I haven't started working at the Writing Center yet officially. And I have only seen one session with an ESL student, and she spoke English perfectly and I couldn't even tell English was her second language! I keep seeing posts about how difficult and/or depressing working in the Writing Center is because of language barriers. I think I'm still not feel prepared to help ESL students yet. However, this could be because I haven't been in a real session with one. And even if I was, when I enrolled in WRA 395 I did not envision helping students who don't understand English. And I don't want all of my sessions to be monotonous or depressing because of communication barriers! I wanted to work in the Writing Center so that I could learn more about writing, and to help others develop as writers. I feel like I involuntarily have a negative outlook on sessions with ESL writers already and I haven't even observed/participated in one. There has to be some positive sessions with ESL writers, but I don't think I've heard them yet. Any takers?
Also, about the creative writing workshop... I don't think I would ever bring my creative writing paper/poem to the Writing Center on my own. What would I say? You work in the writing center. So tell me, are all of my lines completely unoriginal and cliche? Unless there is something specific they need help with, there are a limited amount of things we can help students with. I feel like poetry is what the reader makes of it. Sometimes I don't understand what poets are saying, famous or not. Something I think stinks might get a 4.0 from a professor. A poem I don't understand could be revered as the greatest of all poems. Sure we can help them IF they are trying to use iambic pentameter, rhyme, etc. But what about free form? I learned some great new vocabulary from the workshop, but it still seems like there are a limited amount of things to help students with in terms of creative writing because EVERYTHING is so subjective! And by the way, I would never tell a student their poem was not good even if they asked for my opinion. I hate telling people things they don't want to hear - it may be my downfall as a Writing Center consultant. I would definitely bypass the judgment call :)
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Nina -
I think both of your points in your reflection are really interessting and I think we share some of the same feelings. First of all, about the ESL sessions being depressing and frusterating because of the language barrier. For some reason most of my seesions (observed and co-consulted) have been ESL students, and I don't think any have been depressing. The three sessions that I observed seemed to be with ESL students who did not understand the technicallities of the English language all that well. So these sessions tended to focus on grammar, which was a little bit frusterating because I was unable to fully engage in the issues of the paper, but they really were no different than if an NES writer had brought in a paper full of grammar errors. I co-consulted on two sessions the other day that were both ESL students but I thought they were both extremely engaging. We talked primarily on the arguments and focus of each paper and I felt like I was really able to talk to them intellectually about how they viewed the issues (American social construction) that they were discussing in the paper. I know that they way we have been talking about it in class has been daunting, but they really are not that bad!
I also found the creative writing workshop frusterating. I thought the presentation was less than exciting and although I did not understand everything that she brought up I felt like her instruction style did not help me learn anything. All writing is subjective and I feel that all I will ever be able to offer is an opinion , but I suppose there is something beneficial just in that for the writer.
Thanks for the interessting post!
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