NNESs and the writing center

I found both Thonus’s and Matsuda and Cox’s articles intriguing and useful. At this point in the semester and in our discussion, much of what the authors suggest seems to be common sense: help students negotiate/accommodate, not assimilate (Matsuda & Cox 45), look at the rhetorical structures instead of grammar (Thonus 21), and avoid putting students on the spot in terms of what they ‘should’ know (Thonus 22). However, the context for these principles is important. I don’t know how it is at all universities, but at least here at ISU I know that the writing center likes to hire students (especially grad students) who have some specialization or familiarity in a certain area of writing—but has neither the resources ($) nor the applicant pool to staff a center of budding Matsudas. So, tutors are often undergraduate (or sometimes graduate) students and the pay reflects a job that requires no more skill than repeating “Can I take your order?” Tutors aren’t teachers (though sometimes teachers are tutors). They don’t have to have the specialized knowledge that (some [kinds of]) teachers are expected to have when working with NNSs. Hm. I’m interested to hear any of your experiences tutoring in writing centers, and how the training process is for ESL.

Thonus’s five suggestions did not seem limited to Generation 1.5 students; though she made the distinction between them and EFL and ESL writers, I think the general principles can be adapted to any NNES student. The key there, I think, is adapted. The first step for many teaching is not reading student texts but reading students—being able to identify, through conversation and cues, the needs opf the students. I know that sounds hard, but I really do think the best teachers (or tutors) are perceptive to students and their needs.

I really don’t know much about writing centers or labs, though I’m very intrigued with how student writing is handled by tutors. I recently talked the Visor Center here about tutoring writing; I asked about their training for tutors in regards to ESL or NNSs. I was told that they have various training sessions, some of which deal specifically with tutoring NNSs (but were open to developing more!).

References:

Matsuda, P. and M. Cox. (2009). Reading an ESL writers’ text. In S. Bruce & B. Rafoth (Eds.) ESL Writers. A guide for writing center tutors.

Thonus, T. (2003). Serving Generation 1.5 Students in the University Writing Center.