Tutoring Second Language Writers (36 page)

L2 writers bring in a wide range of expectations to tutors in a writing center. Based on our knowledge of the research on error gravity, it is evident that tutors must make clear to students the hierarchy of what they can help them with. L2 students might come to the writing center with the expectation that their writing will be edited to the point that it is error free. Some tutors might not understand why these students are very insistent on such editing. An explanation we could offer lies in the tradition of English-language teaching in L2/EFL contexts in which grammatical accuracy is stressed. Although in theory communicative language teaching, which places less emphasis on grammar, is promoted in those contexts, in practice grammar still holds high priority. Students are novice writers, and they expect to learn the language through corrections on their writing to improve their confidence. When asked why they want all errors to be corrected, some of our students asked back, “Why not? We want to learn from our mistakes and who better to learn from than the tutor or teacher? If we had known the right way, we wouldn’t have made the mistake in the first place!” In our contexts, teachers are usually viewed as providers, not as facilitators or trainers as they should be.

It might be feasible in some cases for tutors or teachers to correct all errors depending on the students’ performance and experience, but more often than not, L2 students’ texts need attention on many levels. In the context of the writing center, a forty-minute one-on-one session is not likely to be a magic encounter to improve the text and
writer in all aspects. Thus, the question becomes, how can tutors help L2 students to achieve the “best” result in one tutoring session? The general procedure we suggest for a tutoring session consists of three steps—before, during, and after tutoring. We try to provide some specific examples with each step, but some strategies are illustrated in the extended example at the end of this chapter.

The first thing a writing tutor must do before helping L2 students edit their papers is self-assessment. Some L1 tutors might find it daunting to work with L2 students because it requires explicit knowledge of and the ability to explain the English language, apart from the writing conventions of the language. Some may have L2 teaching experience but still feel they lack the knowledge base needed to deal with L2 writers. It is recommended that during tutor trainings, tutors are directed to print and online resources that can help them develop this knowledge (a list to get you started is at the end of this chapter). Some tutors might have apprehension about holding a session with L2 students, and such tutors often refer students to more experienced tutors. If this is the case, tutors need to get out of their comfort zone and try working with L2 students so they will become aware of what they (the tutors) lack and need to improve on. By having real experience, they can learn about their strengths and shortcomings. Another strategy is to observe experienced tutors working with L2 students. That way, tutors can learn from them and feel more confident. From our experience, shadowing a real tutoring session is one of the best ways new tutors can learn and develop self-awareness and confidence. It is highly important to have awareness of what you know, what you do not know, what you are good at, and what your limitations are. This self-awareness and constant search for knowledge will help you become an efficient tutor.

In order to meet the tutees’ needs and perform the tutor’s job successfully, it is important to ask the tutees what their priorities are, and after that, tell them what you can and will do based upon the self-assessment addressed above. Remember that the goal of a one-on-one tutoring session is not to spoon-feed the tutees with direct error corrections made with a colorful pen but to make them independent writers and effective self-editors in the end.

For these first two steps, Cynthia
Linville’s (2009)
descriptions about goals for the student and the tutor can be helpful. She argues that the goals for the student are to “acknowledge the need to become a proficient self-editor, learn what his most frequent patterns of error are, learn how to recognize these errors, [and] learn how to correct these errors,” and the goals for the tutor are to “teach the student how to become a proficient self-editor, learn how to diagnose frequent patterns of error, learn how to correct (and teach students to correct) six major error types, [and] learn when to refer students elsewhere for more instruction” (118). Some of these goals could be addressed at the beginning of a tutoring session to make sure the tutor and the tutee are in agreement about their needs, expectations, and the service that can be provided. Tutors can also take a quick look at the tutee’s draft and prioritize tasks.

Based on what we learned from how to read an L2 writer’s text (
Matsuda and Cox 2009
), the tutor should read the whole text, from start to finish, aloud or silently, based on the level of the student’s writing. If there are many surface errors, reading silently might be more effective so the tutor can focus on meanings. The tutor should withhold judgment and maintain an open mind while reading the text. Since L2 writers might use a different organization in presenting their main idea, such as a thesis statement at the end instead of at the beginning, it is important to keep reading until the end.

