Although I don't get many ESL students at the writing center at Lagcc, because of the fact that there is a separate writing center for them in particular, I do sometimes get students who have made it to Eng 99 or the Freshman Comp who really do have trouble with English as their second language. Although I agree fully with Matsuda and Cox's analysis that if readers just learn how to read an ESL writer's paper i.e. reading only for meaning and context instead of the small local errors, I am sometimes not sure if that can work in every scenario. The reason for this is that some professors just really care about every comma being in the right place and every preposition being correct. And as a writing tutor, it is my responsibility to follow what the professor wants from the student and try to focus on those grammar features that have been marked up in the student's paper. So, I wonder, what can I do in such a situation??
Blog Comment #7: (Nov. 24)
As I was reading this chapter and the steps that one has to take to tutor ESL writers, I was also reminded of the otheer article we read about "tutee dependency". I don't recall the exact title of that article but I think that a problem that can arise from the 5th step of "asking writers to participate in reformation decisions" is training tutees to depend on the tutor to "reformulate" their papers. It is also very dangerous in a way to have anybody in that center who falls into the trap of appropriating ESL students' essays because then they become accustomed to it and sort of expect it from all other tutors and starts asking questions like: "what do you think it should say, my thesis statement" and etc.
Blog Comment #8: (Dec. 1)
Viki, I think it all boils down to what Stacy said about balance. When I was in High School, our teachers who asked us to do research papers always asked for both a print and digital source. In this way, we were forced to go to the library and "physically" pick out a book, read it and use it as a source AND go to online databases and research. At times, teachers just give up I think and don't take the time to actually teach the students how to search for databases (I'm talking about high-school level) which is in a way understandable because there is already so much in their workload that adding instruction of researching is just out of the question. This is when it is helpful to take a trip with the class to the library as we did as a class and have someone present to the students.
I, too liked the new innovative ways that the teachers used iPads and smartphones for reading for the students and etc. In a way, it grabs the attention of students because they are using this media in their everyday life. Thus, they see that they can have use these to do their "big research paper" for school. And that of course there can be educational uses of technology as well and just how easy it is.
I, too liked the new innovative ways that the teachers used iPads and smartphones for reading for the students and etc. In a way, it grabs the attention of students because they are using this media in their everyday life. Thus, they see that they can have use these to do their "big research paper" for school. And that of course there can be educational uses of technology as well and just how easy it is.
Blog Comment #9 (Dec.9)
I do agree with you professor, but like all other things I guess it is just important to have a limit. For instance, in the writing center, I see a lot of students where students just feel so disheartened by their work and feel so discouraged and I feel like it is my responsibility to cheer them back and put aside the tutoring for an instance if I must, so that I can help in the best way I can. However, in that instance that Daryl wrote with a (male) student who just started crying in my session who has been repeatedly failing the ACT test, I was really caught off-guard. No matter what I was trying to tell him to not give up and so on, it wasn't helping his case. For this reason, I went out and told my supervisor and he spoke to him instead in his calm way. However, he was more professional about it saying that listen it's a process, we'll try our best and so on but if it doesn't happen it is ok and that no one is responsible and etc.
As a tutor, I learned that I shouldn't try to be so sympathetic and let my personality present itself too much because of this urge I feel to give this endless and sometimes unrealistic hope to students. As a practicing teacher, I'm more aware and pragmatic about students' abilities and so on.
As a tutor, I learned that I shouldn't try to be so sympathetic and let my personality present itself too much because of this urge I feel to give this endless and sometimes unrealistic hope to students. As a practicing teacher, I'm more aware and pragmatic about students' abilities and so on.
Comment #10 (Dec. 18)
I found this chapter especially useful for me, a writing center tutor at LaGuardia CC. The suggested "goals" for the tutor seemed fair. However, I think the first one is almost unrealistic for teaching the student how to become a proficient self-editor. I mean, in this case, it really depends on the student's ability and how much he or she really knows in terms of grammar. Well, in our writing center actually, we don't get very low levels of ESL since there is a separate ESL lab for them. The ones that we do get from time to time are in a very high level of ESL where they can at least write if not speak well but have a lot of grammatical errors. Thus, it is then important to at least recognize the "6 major error types" and try to address those one by one before getting to anything else. It is as our supervisor says at Lagcc: "wherever you start is a start."
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