Say 'No' to Assimilation

One of the most pertinent, and useful, elements I have pulled out of the articles to date is the discussion involving non-native English speaking students. Because the title of the article escapes me, and Ben (who has so rudely and overtly displayed his lack of adherence to our reading assignments) has the book, I will just discuss the idea. The article went into some detail about the need to perceive an international student's struggle with the English language, and consequently writing in that language, and the ways in which to approach that barrier. Interestingly enough, the article highlighted the notion that we, as tutors, should stray from promoting a sense of assimilation. Instead, it is our job to help the student recognize the reasons underlying their writing troubles, and to address those reasons/fears in their writing. Because having an international student simply merge, via writing, into our (the American) culture would deter their own sense of self and individuality, the article asserts that it is the tutor's job to acknowledge these cultural differences, to help the students acknowledge these cultural differences, and finally to formulate a method by which the student can write in English while still maintaining a degree of cultural diversity. It seems so very confusing I know, and that is due in part because I am telling you a version of an article I read written by someone else. The reason I bring this up is because last week I saw two Chinese nursing students back-to-back who were both still in the "learning" process of writing in the English language. Having read that essay helped me better conceptualize a method to approach my tutoring of them.