Tutoring Second Language Writers (16 page)

Originally from Honduras, Stephanie moved to Miami after graduating high school so she could attend college in the United States. Stephanie had been in the United States for only a few months before enrolling in her first college classes. Stephanie was one of the writing center’s most frequent visitors during her first three years at the university. She worked with almost every tutor at least once and formed regular working relationships with several of them. Stephanie worked with Roberta several times during the course of two years, and the two often code-mixed during sessions.

The following excerpt is from a session during which Stephanie needed help writing a research paper for one of her psychology classes. During the session, Stephanie uses Spanish mainly for questions and instructions, while she uses English mainly for reading, keywords, and some communication. Stephanie initiates Spanish frequently, but Roberta primarily uses English to respond.

About five minutes into the session, Stephanie and Roberta were using the Purdue OWL to determine the correct format for adding the date to a blog citation.

This is an example of Roberta using a code-mixing pedagogy to instruct Stephanie. Roberta code-mixes English to Spanish to clarify a suggestion she has made. She rephrases the colloquial English phrase
you got
it to a more specific phrase, in Spanish, “
Que viste el commercial.
” [“That you saw the commercial.”] Roberta used the colloquial “you got it” to ask Stephanie when she viewed the video, implying that the date Stephanie first saw the video was the date she “got it” from the Internet. Stephanie responds “August 10, 2009,” which may be the date the video was either created or posted to the Internet. Roberta responds by asking Stephanie again about the date she “got it,” emphasizing the word
you
in hopes that Stephanie would recognize that Roberta was not asking about a production date but about the date Stephanie first watched the video. Stephanie hears Roberta’s emphasis on
you
and recognizes Roberta’s intention, so she responds with “
Ah, que yo
.” [“Ah, that I.”] As Stephanie says this, Roberta clarifies her intention by stating “
Que viste el comercial.
” [“That you saw the commercial.”]

This was the first time during the session that Roberta used Spanish to clarify a language issue Stephanie had with English. The language issue in this case was not one related to the assignment; rather, it was related to a question Roberta asked. While a native English-speaking (NES) student may have been able to understand Roberta’s intention (though that is not guaranteed), Stephanie was not able to recognize Roberta’s intention by using “got it” in place of “watched it” or “accessed it” from the Internet. Roberta’s explanation, then, prepared Stephanie for future experiences with the ambiguity inherent within a phrase such as
got it
.

Stephanie worked with Roberta on a second assignment about two weeks after the session discussed in the previous section. Stephanie’s
assignment was to write another short research paper, and, since Stephanie had already drafted and revised her essay, the two focused most of their time on lower-order concerns. During the session, Roberta noticed Stephanie had been translating some of the ideas expressed in the paper word for word from Spanish to English. The excerpt below shows two examples of this.

In both of these situations, Roberta recognizes a Spanish construction written in English. Both of the clauses (“This web page I always use” and “reminds me of birthdays from others”) are understandable, but they produce an accented English that may be labeled as problematic by an instructor reading Stephanie’s work. For the first clause, Roberta quickly explains to Stephanie how the word order she used in English
reflects a Spanish construction, and Roberta suggests a way to reorder it in a way that reads more like Standard American English. For the second clause, Roberta explains to Stephanie how the Spanish
de otros
can translate to either “from others” or “of others” in English, and that Stephanie was selecting the one that would sound awkward to her audience. Transfer errors, which occur when a speaker’s L1 influences their L2, can be difficult to overcome, but the goal now is for Stephanie to incorporate these new English words and phrases into her own lexicon and apply them in the future.

In addition to learning about how and when code-switching and code-mixing might occur during sessions, Aileen and I wanted to gauge our bilingual students’ and tutors’ attitudes about these approaches. During the first discussions I had with Alezka and other staff members, there were mixed opinions about code-switching and code-mixing. As we continued to discuss this approach over the course of a few semesters, more tutors began feeling comfortable using Spanish in the center for sessions and general conversation. If the writing center was gradually becoming more multilingual, would that encourage more students to work there, or might it make some students feel apprehensive about our tutors? Did the tutors think this approach was appropriate, or did they find that students were not comfortable speaking a second language in an environment dominated by English? To find answers to these questions, Aileen and I conducted formal interviews with thirteen bilingual students who frequented the writing center and five bilingual tutors who claimed they had used Spanish during tutoring sessions.

