Tutoring Second Language Writers
Read Tutoring Second Language Writers Online
Authors: Shanti Bruce
Edited by
Shanti Bruce
Ben Rafoth
Utah State University Press
Logan
© 2016 by the University Press of Colorado
Published by Utah State University Press
An imprint of University Press of Colorado
5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C
Boulder, Colorado 80303
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of The Association of American University Presses.
The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, Utah State University, and Western State Colorado University.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992
ISBN: 978-1-60732-406-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-60732-414-0 (ebook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bruce, Shanti, editor. | Rafoth, Bennett A. editor.
Title: Tutoring second language writers / edited by Shanti Bruce ; Ben Rafoth.
Description: Logan : Utah State University Press, [2015] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015004619 | ISBN 9781607324065 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781607324140
(ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: English language—Rhetoric—Study and teaching
(Higher)—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | English language—Study and teaching
(Higher)—Foreign speakers—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Report
writing—Study and teaching (Higher)—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Tutors
and tutoring—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Writing centers—Handbooks,
manuals, etc.
Classification: LCC PE1404 .T878 2015 | DDC 808/.0420711—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015004619
Cover illustration © Rudchenko Liliia / Shutterstock.
Foreword: Beyond How-To’s: Connecting the Word and the World
1 Second Language Writers, Writing Centers, and Reflection
Part One—Actions and Identities
Frankie Condon and Bobbi Olson
3 Identity Construction, Second Language Writers, and the Writing Center
4 El Centro de Competencias de la Comunicación and the Fraught Status of English
Part Two—Research Opportunities
5 Multilingual Writers, Multilingual Tutors: Code-Switching /Mixing /Meshing in the Writing Center
6 The Digital Video Project: Self-Assessment in a Multilingual Writing Center
Glenn Hutchinson and Paula Gillespie
7 Examining Practice: Designing a Research Study
8 Investigating Social Justice in the Writing Center
9 Building a Cultural Bridge between Ghana and the United States in the Writing Center
10 “These Sentences Sounded Like Me”: Transformative Accommodation in L2 Writing
11 Some Things I Did to Help Myself Learn to Write
Part Four—Academic Expectations
12 Tutoring against Othering: Reading and Writing Critically
13 Unfamiliar Territory: Tutors Working with Second Language Writers on Disciplinary Writing
14 Helping Second Language Writers Become Self-Editors
Beyond How-To’s
Connecting the Word and the World
CAROL SEVERINO
Reading
Tutoring Second Language Writers
, I recognized how far writing center scholarship on second language writers has come in the last twenty-five years, even in the last decade. Second language writers are now regarded as enriching our writing center work, teaching us as much about their ideas, disciplines, languages, and cultures as they do about our own. Less and less do we regard them as a challenge to our growing cultural and linguistic competencies; less and less are we uncertain about how to approach them and their drafts; therefore, less and less do we need writing center literature composed of tips and “how to” steps in order to work with them. More importantly, we no longer assume that writing center tutors are monolingual English speakers and the only arbiters of what is and is not standard in English. We no longer assume that only writing center professionals, especially monolingual ones, are sources and makers of knowledge about second language writers. In fact, second language writers can speak powerfully and eloquently for themselves and for the benefit of other second language writers and tutors, as do Jose L. Reyes Medina, Pei-Husun Emma Liu, and Pimyupa Praphan and Guiboke Seong in this volume.
Years ago, we surely needed “how to” literature if only because we wanted to be as helpful as possible to second language writers. Trapped in the monolingual context of our courses and institutions, we were not prepared; we needed to learn new tools and techniques. We had, and in fact, still have many lingering questions addressed by the contributors to this volume: What is the best balance of global and local work in a second language writing tutorial? Does the balance always depend on the writer and the situation? Or should the global always prevail even when the writer asks for language help? To what extent do the rhetorics of students’
other languages and cultures influence their writing and their perceptions of how to respond to their assignments (Cox, Craig)? And what does it mean to ask students to demonstrate their critical thinking skills (Balester)?
