Writing Center and ESL Students

Since our discussion on the Writing Center and ESL students, I have continued to wonder: is any other way to help ESL students with writing English? I found an interesting article that really gives some great ideas on how consultants can help ESL students. One of the points it makes is the fact that in Universities, professors usually do not have the time to work with ESL students and help them with their writing. That is where the writing center comes in. It can work as an "adjunct in the process and collaborative approaches" in helping foreign students struggling to write English. It also sheds light on the issue of cultural differences and how that could possibly affect consultations and the collaboration between the student and the consultant. It does, however, seem to imply that writing centers should have ESL specialists. While I do think that specialists would be great for the ESL students, I think it would also take away from consultants learning something new from the session. Regardless, I thought this was an additional source for us to look at as the semester ends.


http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume1/ej03/ej03a1/