Re: ESL students & non-tutorial resources

[bobbie silk <bsilk@keller.clarke.edu>]

Reaching back a bit in the flow of recent wcenter messages, I certainly
understand Neal's description of the process conflict in dealing with ESL
clients.  When we're looking at them across the table, we see people who
just plain need to *learn* the language.  While I feel compassion for
their situation and I would never recommend ignoring their needs, I also
wonder if it is the mission of a *writing* center to teach English as a
second language.  ESL teachers can do a much more effective and efficient
job of this. 

If we're only diagnosing the situation, the ESL student who needs serious
help with grammar is an institutional problem, not a writing center
problem.  Our schools often admit or even recruit international students,
but they do not always offer the support that these students so
desperately need.  Of course, while this may be an institutional problem,
the practical reality is that it's a writing center problem "de facto." 

As I see it, this situation is further exacerbated by three other issues
affecting interaction in the writing center:

1.  Many ESL students present problems in the writing center that go
beyond what we might normally (or even broadly) consider writing issues. 
In some cases, not only their English skills are weak, but they also lack
experience in Western or American processes of thought, idea structures,
and academic (and non-academic) cultural conventions, motivations,
perceptions, and expectations.  Sometimes, too, the pressures of social
roles in their own cultures make them unwilling to participate in what
they may perceive as a demeaning or uncomfortably intimate tutorial.

2. When ESL students come into our writing centers they, like many
English-speaking novice writers, may think that all they need is help with
their grammar.  And because they do indeed need help with their grammar,
we may not be able to (or have time to) recognize or to get down to the
help they need with other writing issues.  Unfortunately, there's no
natural law of compensation that balances an ESL writer's difficulties in
grammar with increased competence in essay structure or idea development.

3. Another complicating factor that many of us must deal with is that our
writing center staff may consist mostly or entirely of undergraduate peer
tutors.  In many cases these peer tutors are not even English majors (nor
should they be, in my opinion).  Although the collaborative, minimalist
method of tutoring is ideal for this kind of tutor (since it does not
demand a great deal of specific grammar-rules knowledge), it may not help
the ESL client at all. 

Although it is snowing tonight in Dubuque, Iowa, and tomorrow I expect to
awake to a world of pristine white, I do not expect the world beneath that
blanket of snow to have become perfect over night.  Katie and I do the
best we can.  We train the peer tutors as thoroughly as we can, and we
hope this gives them enough confidence to be flexible in dealing with ESL
students.  And we don't forbid them to give grammar help to ESL writers if
the tutors feel confident enough to offer it.

If tomorrow someone brings us the news that there's a computer program
that solves (or significantly alleviates) our ESL writers' problems, I'll
hock my diploma to buy it. But I'm sufficiently experienced in
disappointment to fear the news would just be another snow job. 

  --Bobbie
    bsilk@keller.clarke.edu

On Tue, 19 Nov 1996, Neal Lerner wrote:

> James--a couple of thoughts come to mind in response to your ideas about
> ESL students.  While I can understand the desire to find drill-and-practice
> software for "intensive grammar instruction," I've seen little evidence
> that this practice works for anyone, ESL or native-English speaker.  If
> anything, it seems to have more symbolic value for those who assign it (and
> I have)--some tangible means of having dealt with an intractable problem.
> 
> What intrigues me about working with ESL writers (and over half of the
> students we see are non-native English speakers) is how they challenge our
> assumptions for what writing tutoring should be.  Our doctrine calls for
> our sessions to be responsive to students' needs, but when those needs are
> language-focused, why do we balk?  Why do we think that pointing out errors
> to students is a pedagogical no-no?  How do we reconcile our stated focus
> on process with most ESL students' product-oriented goals?  Just about
> every ESL writer I encounter gives rise to these questions (and
> unfortunately few answers!).
> 
>         Neal Lerner
>         nlerner@mit.edu
>         http://www.mcp.edu/as/wc.html (new web page!)
> 
> 
>