For each interview, Aileen and I met the participant(s) in my office. While most of the interviews were with individuals, one was with a pair of students and another was with a group of three students. The interviews were designed to be less a formal question-and-answer process and more of a discussion. Since we knew many of our students and tutors came from different areas of the United States and Central and South America, we began each interview by asking the participants to talk a bit about their backgrounds and learning both Spanish and English. We then asked about (1) their experiences in the writing center, (2) about specific times they may have experienced code-switching in educational settings, including the writing center, and (3) their opinions regarding code-switching during tutoring sessions. During each interview, we
asked many follow-up questions as topics emerged during our discussions. The following sections provide examples of what were consistent opinions among the students and tutors we interviewed.

One of the first students I interviewed was Yessica, the student who had worked frequently with Ashley. Yessica immigrated to the United States from Cuba when she was four, and she lived at home with her parents, both of whom spoke little English. During her interview, Yessica stated that she spoke more Spanish than English during her time away from campus and university work.

I met Yessica several weeks into her freshman year when she stopped by my office to ask about the writing center. During our first discussion, she told me her writing professor had said he thought her English was not strong enough to pass his class and that she was better off dropping out of college. I explained to her that the writing center would help her as often as she needed assistance and that I hoped she would work hard to prove her professor wrong. She told me she was determined to do so.

Now a junior, Yessica stopped by my office for our interview, during which she recalled her first visit to the center. Yessica explained to Aileen and me that prior to entering the writing center for the first time, she was nervous because she thought she might not get the help she needed. She said, “I was scared that I was going to be judged, and when I left, they were going to be talking about me and criticizing me. That was really intimidating.” However, Ashley made Yessica feel at ease early during their first session by addressing her in Spanish. This surprised Yessica, because, as she said, “I thought that Spanish was not used here. You know and probably I was going to get mistaken, and they were not going to help me.” She then went on to say that being allowed to use Spanish in the writing center encouraged her to become a regular visitor.

Like many students, particularly nonnative English-speaking students who are relatively new to the United States and college life, Yessica was intimidated by the thought of visiting the writing center because she thought the tutors would judge her based on her ability to speak and write in English (
Bruce 2009
). This is a common perception that our writing center staff worked hard to dispel. By embracing a more multilingual approach, the tutors tried to create an environment that showed great respect for language and cultural differences.

Diana had been a student in my second-semester English course, and she visited the writing center about once a week to work on assignments for a variety of her classes. Diana began the interview by telling Aileen and me that she was born and raised in Puerto Rico until the age of sixteen, when she moved to Maryland. She said she only took one English class while growing up in Puerto Rico, so she had little formal preparation in English before her move to the United States. Two years later, Diana enrolled at our university and started using the writing center. The first tutor she worked with was Alezka, who helped ease Diana’s anxiety during the beginning of their session. Diana reflected on their session: “I remember I got stuck explaining to her the assignment and she’s like, ‘Do you speak Spanish?’ I was like ‘Yes.’ She’s like, ‘Explain it to me in Spanish and I’ll walk you through.’ ‘Okay,
esto
,
esto
,
esto
. . .’ [Okay, this, this, this . . .]. After I explained it to her in my first language, I was able to keep going with the progress of the assignment.”

For Diana, her tutor’s ability to code-mix provided her with a level of comfort that encouraged her to move forward with her session and feel productive. This level of comfort and productivity led her to become a regular visitor to the writing center. Diana explained why she appreciated being able to work with bilingual tutors.

Diana’s attitude about the writing center changed from the one she had before her first visit. This change is important, as she said code-mixing helped her better comprehend writing in English. The bilingual environment made her more comfortable and had a positive impact on her attitude, which kept her motivated to visit the writing center routinely. This willingness to visit the center had a positive effect on her English-language learning experience.

While many of the Hispanic students Aileen and I interviewed, like Diana, shared the notion that they enjoy having tutors who can code-switch between Spanish and English, some also stated it can occasionally
be better to work with a tutor who only speaks English (or only speaks English during sessions). After discussing positive experiences working with a bilingual tutor, Diana acknowledged the benefits of working with tutors who only speak English: “It’s a challenge. It will help me improve in English ‘cause it’s kind of reinforcing me or pushing me to think in English, speak English. It’s like a challenge, but sort of like it’s helping me, because sometimes when you’re speaking in English, you have to think in English.” Diana’s conclusion was that both approaches have the ability to provide students like her with strong learning opportunities.