To address these questions, the authors in this volume do more than embrace the complexities and nuances of language and culture. To paraphrase Paulo Freire, whose influence on progressive education complements Dewey’s (Rafoth), the authors also closely connect the words brought to and used in the writing center to larger worlds—concentric and intersecting circles of context—textual, disciplinary, linguistic, cultural, social, political, national, international (Amevuvor). Some authors smartly explore writing center connections to language politics: what does it mean when writers are writing and speaking about their writing in English, a language they perceive as threatening their identities? (Bruce) And then what does it mean when writers and tutors decide to use their shared native language in writing center conferences, for example, to talk about English writing in Spanish? (Dvorak)
Other authors explore writing center connections to issues of othering, racism, xenophobia, and social justice (Condon and Olson; Witherite) that confront writers on and off campus. If a campus is a microcosm of society, the writing center—the most culturally diverse unit on campus—is also. Therefore, the words spoken, read, and written in a writing center intimately relate to the world and all its injustices. And through writing center work, writers and tutors can collaborate to address them.
Perhaps most importantly for writing centers as a field, contributors to this volume also connect writing center words to the world of research. After all, writing center words—in conversation, on the page, on the screen—can be investigated and analyzed in countless ways. In order to better interact with, teach, and learn from second language writers, in order for the writing center field to grow, it is imperative that we create knowledge through research; that is why accounts of the research process here (Dvorak; Hutchinson and Gillespie; Babcock; Witherite) are among the highlights of the collection, suggesting that writing centers seem to be in transition between needing to know tutorial how-to’s and needing to know research process how-to’s.
By connecting writing center words to multiple relevant worlds outside the center,
Tutoring Second Language Writers
sets a new, positive direction for writing center growth, research, and scholarship.
SHANTI BRUCE AND BEN RAFOTH
Tutoring Second Language Writers
is a book for tutors. It is intended to advance the conversations tutors have with one another and their directors about tutoring second language writers and writing. The aim of this book is to engage readers with current ideas and issues that highlight the excitement and challenge of working with those who speak English as a second (or additional) language. The contributors to this collection have geared their chapters toward a US context, but we believe all readers, regardless of locale or the organization of their tutoring center, will find points of entry in these pages that lead to meaningful discussions about working with culturally and linguistically diverse writers and tutors.
This book can be used in courses and programs for preparing tutors and teachers. The chapters can be read individually or together and may be used as a basis for discussions in staff meetings and as follow-ups to tutoring sessions. The chapters serve as references to help answer questions about theoretical and practical issues. Equally important, they raise questions about the complicated task of preparing to work with linguistically diverse populations of writers. Readers can use this book to enliven their curiosity and advance tutor-led research. At the beginning of each of the book’s four parts, we offer a glimpse of the topics and questions raised in each chapter. We hope readers will be drawn into the chapters and carry the discussion forward into staff meetings and the many informal discussions tutors have among themselves and with others.
The book opens with a chapter that frames the broad focus of the collection around philosopher John Dewey’s belief in reflective thinking as a
way to help build new knowledge. It continues with part 1, “Actions and Identities,” which includes chapters about creating a proactive stance toward language difference, thinking critically about labels, and the mixed feelings students may have about learning English. Part 2, “Research Opportunities,” includes two chapters that demonstrate writing center research projects and a third that explains research methods tutors can use to further investigate their questions about writing center work. Part 3, “Words and Passages,” offers four personal stories of inquiry and discovery, and in part 4, “Academic Expectations,” authors confront some of the challenges tutors face when they try to help writers meet readers’ specific expectations.
All of the chapters in this book draw upon research in the fields of second language writing, composition, and applied linguistics, and they connect ideas from these areas to the contexts of one-on-one tutoring. We hope readers will make them a part of the conversations they have over coffee and in staff meetings as well those they have with multilingual students outside the writing center and in the larger community.
There is a growing need for tutors who are better prepared to work with writers who speak multiple languages, including English. We see evidence of this need in the interest and concern generated in the pages of journals and conference programs and in the talks we have had with students and tutors around the world. One collection cannot tackle every question, but readers can add to the conversations begun in these chapters and carry them forward in ways large and small.