After reading the whole text, determine whether it meets genre expectations, which means whether the text follows an established rhetorical pattern that each type of writing requires. For example, if it is an argumentative essay, the paper has a clear point of view in the introductory paragraph, and the body paragraphs contain supporting details to convince the reader. If it is a statement of purpose to apply for graduate schools, it states early the writer’s specific area of research interest and has an opening that grabs the reader’s attention. Even resumé writing, the format of which we might expect to be clear, could be a challenge for some L2 students. We have had ample experience with L2 writers whose text organization does not meet the genre requirements of mainstream US rhetorical traditions. Student writers coming from
a reader-responsible language have a tendency to delay the presentation of their thesis or sometimes to state their thesis only implicitly. They do so by providing different perspectives first and coming to their conclusion toward the end, or sometimes they leave it up to the reader to infer what their main idea is. It is the tutor’s job to help them build awareness of the differences between the two rhetorical traditions, that is, reader-responsible versus writer-responsible language. The US tradition expects the author to elucidate their thesis and to do so early. With this in mind, the tutor will be able to determine from the very beginning that some texts might need more than editing, meaning they need major revisions. It is best to be honest with students and explain that they need to reorganize certain parts, then give them advice on how to go about doing that. We understand it is hard to say what students do not want to hear, but sometimes “bitter” is a medicine when “sweet” is poison. Since delivering bitter medicines can be hard, tutors should consider the strategies that follow (7 to 9).

If the organization of the text is not an issue, the tutor should reread the text and start putting marks, circling or underlining the features or parts that need editing. There might be several error types, but remember to work with global errors first; these are errors that affect the comprehension of meaning. Some of these errors might be beyond the level of L2 students to self-edit. Thus, the tutor can, for example, help explain why a certain word choice is better. Nevertheless, some global errors such as verb tenses are treatable, meaning students can learn to self-edit because the errors are rule-based. The tutor should spend some time discussing these kinds of treatable errors with students and allow them to practice correcting them.

For specific error types,
Linville (2009)
addresses six kinds while Dana
Ferris (2002)
recommends five criteria. Linville’s six major error types include the subject-verb agreement, verbtense errors, verbform errors, singular and plural errors, wordform errors, and sentence-structure errors. These are specific, treatable, rule-based errors, so by attending to these easy-to-accept and visible errors, tutors can increase learners’ satisfaction and confidence in their tutors. Ferris’s five criteria are genre-specific errors, stigmatizing errors, comprehensibility errors, frequent errors, and student-identified errors (those the student would like the teacher to focus on). These criteria could also be useful for tutors in deciding what to target in their editing sessions.

Errors can be corrected in different ways using various direct and indirect strategies. Tutors must decide which way is best for each writer and for each error. Tutors should consider the writer’s proficiency, the nature of the error, and other factors as they decide which approach to use. Direct corrections can be useful when the following factors are present:

However, in many cases, direct and explicit corrections can be form-oriented and directive, and if they are, they could rid learners of opportunities to reflect upon their own errors. In order to help students develop a keen sense of responsibility and confidence, it is a recommended practice to give students opportunities to self-correct in some ways. This may involve allowing some time for students to think for themselves about how to edit or correct their errors or asking a question to activate their background knowledge about the topic or elicit reformulation. A variety of methods are available, some of which will be described below. Often, a combination of feedback and correction is needed. The point is to give learners at least some chances to self-correct. Indirect methods take more time than direct ones. Thus, effective time-management skills along with patience and elicitation skills are also crucial in successful implementation of indirect editing or correction in writing. Examples of elicitation skills are asking leading questions to draw the student’s attention to grammatical points in question, suggesting a strategy in rewriting the sentence, and pointing the student to specific online and print resources. Nevertheless, correcting errors, either directly or indirectly, does not prevent reoccurrences of the same errors. Tutors should not forget that their long-term goal is to help the tutees become independent editors by learning from both self-correcting practices and direct corrections by the tutor. The strategies below are ordered based on the levels of students, starting from low to advanced. Illustrations of each strategy are provided in the appendix at the end of the chapter.

Like any human being, learners are sensitive to criticism. Foreign-language students can be particularly vulnerable in dealing with their L2 egos. Editing or correcting their papers in almost all cases involves some kind of criticism. In order to make it more effective without hurting the tutee’s feelings, tutors can sweeten the pot by coupling the criticism with praise of some sort and/or with a suggestion for improvement. However, empty praises are not effective, nor can they make students happy (and sometimes they are harmful), so tutors should look hard to see good points as well as points to improve in students’ writing.