Re: bilingual consultations

[Jim Bowman <bowman@Bilkent.EDU.TR>]

Dear Bridget,

I work in a writing center at an English-medium university in Turkey.  Over
half the staff here are bilingual and many times they do tutorials in
Turkish, usually at the student's request.  If it's a complicated writing
task that the student has come for then it seems okay for the tutorial to
be in the L1, provided that the tutor and tutee are comfortable discussing
it in that language.  Usually it's like you said, a combination of both
languages, code-switching, the type of language use that the student will
likely be using later on.  I actually see no problem in this.  If the
student is sincere about solving the task and would like to work more
quickly and get a break from English, it just seems practical.

So much of the decision involves the goals of the student--did they come
just to work with this tutor because they get "enough" English through
daily life and study, and there is comfort in speaking Farsi?  Is their
English ability so weak that they need to have fairly basic tasks explained
in their native tongue?  (if that's the case i might recommend that the
student be encouraged to return for special conversation tutorials with
other tutors, or at least designate certain tutoring times with their
fellow Farsi speaker as "english only").  

Best of luck,

Jim Bowman
Bilkent University 

At 02:10 PM 10/7/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Greetings-
>I have a question for you folks.  What has been your experience with tutors
>who speak the native language of the ESL student they are assisting?  Is it
>beneficial or harmful for them to carry on a bilingual writing consulation?
>I am currently eavesdropping (to the best of my linguistic ability) on an
>appointment that is being conducted half in Farsi and half in English, and I
>wonder whether the student is able to derive as much as she can from the
>consultation if she is not being pushed to use English.
>-Bridget 
>
>***********************************************************
>Bridget Robin Pool
>Writing Center Coordinator
>Northern Virginia Community College/Loudoun Campus
>703.450.2511
>
>
>