Weekly Response: Harris & Silva's "Tutoring ESL Students: Issues and Options"

The article "Tutoring ESL Students" came at a great time. The Writing Center staff and ESL Department at NJIT just held a seminar on the same topic! It was interesting to see which topics seemed to be universal concerns. Deciding between global and local problems in students' writing was discussed. Dealing with content before grammar was also covered. There was a lengthy discussion in the seminar and the article about how ESL students often want an editor and/or want to focus on "correctness" and rules. It makes sense. That's what I want when I write in a foreign language. I am usually confident in my ideas, but I'm not sure if I expressed them correctly and clearly for a native language reader to understand my meaning as I intend it to be understood.


The article covered how to prioritize, looking for patterns (which covered cultural differences as well), recognizing differences, whether ESL writes compose differently, how to confront errors and adjust expectations, setting goals for a tutoring session, resisting the urge to "tell," deciding what aspects of grammar to focus on, and encouraging proofreading.

I liked the section that offered further reading for tutors. It would have been nicer if they had offered it in the format of an annotated bibliography. It seemed a little messy in terms of using it as a resource. Just a nit-picky stylistic preference. (Paper or plastic?)

I also enjoyed the part where Harris and Silva talked about the cultural differences and expectations of the students. Some students want teachers to be "tellers," some have different ideas about what to expect from a tutoring session, some need more or less personal space and eye contact, some need to be asked direct questions, and some may continue to write with conventions that are considered incorrect in American culture, for example digressions or indirect language.

At the NJIT seminar, some of the examples of language differences were so interesting. One tutor covered errors that African students make and why they make them, (for example two boy. Why do we need to say boys? Doesn't the word two already clarify that there is more than one boy?) We talked about the lack of articles in China and India. (I read book.) We discussed the formal and informal verbs and words in romance and other languages (tu vs. Lei). One woman told of her frustration when she had to take a trip to Vietnam and asked a student to teach her how to say hello. He asked, "To whom? Male, female, older or younger?" His rhetorical situation always included evaluating the recipient of the language. This concept would also guide how quickly one "gets to the point" and whether direct or indirect language will be used.

The conclusion of the article was the basis for the NJIT seminar:

ESL instructors and writing center people need to keep interacting with and
learning from each other.