How to communicate politely and be a tutor, too: NS-NNS interaction and writing center practice

Thonus, Terese

doi:10.1515/text.1.1999.19.2.253

Cited by 37 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…This report summarizes the results of my investigations (Thonus, 1999a(Thonus, , 1999b(Thonus, , 1999c(Thonus, , 2001(Thonus, , 2003 as well as the findings of other studies of writing center interaction. As a whole, the research I have done represents a broad exploration of tutor-tutee discourse in writing center tutorials using an interactional sociolinguistics framework (Schiffrin, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 53%

“…Thonus (1999b) specifically addressed the issue of tutee gender and NS/NNS status on tutor verbal behavior. Results indicated that institutional context has more to do with tutorial interaction than tutees' gender or NS/NNS status.…”

Section: Communicative Dominancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Upgraders strengthen the force of directives, with the use of modals such as you have to and imperatives. Thonus (1999b) suggests that tutors avoid mitigation and use a more direct style in order to improve the comprehensibility of their suggestions to L2 writers. It is likely that upgraders, though perhaps less polite, serve the same purpose.…”

Section: Less Mitigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…How does one effectively tutor a NNS? And what specifically in tutorials with NNSs causes tutors the degree of anxiety reported in the literature (Blau & Hall, 2002;Powers, 1993;Thonus, 1993Thonus, , 1999b? Journal of Second Language Writing 13 (2004) [227][228][229][230][231][232][233][234][235][236][237][238][239][240][241][242] The research attending to these questions is, thankfully, growing year by year, with dissertations by Young (1992), Carter-Tod (1995), Thonus (1998), Anglada (1999), Kim (2001), and Ritter (2002); articles, starting in the early 1990s, including those by Harris and Silva (1993), Powers (1993), and Thonus (1993); as well as many ''how to tutor ESL students'' pieces in tutoring newsletters and manuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Recent investigations of NNSs in the writing center suggest there are several (Thonus, 1999a(Thonus, , 1999bWilliams, 2004;Young, 1992). Tutors, especially peer tutors, are already faced with a delicate balance of providing guidance to their tutees without taking ownership of the writer's text.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What are the differences?Tutor interactions with first- and second-language writers

THONUS¹

2004

Journal of Second Language Writing

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This paper reports on a decade of research into the nature of interactions between writing center tutors and native speaker (NS) and non-native speaker (NNS) tutees. It explores and describes the structure of this interaction and the behaviors of NNS tutees, and of tutors when interacting with both NS and NNS tutees. It characterizes writing center tutorials with NNSs as a balancing act among potentially conflicting forces. Finally, it suggests applications of these insights to tutor preparation and practice. #

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Section: Communicative Dominancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Less Mitigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What are the differences?Tutor interactions with first- and second-language writers

THONUS¹

2004

Journal of Second Language Writing

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Serving Generation 1.5 Learners in the University Writing Center

Thonus

2003

TESOL Journal

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S econd-language writers attending U.S. colleges and universities generally fall into one of three groups: 1. EFL writers who were educated in their mother tongue (L1) and are learning English as their L2 (often referred to as foreign or international students) 2. ESL writers who are recent immigrants to the United States, often with educational backgrounds in their L1 3. Generation 1.5 writers who are long-term U.S.residents and English learners fluent in spoken English. Harklau, Losey, and Siegal (1999) With backgrounds in U.S. culture and schooling, they [Generation 1.5 writers] are distinct from international students or other newcomers who have been the subject of most ESL writing literature, while at the same time these students' status as English language learners is often treated as incidental or even misconstrued as underpreparation in writings on mainstream college composition and basic writing. (p. vii) In fact, because they have come up through the public school system, where mainstreaming (actually submersion) and age-related promotion have obscured their status as English language learners, Generation 1.5 writers themselves eschew the label ESL. As a result, they have largely been ignored by writing specialists who study native speakers of English because their writing contains nonnative, ESL features. Likewise, they also have been ignored by writing specialists who study nonnative speakers of English because they rarely enroll in ESL writing classes.In this article, 1 I explain how a key academic support service, the university writing center, can assist Generation 1.5 students as they develop their writing skills. Because of its autonomous status within the university, the writing center offers an opportunity for Generation 1.5 students (who may not want to refer to themselves as ESL students) to receive L2 writing instruction in an anonymous and unstigmatized atmosphere. By recognizing the learning abilities and limitations that distinguish Generation 1.5 students from other ESL learners, writing tutors and, by extension, writing instructors can develop appropriate intervention strategies for this growing segment of the U.S. postsecondary population. Furthermore, the principles and practices highlighted in this article may be applied during writing conferences and other teacher-student exchanges intended to improve students' L2 writing ability.Writing centers in U.S. colleges and universities began as writing labs in the 1930s. Lab clients were racial, ethnic, or gender minorities judged by their teachers to need remediation. This characterization of writing centers as places where these students' special needs are met by the university has changed as the centers have become mechanisms for increasing access to and retaining students. Today, they play a vital role in freshman writing programs A proposal for serving Generation 1.5 students in the writing center must begin with an awareness of the similarities and differences in the backgrounds and needs of Generation 1.5 and ESL/EFL writers.as ...

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“We make the invisible visible”: Investigating and evaluating the one-to-one consultation service at a UK higher education institution

Nathan

2021

Journal of English for Academic Purposes

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How to communicate politely and be a tutor, too: NS-NNS interaction and writing center practice

Cited by 37 publications

References 13 publications

What are the differences?Tutor interactions with first- and second-language writers

What are the differences?Tutor interactions with first- and second-language writers

Serving Generation 1.5 Learners in the University Writing Center

“We make the invisible visible”: Investigating and evaluating the one-to-one consultation service at a UK higher education institution

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