Re: SURVEY FOR PEER TUTORS (RE: ESL)-- Thanks and Send More

[amoser@ruacad.ac.runet.edu]

I have been reading the dialogue about tutoring ESL students in the WC.  
We have about 300 ESLs in our unitersity community, and we see quite a 
few per semester in the center.  Most of these students are delightful.  
They are dedicated, thoughtful, and bright.  Their writing is interesting 
and poetic--no ABC essays from them.  (I guess by this juncture you are 
waiting for the contrast word) BUT, there are those times...  I have lost 
count of the ESLs who came to the Center this semester wanting a tutor to 
"correct" a paper.  Most of the time their ideas, content, organization, 
voice, support, etc. are good; most of the time it is the grammar.  But, 
I have explained over and over, we don't want to go over every error.  If 
there are many, going over all those grammar points at once will not 
teach you anything--it will clean the paper, yes, but you won't learn to 
edit for yourself...etc...

We devised a Tracking Sheet.  (Quickly:  a check-off of errors found per 
paper.  It is in a hierarchical order (syntax through spelling--about 20 
items or so).  First visit, we mark all errors.  Second visit, we work 
only on the top 2 or 3 problems.  Goal:  to help the student see the 
error, understand it in the context of his writing, and learn to edit for 
that point.  Reasonable?  Sound?  Sure, but according to some students, 
not fair.  They want to walk out with a perfect paper.  Their instructors 
want them to hand in grammatically correct papers.  All of our goals in 
this are slightly different?

Does anyone else encounter this problem with cross purposes?  What do you 
do?  

I guess I'm particularly touchy about this right now.  This week an ESL 
student took exception to our policy, our methods, our time-limit (and 
probably our carpet color) and went to the head of International Student 
Services.  

I do want to serve everyone in the best possible way.  I certainly want 
to teach students as much as possible during each visit; I want faculty 
to be satisfied with our services; I want the WC to maintain its 
integrity.  But, often, ESLs have their own agendas when they come in.  Help?