Tucker 1 Keli D.

Tucker Professor Lauri Dietz WRD 582 5 November 2013

Not All Talk: Interrogating Conversation Partner Practices at the UCWbL Challenge / Solution Debate about whether or not writing centers should house conversation writing center appointments Introduction Research Question According to the UCWbLs The Modalities Reader, Conversation Partner appointments at the University Center for Writing-based learning are meant to provide ELL students with authentic interaction with native English speakers in a risk-free environment in order to support and augment their spoken language acquisition. The students who make these appointments come from both undergraduate and graduate programs across the university, as well as from DePauls English Language Academy, a full-time intensive academic language program focused on the language and academic skills used in university degree programs and professional endeavors. However, tutors working with these students may not be aware that the average TOEFL score range for beginning students in the ELA program is from 390-430 out of 677 (or 29 out of 120 on the newly revised scale), and that students can be conditionally admitted to the program with even lower scores. Depending on the spread of the students score within the

Tucker 2 TOEFLs four categories of Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing, students must have earned quite low numbers in almost all areas in order to have earned such a score. Leaving aside the subjective nature of certain aspects of such tests, it is clear that many of these students will be approaching English at a vastly different level than the Conversation Partner tutors who are purportedly their peers. Although it is not the job of a peer tutor to teach the correct usage of the English language, the very fact that a tutor is a peer may contribute to writers taking a tutors advice and opinions about language more seriously than they would those of a professor, especially with regards to cultural and social norms. Thus tutors are unwittingly placed in the role of linguistic arbiter. Do ELL students receive more benefit from a simple conversation or from a more structured agenda? Context Why do Conversation Partner Appointments Matter? (PUT INFO ABOUT THE ELA HERE) Writing and language acquisition are interrelated and complementary skills. DePauls large body of international students can have difficulty integrating into the larger university community. Current Best Practices The current set of established Best Practices for Conversation Partner appointments in The Modalities Reader advises the tutor to set an agenda, which can include asking the writer about specific challenges in English as well as whether he or she desires correction after mispronunciations. While these are good practices, tutors are not offered more specific

Tucker 3 suggestions for how to navigate Conversation Partner appointments, which can easily devolve into awkwardness without a more structured approach. Just as no one tutoring style is beneficial to every student, no one approach to Conversation Partner appointments is bound to be beneficial to all. Some students may appreciate the camaraderie and low-pressure environment of the opportunity to merely converse in a judgment-free environment. However, because Conversation Partner appointments are an optional undertaking, it seems evident that these are highly motivated students, some of whom might desire more concrete solutions to the problems they face as they learn English. Based on the results of my research and critical inquiry, my aim is to provide some of these concrete strategies and suggestions for more effectively working with ELL students. Under the auspices of the Collaborative for Multilingual Writing and Research, coordinated by Laura F., in-services are offered in which tutors are given more information and strategies about working with ELL students. However, attendance of this specific in-service is not mandatory, and those tutors who do not attend Secondary Research Working with ELL Students Cultural Differences (?) Face different challenges in the university setting than do students for whom English is their native language Something as seemingly innocuous as body language etc. can alter the outcome of a Conversation Partner appointment in unintended ways (Belhiah) Students may face bias from faculty (Lindsey & Crusan) Examining Tutoring Styles

Tucker 4 Strategies for Tutoring ELL Writers Thoughts from Peer Tutors Primary Research Methodologies / Data Collection To preserve their confidentiality, numbers referring to the chronological order in which they were observed will be used to identify the tutors and writers. To analyze whether students receive more benefit from a loosely structured Conversation Partner appointment or from one in which an agenda is set, after obtaining permission from both tutor and writer I will observe and record Conversation Partner appointments, and later analyze the transcripts for rhetorical strategies employed by tutors that directly relate to setting goals and establishing structure during the appointment. Following the appointment I will conduct separate 10-15 minute interviews with the writer and tutor who participated in the appointment regarding their concerns about and expectations of such appointments. I will also interview Laura Friddle, Coordinator for The Collaborative for Multilingual Writing and Research. This primary research will be supplemented by work already done in this area, such as Terese Thonuss Tutors as Teachers: Assisting ESL/EFL Students in the Writing Center, http://casebuilder.rhet.ualr.edu/wcrp/publications/wcj/wcj13.2/wcj13.2_thonus.pdf which posits that writing centers must refine their philosophies and practices in order to better serve the needs of this community. I also plan to draw parallels between Brooks more widely accepted minimalist tutoring approach and Shamoon and Burns advocacy of a directive approach when it would prove more useful. Although the effectiveness of Conversation Partner appointments is not something that can be easily quantified, synthesizing secondary research

