Suggested
Questions for Blog Post #2: How might tutoring non-native speakers of English
differ from tutoring native speakers?
To what extent do you agree with Sherwood’s argument
that tutoring qualifies as an art because it involves those four criteria for
artistry? Describe “a flow experience”
you’ve had teaching or tutoring. To what
extent should having these types of experiences be one of our goals? Feel free
to problematize Sherwood here.
Writing Center Blog Post 2 – Justin Cox
ReplyDelete1) How might tutoring non-native speakers (of English or Spanish) differ from tutoring native speakers?
I ended up writing quite a bit for the second prompt (which I wrote first), so I’ll keep this brief. I’ll say, generally, that sessions with non-native speakers of English are likely to benefit from slower pacing, and, more restating and reviewing, than sessions with native English speakers.
2) To what extent do you agree with Sherwood that tutoring qualifies as an art because it involves those four criteria for artistry? Describe “a flow experience” you’ve had teaching or tutoring. To what extent do you think having these types of experiences should be one of our goals?
I agree with the idea that effective, intentional flexibility can include contextual awareness that recognizes one’s attentional orientation in-on-as a changing landscape. As far as tutoring qualifying as an art because of those four criteria? Naw, they seem to be one or two criteria uncarefully selected to fill out an edifying or generative structure. As far as whether tutoring qualifies as an art? If pressed I’d be tempted to say “of course,” and tempted to say “it’s an artistic practice,” and tempted to say “sure, if that helps to emphasize its possibilities.” And so one might well remain open to a possibility that it is not. It does seem that a lot of what his essay is trying to do is to get us to resist overdetermination while, or by, cultivating flexible, open attention. I’m sympathetic to that. I also hear him with something like a reminder that being mindful of possibility and flexibility in a shifting setting is part of avoiding getting too formulaic or prescribed in day-to-day institutional tutoring.
I suppose I identify flow experiences as having or arriving with something like a change in panoramic, visual awareness along with varying degrees of euphoria. I’ve had these happen ¾ of the way through a class, I’ll just be up there doing my thing and it’s suddenly as if a little clarification happens, vision shifts, and one becomes aware of one’s ‘own’ attention. I do think one-on-one situations have a potential to get immersive and/or flow-y perhaps more reliably than….less focused scenarios. And what is the sequence or relationship between those two concepts, immersion and flow? On the one hand I want to synonymize them, on the other I tend to think something like – immersion leads to flow…which is itself maybe a variety of immersion. Yeah, maybe: sustained attention can lead to immersion can lead to flow. Maybe.
I’ve had quite a few office hours sessions that left me feeling kind of in-the-zone/flow-y. Regarding a specific experience: I had a student who had extremely intense anxiety. At the start of the semester the student would shake and cry whenever we spoke. This was for Rhetoric 1060, the one with three speeches/presentations. So we had to figure out how we were going to get this non-traditional student through some speeches during their final semester of undergrad (and second time in 1060). One afternoon we sat in the basement hall of EPB and talked about our lives and our anxieties and how to meet the goals of one of the assignments, strategies for presentation and for crafting the presentation, for an hour and half or two. After I left the building, I really became aware of how….good I felt. I think the emotionally charged atmosphere, the shifts in content, the extended duration of focus, and the shared attention and shared goals were especially effective inducements.
I guess I think that seeking the flow state or immersive parts of these experiences probably shouldn’t be a goal although being open to the arrival, and possibilities, of flow or immersive type experiences does seem like part of a healthy, flexible approach to tutoring.
Oh dear, you have had some experiences with students, haven't you? I now wish I had been more open with my undergrad profs about myself, if they'd have been as compassionate as you, but I dig this flow state experience. I can see myself feeling equally as good when leaving such meetings. Like something has been discovered and lifted. I don't know that I've achieved it with my tutoring this semester, but I do enjoy it, and those moments of finding the right words or knowing that when people leave me they feel more confident about the direction they're taking with something, has a sort of levity and accomplishment.
