Their Perspectives: ESL Students' Reflections On Collaborative Community Service Learning

Abstract

Our business communication classes will continue to be enriched by students from various cultural backgrounds, many of them ESL learners. Among the numerous benefits of this diversity are opportunities for all students to develop essential life skills through course-embedded community service learning (CSL) projects. This study analyzes students' guided reflections in response to qualitative probes regarding CSL projects required for all MBA candidates at the study site. Data were gathered during a 5-year period from 326 reflective reports. More than 80% of the reflective question responses were authored by international students; approximately 60% of those were ESL learners. The findings reveal differences not only between ESL learners and native speakers of English but also between ESL students. Key themes discussed include cultural sensitivity, teamwork, contributive roles, conflict resolution skills, and pragmatic communication skills. The findings presented are accompanied by students' comments, corroborating literature, and teaching tips.WHILE COMMUNITY SERVICE learning (CSL) has become commonplace in higher education, it remains essential to examine students' reflections of these experiences, particularly when CSL is embedded in a course rather than an end in itself. In the present study, CSL provides both an altruistic and realistic means of meeting and transferring the course outcomes of strategic communications, a course required of all MBA candidates at the study site (many of them ESL learners). The course outcomes center on oral and written communication, critical thinking and listening, research, collaborative activities and coauthoring, ethics, and cultural diversity. Therefore, students' reflections are both required and carefully monitored to ensure alignment and transferability of these outcomes, and the reflections inform teaching and learning.

Adult ESOL Students and Service‐Learning: Voices, Experiences, and Perspectives

“…Instead, the focus has been on writing (Glicker, ; Hutchinson, ; Warschauer & Cook, ; Whittig and Hale, ; Wurr, ). In other publications, ESOL students have been included as part of a larger group such as students in developmental classes or students in special education (Crossman & Kite, ; Hutchinson, ; Wurr, ; Yoder, Retish, & Wade, ). In still other studies, the service‐learning projects were of a short duration, ranging from 1 weekend to an 8‐week course (Cummings, ; Elwell & Bean, ; Heuser, ; Minor, ; Yoder et al, ).…”

Translating community development stories: When anEFLwriting course meets service learning

“…In most writing ‐for ‐the‐community projects, students compose “purpose‐driven documents” (Deans, , p. 53) like grant proposals, feasibility reports, newsletters and brochures, and website materials for nonprofit organizations (Alexander & Powell, ; Crossman & Kite, ; Garza, ; Perren, Grove, & Thornton, ). These finished products have been found to be conducive for fostering students’ language and digital literacy skills, cultural sensitivity, and interpersonal skills.…”

Served Through Service: Undergraduate Students’ Experiences in Community Engaged Learning at a Catholic and Marianist University

“…Laing indicated that his findings are similar to other studies relating to experiential learning in vocational school settings. In addition, Crossman and Kite (2007) examined English as second language (ESL) student reflections on community servicelearning projects as they related to their other higher education experiences. ESL student reflections were similar to the reflections of their Englishspeaking counterparts.…”