Matthew Kalland

Professor Dawn Spelke

CCD Writing Center

April, 2015

Rethinking Our Work With Multilingual Writers:

The Ethics and Responsibility of Language Teaching In the Writing Center

An Annotated Bibliography

Olson, Bobbi. Rethinking Our Work With Multilingual Writers: The Ethics and Responsibility of

Language Teaching In the Writing Center. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal (n.d.). Web

The concern that writing center (WC) tutors may be unwittingly altering the literal intent of multilingual students by correcting a student's grammatical mistakes, is addressed by Bobbi Olson in this Writing Center Journal article. The ideal of the writing center tutor is for the tutor to enrich the student's writing skill and experience through one-on-one tutoring sessions. This ideal can be pragmatically put to use to fuel academic improvement. The controversy arises from the tendency of standard institutional requirements to be inflexible and equated with cultural norms. Olson posits that with the encroachment of multiculturalism into western academia, college writing center tutors may be inadvertently be maintaining mono-cultural and monolingual power structures by reinforcing mainstream institutions.

Bobbi Olson has some poignant points about the pedagogy of language acquisition that have been undervalued in current academia. The English language itself has so many irregularities due to borrowing from other languages, among other things, that it sometimes seems nonsensical to enforce perfect grammar (is there such a thing?). Essentially the message tutors are inadvertently sending to immigrant students is that they will do better and be accepted better by the skill with which they conform, not perform. Ultimately, this article serves as a confirmation many of my own concerns and theories regarding tutoring English. My Tuteeing Experience

(or: I Want To Do It Again and This Time I Want To Ride the Pony)

Being on the other side of a writing center tutoring session as a tutee, has always proven to be a greatly enlightening experience. I prefer to not submit my written assignments without running them by another tutor. Primarily, this is because I can get immediate, and interactive feedback from my audience in the form of the tutor. I pride myself in the thoroughness of my writing so, any additive perspectives another person brings to my attention would likely have been entirely overlooked by me. I have gone over papers with most of the tutors in the center, so I was excited to see if I could learn from someone new.

My tutor for this paper was Lena. It was apparent that she was scrutinizing my paper very carefully, looking for any potential for contextual enhancement. After a quick discussion on intent and context, we came to an agreement on what portions of the paper could be reordered for ease of clarification, and on what portions most strongly conveyed my intended perspicacity on the subject reading. Literary assistance aside (which was of quality substance, I assure you), I would have to say that, probably, my greatest takeaway from the whole session was the sense of investment in my work that was conveyed by Lena. Her attitude was one of genuine interest in, not only the content of the work, but the expressive voice and intent. Her efforts made me feel like my expression had merit, regardless, and gave me added motivation to enhance the writing. I firmly believe that a little extra-tutor-provided-incentive could prove to be the invaluable difference between a student staying the course, or giving up in frustration.b b.est tutor ESL students, and it's good to know I am not the sole tutor to entertain such concepts.