Shannon Martin
Writing 300 Major Essay 2 draft
10/23/12
Tutoring is a complicated process, one that is individualized and unique to
the particular student seeking help. It is a natural inclination for tutors to try to
lump their students into categories in an attempt to organize their methods and
assist as efficiently as possible. The best thing a tutor can do for her tutee, however,
would be to approach a session with an open mind, complete with the ability to
navigate possible writing concerns and yet free of previously made judgments and
categories. Sensitivity to the individual nature of writing tutoring becomes
especially important when it concerns ESL students. Even more so than with the
native-speaking learner, writing tutors tend to throw second-language learners into
one particular group that needs a specific type of assistance. Not only do ESL
students arrive at a writing center with varying concerns in their writing, but their
very experiences with learning English could be extremely dissimilar. Different
methods of second-language teaching undoubtedly lead to divergent goals and
focuses in ESL writing; this is a phenomenon tutors need to be aware of as it directly
affects the expectations of an ESL student coming into a tutorial. In fact, being
aware of an ESL writer’s language-learning background is one of the most crucial
steps a tutor should take in order to manage expectations in a tutoring session, and
therefore create a successful result. This involves approaching ESL students as
individuals and not simply as a group.
Before tutors can begin differentiating between the needs of ESL students
from various backgrounds, they need to be cognizant of some of the basic teaching
methods used in second language teaching. According to a book entitled “How
Languages Are Learned,” by Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada, there are three
main settings that all language teaching is based off of. These three classroom types
are: natural acquisition settings, structure-based instructional settings and
communicative instructional settings. In a natural acquisition setting, learners are
immersed in a second language for many hours a day and they are largely expected
only to communicate effectively some sort of meaning. This means that the usage of
correct grammatical forms is secondary; error correction is rarely seen in this type
of classroom (p. 110-111). If a student who was exposed and conditioned to this
type of ESL teaching came in to the writing center with concerns, one of two
scenarios could occur. Firstly, she could be singularly focused on the content and
argument being communicated in the work, as that is what her instruction has
exclusively focused on. Second, she could be overly concerned about grammar
because she has never had extensive or formal training in correct formation (more
research on this, perhaps a survey or find some examples). With either scenario, it is
the tutor’s job to be sensitive to the writer’s anxieties and previous experiences with
English learning in order to make the tutorial successful.
Structure-based instructional settings are another form of second language
teaching that has a wholly different focus; tutors may encounter this type of
background from ESL learners more often, particularly if they began learning
English in school as young children. This method employs the traditional
presentation of single linguistic forms, whether it is vocabulary, verb tenses or some
other grammatical structure. There is regular error correction by the instructor,
who generally provides the only example in the classroom of efficient use of the
second language. Students from this type of educational background are expected
to use correct structure from the immediate onset of their learning (Lightbown &
Spada, p. 112). Tutors can probably expect, then, that ESL students in the writing
center who have experienced structure-based learning will be somewhat fixated on
grammar and less worried about higher-order concerns, at least initially. As a result
of previous instruction that was evaluated predominately by correctness, it will be
problematic for a tutor to attempt to ignore the student’s inclination to focus on
grammatical form over communicative effectiveness.
The third and final style of second language teaching, communicative
instructional setting, somewhat combines natural acquisition and structure-based
settings. In this method, effective communication takes precedence over correct
grammar forms, and the teacher is generally the only native-like speaker in the
room. Students generally are expected to focus on understanding language more
than producing it (Lightbown & Spada, p. 113). Possibly, this type of ESL learner
would come into a writing center with concerns about not just grammar but higherorder concerns as well because of her previous lack of experience with producing
language. These types of learners may not be as common in writing centers because
communicative instructional settings are not as frequently employed in schools, but
they still pose an interesting dilemma. (back up with more research about frequency
of setting uses). Tutors have a responsibility not only to be sensitive to ESL students’
concerns in their writing, but to be aware of why they focus on some issues more
frequently than others.
Awareness of a student’s second-language learning background is crucial to
the success of a tutorial because it allows a tutor to more effectively line up her own
expectations with those of the student. In an article entitled “Teaching, Tutoring,
and Revision: The Experiences of Two Freshmen ESL Students in a Rhetoric Class,”
by Carmen Mota de Cabrera, one student named Cindy described her experience
with language learning and subsequently with a writing tutor. Cindy’s ESL learning
was done primarily in secondary school in China, where she explained that the focus
was almost solely on grammar (seemingly a structure-based instructional setting).
When she went to see a tutor after being enrolled in an American rhetoric class,
Cindy relayed that she found it useful for her tutor to help with grammatical forms;
only after these had been dealt with did she feel comfortable approaching what
would be considered higher-order concerns (p. 151). (add more about what the
tutor experienced during the sessions with Cindy). It is a commonly held belief among
writing center tutors that it is often beneficial to be more directive when tutoring
ESL students; however, with the additional knowledge of the educational
background, Cindy’s tutor was able to better understand and manage expectations
going in to the session. Eventually this enabled them both to move past grammar
errors and on to rhetorical issues in the writing.
Tutors have an obligation not only to manage their own personal
expectations, but to help students realize and manage theirs as well, if this is
necessary. (work in information from source entitled “The Proofreading Trap,” about
getting students to accept that they are working in a second language and that higher
order concerns are still of great importance even if an essay is marked with a few
grammatical errors.)
A knowledge of the basic framework of the process of language learning is
also extremely useful for a tutor. With this information, one can distinguish oneself
as a tutor instead of a language teacher. (information from “Tutors as Teachers”
about how to navigate this distinction, though there may be elements of both when
working with an ESL student.)