually for 25 minutes each. Is this an option that students actually use? How does this affect the tutoring process? The Bedford Guide emphasizes acting as a sounding board and as a mirror, to reflect the student's ideas back to them so they can see what they're interested in, and identify the argument that they're already developing on their own. How do you work with a student who is totally at a loss, or is confused by the assignment and doesn't have any idea where to start? Or a student who has an unclear prompt?

I’m curious about the Voices magazine on the Writing Center's website. What a cool idea to publish stories, essays and poems from students, and a good motivator! How are submissions taken? Who edits the journal, and would a writing center tutor be able to get involved? What's a good way to gracefully consult other resources during a tutoring session? The Bedford Guide suggests looking up the question together if the tutor doesn’t have the answer or isn’t sure. What sorts of handbooks are available to us during the tutoring session? Is Googling appropriate if there’s a question the tutor can’t answer about grammar or style?

The  Bedford Guide suggests offering students other services or pointing them to other locations on campus (even administrative services if the student seems in need). This of course seems appropriate for certain situations and I'm sure different writing centers function differently. Because the Writing Center is part of a network of centers at Iowa, is it appropriate to refer them to the Speaking Center or Conversation Center? In other words, when is it appropriate to help students with speeches or other formal and informal writing assignments that may be in the domain of other centers or offices on campus? When is it appropriate at the Writing Center to help students with grammar and mechanics? The Tutor's Guide says the Writing Center emphasizes these over grammar and mechanics rather than not supporting them at all, and I have never actually sent a student to the Writing Center because of these things, but it DOES seem like a thing that tutors do.

I remember from my previous university that tutors in the WC would ask me weather they wanted me to notify the instructor about my visit to the WC . For them it was an option integrated in the website? Is this an option in our website too? Here I am probably thinking more about the Spanish WC, since we are now discussing ideas about how to notify instructors that their students have visited the WC. In relation to the book, Ryan and Zummerelli suggest to “be careful about how much of the writer’s work you revise” (p.3). I remember from my previous experience in a Spanish Writing having a hard time going over L2 essays that would just not make any sense. I corrected the work with the student and helped them construct sentences that were grammatically correct, but still, they were not even close to what a native speaker would actually say. I also skipped a lot of errors, because I felt they were way beyond their current level. So I guess my question is: where is the limit between...