Tucker 5 with my own should provide a foundation for making effective suggestions for working with ELL students. Outcome Interview with Laura F. Make tutors more aware of the structure of the ELA Grad student came in and was frustrated with a tutor that had interrupted a lot and provided too much grammatical feedback, making the writer feel patronized Some people are better at elastic conversation than others Some tutors can get carried away and talk too much, not leaving the writer room to speak, whereas other tutors have been reported as seeming disengaged Some tutors dont like CP appointments and/or question why they are done in the writing center Best practices: make sure to set a balance in conversation; because students will not have any knowledge of what we do or offer, make sure to unpack options that we have Promotion: listed on quarter calendar sent out to general mailing list, key academic contacts in different departments, faculty mailing lists such as FYW, ELA, international studies, etc; 11th floor of DePaul center has poster; presentation to upper level reading class at start of each culture to advertise book club and conversation & culture, and students also provided with a calendar A lot of insecurity involved, certain amount of frustration in inability to express specificity or complexity of ideas, can be critical or impatient with themselves offering encouragement / confirmation / constructive criticism that their communication skills are working is helpful

Tucker 6 Conversation Partner Appointment Observation #1 The first Conversation Partner appointment I observed was a first year tutor paired with an intermediate ELA student from China. Tutor 1 and Writer 1 had met before, and the two had a good rapport. Writer 1 said that in her intermediate ELA class, only she and one other girl were Chinese a few students were from Thailand but most were Saudi Arabian. She noted that prior to attending DePaul, students from different cultures were exposed to different types of English language training, specifically that the Chinese students in her class had better grammar but had more difficulty with conversation, whereas the Saudi Arabian students had better conversational skills but poorer grammar At one point, when asking a question, Tutor 1 said, So, is it, like, do you find it easy to, like, communicate with, like, the Saudi Arabian students, like, in English or is it, like, still super difficult? (From CMWR In-service handout: the goal is for your partner to practice shaping and structuring language / Pay attention to your own language and vocabulary). He also spoke over writer to the point that it is difficult to hear her on the recording. During interview, tutor said that when explaining idioms, for example, he would rather the writer ask what something means each time than explain. However, in answer to the next question, tutor described how students from China (with whom he mainly works) have difficulty expressing their opinions and speaking out for themselves. Conversation Partner Appointment Observation #2 Writer 2 had gone to CP appointments several times; was strongly recommended by her professor; saw them as way to gain confidence in her speaking and learn more about American culture.

Tucker 7 Tutor 2 noted that some students who were not in the ELA program mentioned difficulties with the English language and were not aware of Conversation Partner service. The appointment fell a few days after Halloween and the two spent a long time discussing the holiday and how it was celebrated. Writer 2 said that she had the most difficulty with English in a classroom setting, and Tutor 2 agreed that students with which she met had expressed a similar sentiment, that they were more comfortable amongst themselves and could generally make themselves understood in that setting, but culturally strict / insecurity on their part Writer 2 had written down several specific instances of language usage she wished to discuss, including specific words to express her beliefs about something (I believe, I feel, I think) and the protocol for saying hello to the friend of a friend. She also wanted to know how she could better pronounce words beginning with Th. With regards to agenda setting, Tutor 2 only asks if they have a topic at hand they want to discuss. She wasnt sure whether or not she had met with this writer before. ELA students sometimes feel trapped and dont know how to meet other students at DePaul. Conversation Partner Appointment Observation #3 Summary None of the tutors asked the writers their names, or introduced themselves. Conclusion Conversational Strategies Good Conversation Partner appointments require the same skills that we as tutors have been fostering in other appointments: sensitivity, adaptability

Tucker 8 It is important to model good language skills ourselves Vocabulary??? Agenda Setting Agenda setting can be, in itself, a conversation Can help when summing up what was covered during the appointment, to help demonstrate that something was accomplished (to both the tutor & the writer) Key things to think about when setting an agenda include: The students background in learning the English language in both written and verbal form

Help Tutor to see why this is beneficial to student & to themselves???? What else can we do? Remember the word partner and act accordingly; we are partners in the students learning process

I would like to learn English so that I am able to express myself better with others. When I need to talk to someone, I dont want someone else to speak for me. I would like to speak for myself (Learning English by Juan Berrios, from DAnnunzio 200) Nondirective instructional procedures that allowed the students to take a great deal of initiative for their learning [and ] the opportunity to vent their personal problems in a safe and accepting milieuassisted in providing for beneficial growth (DAnnunzio 202).

Tucker 9 Talking circles create opportunities for learners to engage in meaningful communication, on the one hand, and to practice recently acquired social and linguistic knowledge, on the other (Ernst 293). In ELL classrooms, the primary function of the ELL student is to respond instead of initiate or even follow up (Ernst 294).