DeleteI regret to say that while in Chicago I spent a year tutoring a young S. Korean student and I did it all wrong. I knew I was doing it wrong, but didn't have the experience or the knowledge to do it right. The student struggled with a lot of the common things non-native speakers of English struggle with, as we've learned, the use of quotations/citation, grammar, syntax, and English reading comprehension (she took a classics literature class, I think to fulfill a gen. ed. requirement, I remember trying to help write an essay on Beowulf, I don't think she understood the book at all, but I came in too late). I did try to encourage her to read outside of her classes and even to watch TV and movies she might find interesting to improve her English comprehension and reading, but whether it was because she was already disillusioned by her struggles, uninterested in school, or because for other reasons she would have preferred to be home (we did discuss why she came to school in Chicago, and aside from her brother being nearby (Milwaukee, I think -- he set up my tutoring and they paid a pretty penny for it, too) it seemed to be something her mother wanted her to do more than she wanted to do it.) she just wanted me to fix her essays. I tried to work around it, tried to brainstorm ideas with her and find interests when essays were open (again, I don't know if it was her specifically, or culturally, but she had a lot of trouble with this), but it was a struggle for us both. When she did send essays to me I offered general comments to help her become more confident in grammar and syntax, but regrettably I did a lot of editing in the wrong way, and admittedly became frustrated because i didn't know how to reach her. It's a shame I didn't have the resources we're getting in this course, I might have been a better tutor.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a frustrating predicament for both of you. You were trying to help her become more proficient with english and disheartened that she didn't put in the effort. She was probably wondering what you were being paid for because all she wanted was someone to edit her writing so she could excel in school. I'm curious if the new strategies you have acquired in your tutoring toolbox since the semester started could have changed her attitude of you used them at the time. Or would her attitude impede any growth that the new tools tried to facilitate? What do we do if we get a student who just honestly doesn't care to better themselves through the process we are guiding them through?
DeleteLibby, I understand your feelings and I am totally with you. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself though. I am also just now starting to become aware of the very important distinction between editing an essay as in correcting actual, existing errors on the page and teaching someone to avoid making potential mistakes in the future. These are two so different things but we often either conflate them (thinking that once we correct an actual error this will somehow automatically prevent it from happening again which of course it doesn't) or we ignore, whether consciously or not, the part about preventing a potential error and focusing on correcting the actual paper. There is also the expectations from the student which heavily weigh on us - they expect to walk out of the session with a better draft to get a better grade. These are the pressing concerns students have. So a part of tutoring is to divert their attention from what seems most pressing at the moment (real mistakes on a written paper soon to be graded) to what has a greater potential and far reaching significance for the future. It's a learning process for both parties and I believe we will do better as we go along.
Delete1. I think that a large difference between non-native english students and native english students is confidence in their ability to communicate in english effectively. I know after one beer, inhibitions lowered a bit and confidence ramped up just enough before my cognition begins to suffer, I think I am god at speaking foreign languages and I will speak in sentences and have conversations. But without that beer, 5 words in a row is all that you will get from my mouth if it is not in english. I know this is about the students, but I'm trying to put myself in their position. They must be proficient at english or they wouldn't have made it this far. But it probably doesn't hurt to tell them that and reassure them that they are good at using english to express their ideas. I think that grammar mistakes are common in english speaking people too so it's hard for me to assert that it will occur more often in non-native english students. I think that the distinction is in the type of grammar mistakes. Where someone schooled in the US might say literally when they mean figuratively or consistently use the wrong version of their (they're, there?), a non-native english speaker may simply use he instead of she because their language simply does not distinguish between the two.
ReplyDelete2. The premise of Sherwood's essay is flawed and if we think about the actual definition of artisan, tutoring is more of a craft than an art. It seems as though Steve has never built anything out of wood with his own two hands, spent a hours in the kitchen making a delicious masterpiece of a meal, or anything of the like. I would consider both woodworking and cooking as a crafts, and masters of both as artisans. Yes there are rules, it takes skill, and there is (to some degree) imitation of techniques you have learned. But but there is also improvisation, surprise, and flow. Even if you tried as hard as you could, that beef wellington recipe will turn out different every time. And each time it will be delicious in a new and wonderful way. An artisan is not carrying out a structured task repeatedly trying to get everything to turn out identical. That sir is why Henry Ford invented the assembly line - so that handmade goods could be uniform. An artisan recognizes each handmade product as a unique task with its own challenges that must be overcome as they are met. As tutors are we not working within the confines of guidelines, like the ones we read last week? I would elaborate but this post is supposed to be kept to 200 words.
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteProducing clear, writer-responsible prose is a challenge for native speakers, even though they have presumably encountered more model texts than non-native speakers who are accustomed to more reader-responsible language. It's hard to imagine how difficult it would be to adjust to the shifted burden of communication. Do non-native speakers of reader-responsible languages at least experience some relief as readers of text? The chapter that we read suggests that everything (reading, writing, etc.) takes L2 students longer, but do L2 students bring different strategies to reading English texts that might be beneficial to native speakers?
I feel like Sherwood contradicts himself when he quotes Wayne Booth on teaching. Earlier in the article, Sherwood dismisses classroom teachers for relying on lesson plans, but as Booth acknowledges teaching is unpredictable. I don't have any objections to Sherwood describing tutoring as an art, but his four criteria also apply to classroom teaching. Rather than "surprise," "circumstance," "improvisation," and "flow," I think I prefer "talent," "training," "experience," + "improvisation" as elements that add up to artistry. Training and experience inform a tutor or teacher when to improvise and when to stick with a plan. As much as I like the idea of "flow," "flow" doesn't seem like a must to me, at least not in the tutoring context. "Flow" during a writing session is a consummation devoutly to be wished.
