I really liked our revision activity in class. Before I went to last week’s class I held in my hand a very “cookie-cutter” essay that was lame and boring. In fact when I was trying to revise it I was boring myself. During class time I mainly focused on the adding method of revision. I compiled a very long and critical list of questions and comments. I wrote them as if this paper was someone else’s. I asked questions using “you.”
In my fast write I defended each comment or edited my work to answer the aforementioned questions. I ended up walking away with a completely different idea and approach to my paper. I am much more pleased with it now.
On another note:
This week I tutored a former ESL student. She was from Turkey and was working on a paper for 098. At first I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to understand what she was trying to say or that I would not get my ideas across to her properly. After a few minutes I found that we related quite well. At one point she said that she thinks it is interesting that people are generally more familiar with the grammar for their second language than they are with their native language. She said that she could read a Turkish essay and notice an error but would not be able to explain why it is wrong. I told her that this also occurs frequently in English writing because we are so tempted to say “I don’t know why it is wrong but it is because it just sounds wrong.” The session ended up going very well and we accomplished a lot. I was afraid that I would put too many words in her mouth but she came up with everything on her own and I just aided her.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What a great ESL tutoring experience! I'm glad you've had some real-world experience to help off-set the nerves that may develop as we study theories of SLA in class. One thing I don't like about focusing so much on ESL tutoring in class is that it reifies the notion of these students as "Other" (different than our "usual" clients, by which we mean NES students), and as a result can unnecessarily add to the anxieties tutors feel about helping these clients (like putting words in their mouths). I hope what you'll see, from this experience and others, is that a more directive approach is often needed with ESL clients, but that the real purchase of ESL tutoring is in finding the balance between leading the client to what s/he wants to say and being a cultural and linguistic informant for how to say it.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point that your client had about how we don't quite understand our own grammar. I know I've had sessions where the paper is being read aloud and I stop and say, "See, this just doesn't sound right." I don't say directly what the problem is, but I can directly find a mistake on how it sounds.
ReplyDelete