Time Warp...

I wanted to write this blog entry a few weeks ago, but we ended up having specific assignments for them instead. So this week, I want to talk about working with ESL students and how far a tutor should really go with their writing.

One example of a consultant "going too far" (in my opinion) happened during my first writing center observation three weeks ago. The session I observed was obviously with an ESL student, but the consultant often made changes to the student's paper and then asked the student if they were okay. The third session I observed was also with an ESL client, and this was the one where the consultant took up a very firm stance of the use of the word "university" in place of "academy," even though I don't think this was the meaning that the student was really aiming for. The student used "academy" several times in reference to academic jobs that post-BS/BA students want in phrases such as, "jobs in the academy". It is obvious that simply replacing the word "academy" with "university" here is too vague and doesn't work, but the consultant did not explain any other contextual changes that would have to be made in order to use this substitution. Even after looking up the word "academy" in a dictionary, the student still did not have a full understanding of why the consultant was pushing for the change, but the consultant didn't explain any farther and insisted on making the change at every mention of the word "academy."

In my opinion, both of these approaches were too direct and there was not enough explanation going on. The student should have been more involved in the process. I don't mean that the consultants should have asked their clients what was wrong with each problem area they found since this would probably be stressful for an ESL student, but that when they came to a mistake, the consultants should have explained it more to the clients. How else could the clients be expected to learn? In the first example I gave, if all the student has to work with after the session is her original and the consultant-edited copies of her paper with no kind of descriptive link between them, any writing she does based on those changes will be blind imitation. If she doesn't understand his corrections, she runs the risk of applying the rules she sees incorrectly in other areas. If an ESL student asks for help with the grammar of their paper then the writing center should obviously provide that, but a more instructional and helpful structure should really be in place in all consulting sessions, not just ones working with ESL students. In these sessions suggested changes should be comprehensively explained to the writer if it is clear that the writer cannot determine these changes on their own. After all, a writing center's purpose is to change writers, not their writing.