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Show UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ABSTRACTS SPRING 2007 Glenn Newman Daniel Emery ESL Tutoring Protocols: Cross I Disciplinary Perspectives on Writing, Power and Error Glenn Newman (Daniel Emery) University Writing Program University of Utah Writing center tutors face a number of challenges when responding to an unfamiliar piece of student writing. These challenges are multiplied when the tutor and student come from different cultures; patterns of organization, strategies of composition, and linguistic structures that are appropriate to one language or culture can seem alien, confusing, or erroneous in another. In many cases, the advice of ESL writing center scholarship has emphasized what not to do, casting the bracketing of grammatical and lexical issues as politically preferable, over a pedagogically defensible position. At the same, scholarship in English for Academic Purposes and Second Language acquisition have reasserted the significance of grammatical and lexical components of academic writing for an ESL student's writing success. Furthermore, since writing center tutors are limited by the time restraints of half hour appointments, and by student expectations for the text at hand, tutor's recommendations for L2 learners writing often fails to extend itself outside of the immediate writing center environment. In this respect, the instructions of the tutor fall short of helping L2 learners develop strategies for writing on their own in future assignments, as illustrated by the same students returning to the writing center with the same error issues. With the help and support of my advisor, Dr. Daniel Emery, we are expanding the role of the writing center tutor for ESL students. By drawing on the research of several notable scholars in 2nd language acquisition we are developing strategies that can be applied in the writing center environment, using components of a 16 week classroom curriculum.These strategies include creating lessons geared towards preparing L2 learners for the writing expectations of the western university such as increased academic vocabularies, grammar and punctuation instruction, and introduction to multi-disciplinary writing genres. We believe that by rethinking the role of the traditional university writing center as a last resort for L2 learners to make their text better and therefore more competitive, we might become a site that can prepare both NNS and L2 learners to succeed in the western university and come closer to realizing their future career goals. 51 |