I'm quite taken with The Writing Center Resource Manual's chapter on non-native speakers of English, specifically because my previous writing-center experience -- three years, during college, serving mostly non-native peers on a walk-in basis -- for all its merits, left me without formal understanding of how best to approach that sort of tutoring. As an undergraduate tutor, I met many international students who had excellent, sometimes remarkable, Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency skills, but struggled with English idioms and Basic Interpersonal Communication. These struggles threw obstacles in the way of understandable written work, tutor/student dialogue, and the progress we could realistically make during a 30-minute walk-in session. I noticed, too, that a great number of people I worked with had high expectations of their own work in English and would become visibly discouraged if I pointed out any problem areas in their papers.
ReplyDeleteEmpathy for the language learner's plight seems essential in these circumstances. I wish I'd employed it more often back then. As the chapter points out, acquisition and transfer issues affect all language students and they sometimes take a lifetime to sort out. No wonder the non-native speakers I tutored seemed discouraged if they spent twice as long as their peers on a paper, only to be told at the writing center that their draft needed substantial revision. Though I certainly recall frustrating sessions with students whose limited grasp of English didn't do justice to the sophistication of their ideas, I also remember times where, parenthetically, I'd mention my own struggles completing assignments for French or Portuguese classes. Almost always, comments like these appeared to cheer the students up and improve the sessions' overall tone.
- Cassandra
That's a great tip that I'm sure to use in the future! Relating to the student with second language struggles of our own. I'm interested in the observation that the students had high expectations of their work and were sad to see you point out their errors. I'm sure this relates to how much time they spent trying to perfect their drafts before they came in to see you. I think we should encourage non-native english students to come in for help earlier in the writing process so they spend less time on a draft before we see it. This way maybe they will be less discouraged by our help since they haven't invested as much time in the draft. That way they can spend more time working with our comments as they finish the writing piece.
DeleteThe non-native English speaker that I'm tutoring also seems to have very high expectations for their work. The student's work is already quite good. As the "Serving ESL Students" paper suggests, I believe the student's main goal is to "native-speakerize" their work. This seems like an opportunity for the student, and for me, to build upon our fundamental grammatical and syntactical proficiencies. That said, the student also communicated some difficulties regarding comprehension of a work of assigned fiction - so it feels like there are already some possibilities for some more "global" tutoring practices that might contrast productively with some more specifically "local" activities.
DeleteEven though I tend to prioritize ideas and organization in grading papers, I agree that following this principle with international students will frustrate them additionally. Last semester I had the opportunity to work with an international student who brought very interesting and fresh ideas to discussion but whose papers lacked in grammar and other mechanics. At first I pointed out the mistakes in my feedback and encouraged the student to work in them. At the same time I was impressed with the ideas in the papers and always graded them higher. At the end of the semester though, the student showed no improvement in grammar and I realize I carry most of the responsibility for that especially after I stopped pointing out those mistakes after the second paper. Pointing out the mistakes is important and teaching the student to identify them by him/herself is very important – of course, following a grammar rule is crucial as well as having the student feel that there is something wrong. I also agree that tutors should have at least a general idea of how English grammar works but I think it would also be helpful for the student to have some understanding of the native language of the writer so as to know where those mistakes come from. For example, if I know that the student’s native language does not follow subject-verb order I will be quick to point it out, etc.
ReplyDeleteI also had an international student last year who generally had good ideas, but wrote papers riddled with errors. I got the impression that she spent a lot of time in the writing center. In fact, I think she figured out how to game the system using another student's email address. She also spent a lot of time in my office working on her papers. After content and organization, I tried to focus on word choices and errors that disrupted meaning. I don't know whether her grammar improved or not over the course of the semester, but I felt like her ideas were coming across more clearly. With a first year international undergraduate, I think I'm okay with focusing narrowly on making the content and organization clear. I suppose it all depends on the focus of the class.
DeleteWhen tutoring non-native speakers, I find that I spend a great deal of time serving as a sounding board/conversationalist. I hear way more venting from these students, and I think (it seems) they have less opportunities to chat in English. This ends up being great for our rapport, and I've found that the casual atmosphere makes for better conversations about writing. My students are comfortable admitting to me that they haven't done much with a draft, and they're also comfortable being honest about whether or not I'm making sense.
ReplyDeleteAs far as tutoring being an art, I have to agree with Krista. I think tutoring is a craft. Certainly, there is a craft element to most forms of art, but I think that for tutoring to reach the level of art there would need to be a more complex artist->audience relationship. Sure, your tutee is your audience and perhaps the professor who ultimately grades the work is the audience. BUT - you're crafting something with a specific purpose in mind and that purpose, in my opinion at least, is not to have a conversation that's emotionally resonate.