Book Review Gives Good Insights

  The Review of ESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center Tutors by Shanti Bruce and Ben Rafoth is full of good information.  Reading the review was enlightening and made me want to buy the book or suggest to Liz we should have it as required reading for new tutors.  It explains how cultures write differently, "how each culture has its own way of organizing an essay." This information can help the tutor explain the why's more fully: Why we are taught to pattern our essays the way we do.  Standard American English essays follow a very linear pattern.  We like to know in the very first sentence what the essay is about (thesis).  From there it should transition nicely to the other themes or ideas.  Americans don't want to get lost in their reading. These lessons may help an ESL or ELL student remember to write from this perspective, to keep them focused on the idea or  point they are trying to explain.  America is also highly individualistic.  We value independence.  This idea can help explain why institutions are so tough on plagiarism. The book suggests that some countries may not even be aware of what plagiarism is-- explaining why a student may have lots of uncited quotes in their essay.  With these concepts in mind,  the tutor can more fully realize that the student is not "deficient, just different." The culture they come from may value interdependence and time may be less linear. Therefore their essays may be completely wrong from our perspective.  But it's not!
Tutoring an ESL and ELL does have its added challenges. Not only do we have to help with pronunciation and spelling we need to have a sensitivity to their cultural experiences and our expectations.

 http://emil.uwc.utexas.edu/praxis/?q=node/24