ESL Consultations

Interesting fact: Research has shown that the primary motivation behind medical malpractice lawsuits is not a doctor's negligence, but their relationships with their patients. A patient is more likely to sue a doctor they have a cool or neutral relationship with who was not grossly negligent than a cheery and personable doctor who made a more negligent mistake. When avoiding malpractice lawsuits then, the most important thing for doctors is not how well they practice medicine and treat their patients, but how they make their patients feel.

Similarly, the more I read about writing consulting and the more experience I gain, the less I think that a consultant's mastery of language is the most helpful asset for leading effective consulting sessions. You can be the most brilliant writer at a university, but if you can't impart that knowledge to those you are trying to help, you aren't doing a good job. On the other hand, if you are a decent writer with a few good tips that you can communicate clearly, you can help someone much more than the linguistic pro. Surely a writing consultant should be a strong writer with a higher than average writing fluency, but it's perfectly fine for them to admit their own weaknesses and utilize outside sources like writer's web to supplement their own knowledge.

While the tutee is interested in the package of knowledge (and the package is what motivated a professor to recommend me for this class), how the package is delivered seems most paramount. This is compounded for non-traditional students, especially ESL students, who already are more likely to struggle to communicate clearly with you. To help improve communication, The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors includes 10 really helpful tips from pages 67 to 69 that include making sure you can phrase things in multiple ways, avoiding bizarre english idioms, and helping the writer to feel at ease. All of these concerns stem from a desire to make ESL students comfortable. As Harris points out in "Cultural Conflicts in the Writing Center, ESL students "need sympathy and understanding when they ask what they perceive to be dumb questions or when they make silly mistakes that native speakers never will" (214).

But how do you accommodate a special type of communication while still achieving your goal (making better writers) when you're so used to your usual way of doing things? After helping my roommate (an ESL student) and watching the videos on ESL tutorials, I'd venture to propose the following overarching guidelines for consulting ESL students.

Allow them to speak. When you are first introduced, go out of your way to show interest in whatever they want to talk about. Don't force a topic on them. Maybe bring a more broad topic up like where they are from, what their native language is, what their academic interests are, and see where they take it. Getting them to do some interpersonal talking will improve your chances of getting verbal feedback during the actual consultation.

Be directive. ESL students can learn more from directive tutoring than we would expect of other students. While this may be a generalization, I think it's a true one and not something we should ignore if we want to help each student as best as we can. Though in this situation, a problem with directive commentary is that it can lead to the consultant doing a lot of the talking. Try bringing up a specific point, pointing to the area of concern, look up at the writer, and listen attentively as they respond. This gets them to interact with you and the text, and hopefully in a way that is comfortable for them if you introduce yourself to them and converse with them politely and happily.

By providing concise directive commentary and then allowing the ESL student to react in a comfortable environment, I'm convinced that they're going to get much more out of a session than they would if they were treated as American students with primary fluency in English. Remember that sometimes less is more, and that reassuring smiles are more important than commas (or medical treatment, for that matter).