The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

My Personal Experience with Tutoring a Generation 1.5 Student
(by Jamie Ferrando)
Even though I am aware of the differences between eye and ear learners, it wasn’t until this
semester (Fall 2009) that I was able to work one student who demonstrated the previously mentioned
characteristics of an ear learner. During the beginning of the semester, I had a drop-in whose first
language was Hmong. She was a Generation 1.5 student who began learning English in elementary
school. She admitted that she uses her first language the majority of the time with her family and friends,
and that she considers English her second language. When I began reading her paper out loud, as I do
with most of my tutees, she began fixing most of her grammatical errors. Although she was not able to
correct all of them, she learned that by reading her paper out loud, or by having someone read her paper to
her, she could correct the majority of her errors. Her content, for the most part, was organized and
cohesive, but it was the strategy of reading out loud that really gave her a different perspective of her
writing process.
My Personal Experience With Tutoring an International Student
(by Kristina Kellermann)
I’ve worked with a number of multilingual students in the Writing Center, mostly Generation 1.5
students, but also a few international students. One student I tutored came to study here from her home in
China. She was also in a tutorial I taught this semester, so I had worked with her before with speaking
and listening skills, but not writing. She needed help at the time writing a cover letter to accompany the
portfolio she would be submitting at the end of the semester for her English class. We reviewed the
assignment prompt together, going over each individual requirement, and checking in the letter to see if
she had covered them all. Her writing was relatively easy to read, with simple neat sentences that
indicated to me that she had taken time and care to construct them. She was aware of some of her
problems, namely run-on sentences, development, and some minor grammatical issues. We specifically
discussed these issues as she had identified them earlier in the semester, and what strategies she had
learned to correct and avoid these errors in the future. For the most part, she had followed the prompt,
and I praised her organization and clarity. When conversing, I reminded myself to speak a little more
slowly and clearly, and I checked with her a few times to be sure that she understood and to see if she had
any other concerns. In the end, she said she felt more confident about the letter being nearly ready to
present with her portfolio.
I think having a previous rapport established was helpful in this case, and I feel my student was
relaxed and not overly self-conscious working with me. While my situation with her was a little
unconventional from typical experiences with international students in the Writing Center, I do certainly
recommend getting to know the student a little before beginning to work. Taking my time, being patient,
and remembering respect are all key points that I endeavor to keep in mind any time I work with a
student, multilingual or otherwise. I also remind myself that a lot of multilingual students, especially
international students, are not only dealing with the challenges and workload ever-present in the academic
environment that faces every college student, but are doing so in their second language. Trying to handle
all this in one’s first language is difficult enough, but I have immense additional respect for those students
who do it all in a language other than their first. Every time I work with a multilingual student, it’s a
humbling learning experience for me as well. So when my student thanked me at the end of the session, I
simply told her, “Xie xie. Thank you.”
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