What is ELLS? from Jose Morales on Vimeo.

I traveled on Saturday, April 13, 2013, to Virginia Tech to attend the Virginia Teachers of  English to Speakers of Other Languages (VATESOL) SouthWest Regional Conference. I was accompanying Kristen Shrewsbury, Shirley Yang, and Talat Altayyar, who would all be presenting at the conference. While I was not sure what to expect, I was excited at the notion of learning more about what experts in the field of TESOL had to say about a variety of different topics. As a peer tutor for the James Madison University Writing Center, I have some experience with working with English Language Learners. However, once I began to observe Kristen’s sessions, my understanding of tutoring techniques had grown exponentially, and I looked forward to supplementing this understanding with information from the conference.

The first seminar (given by Caitlin Capone of the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute) was about second language anxiety (SLA), how a teacher or professor would go about identifying whether a student had symptoms of SLA, how to avoid giving students SLA, and how to make students suffering from SLA become more confident in their second language abilities. The important lesson that I learned from Ms. Capone was that teachers and professors have a profound impact on whether ELL students feel comfortable speaking in their second language, not only in classrooms, but outside of them as well. If a student is consistently afraid of being corrected, or even penalized, by a professor for incorrect grammar or the inability to understand a certain language concept, this could keep them from trying to speak in the language at all. Ms. Capone argued that in a real-world setting, it is unlikely that a native speaker would correct a non-native speaker mid-sentence, if at all. Students should not feel ashamed or embarrassed to make mistakes while speaking in their second languages, because all new learners of every subject experience uncertainty. The more they practice, the better they will get, and a condescending or uninterested professor could do immeasurable damage to the self-esteem of an ELL student.

The second seminar that I attended was the one in which Kristen, Shirley, and Talat were presenting, along with Ahmad Abdul Ali. Their presentation was on JMU’s Multilingual Writer’s Community (MWC), and the impact that blog writing has made on ELL students. Kristen gave an overview of the MWC, while Shirley, Talat, and Ahmad (all English Language Learners) gave testimonials on how the MWC has helped them grow as English speakers and writers. All of the ELL students agreed that the free-writing exercises they participate in during the MWC help them not only gain confidence in their own writing skills, but also allow them to learn from each other and gain new perspectives. Before this conference, I was aware that the MWC blog existed, but I had never heard testimonials of how this type of media was helpful to those utilizing it. Hearing how blog writing in a setting where the writers can receive immediate feedback from others reinforced that supplemental learning outside of the classroom can give ELL students much more practice and confidence in their own abilities, something that may not occur when those students are in their official coursework.

I feel as though I benefitted greatly from attending the VATESOL Conference. I gained new perspectives on certain topics and got to know a few ELL students from my school that I did not know before. Learning from them about their experiences will help me become a better peer tutor, and I am more confident in working with English Language Learners in a writing center setting than I was before attending this conference.

Before I attend to James Madison University I was in an English school in Houston, TX, to improve my English and to be able to attend an American university. I stayed for 9 months learning English then I moved to Harrisonburg, VA, to start my bachelor degree in computer science at JMU. My first week was hard. I felt I didn’t understand what is going on around me so, I was concerned about my English very much. I went to my academic advisor office and told her that I will not be able to be a good academic student in my classes because my English and especially my writing is not good. I want be in English school for more time. She saw that my English while we are talking is not that bad and that might be just fear about being an academic student.  She recommend me to visit the Multilingual Writers’ Community and there my writing will improve.

There are many reasons for me to come to the Multilingual Writers’ Community.  The English that I learned in my country or in the English school in Houston  helped me to understand most of what other people are saying and helped me to know how to write.  In fact, as an academic student it is important not only to know how to write, but it is to know how to write academically. In the Multilingual Writers’ Community I really learned how to write academically and I really found that my way in writing is informal and is not the type of writing that I should hand in to my professors. Not all these previous reasons for me to come to the Multilingual Writers’ Community, But also here I am learning how American people write a good paper and this is important. For example in my country and in my old school I learned to write a general information in any introduction for any essay, but in the Multilingual Writers’ Community I learned that is what professors expect from students in America is to get to the point directly and not to write obvious things.

It is nice to post what I am writing in the blog for many reasons.  First, it is good to show my family how their son is working hard and his writing skills are improving in time. Second, when you are writing and thinking that what you write will be in the blog that makes me write much better than if I knew that I will just write to show one person.  By thinking about writing better makes me ask a lot of questions about spelling and grammar and here I learn more.  Finally, it is also good to write in the blog because you are posting different kind of topics and these topic might help people who have the same fear that I had before first I came to Harrisonburg.

Also, I want to mention that in the Multilingual Writers’ Community I work with a professional and other students and this is one of the greatest things that help me to learn how to write better. Working with partners is such a good thing because my partners and I can learn from each other and what I mean by that is to give advice to each other.

My family came to US as refugees and I needed to learn English in order to integrate and succeed in the society. I learned the basics of the English language in community college and when I started JMU I still needed to improve it further. I started seeking resources that I could utilize to help me with college level English. I have discovered that JMU had a writing center, where I used to go a lot to get help. That is where I met Kristen who had special touch interacting with international students and students whose native language was not English. She worked with several other students who also wanted to improve their English skills and we organized a meeting time and start meeting on regular basis. That’s how we started Multilingual Writers’ Community. I joined MWC my first year of college and was active member until I graduated.

By joining MWC my goal was to improve my writing which I ultimately achieved. However, there were so many other benefits that came from MWC and it will take me all day to list all of them. For instance, at the end of our meetings we used to read our essays to each other, where we all commented on grammatical error and anything else that needed to be improved. As we went through this exercise we learned from each other and our writing improved every time. Personally, I am still learning English and adapting to American culture and MWC was a great opportunity to expand my knowledge about American cultural as well other cultures. In our meeting we had students from different countries and it was always exciting to hear each other background. Also our small conversation/discussion that we had during our group meetings helped me to communicate better with my peers. First two years of my undergraduate I did free writing, however as I entered my junior year more and more of my free time was occupied working on application for medical school that required great deal of work. Each school had their own specific essay questions pertaining to their school. Also as honor student I needed to write my thesis in order to finish my honor program, which also put pressure on my free time. Those two years I missed free writing but on other hand I did a lot of academic oriented writing which I learned a great deal from.

MWC definitely helped to expand my writing skills and also improve my critical thinking skills.  As a result of being involved with MWC I feel better prepared on my field of studies because it gives an upper hand when it comes writing research paper or reviewing scientific articles. I am glad that I joined MWC and encourage others to take full advantages of the benefits it offers to students.

Ahmad is currently completing a post baccalaureate year at Edward Via  College of Osteopathic Medicine.

• Why you coming here every week to practice writing? How’s the experience writing with other peers as well as professionals?

At the beginning of my freshman year, I was worried about my writing class. My classmates are all American, the first language user. Every time when the professors asked us to write something, I was frowning because I was hardly ever write down more than few lines while my classmates already have done one page. I told my concern to my professor. Luckily, she recommended me go to this place to meet Kristen. After class, I came back to home and sent her an email right away.

When I met with Kristen, I realize the writing community is such a great place to practice writing. In China, we have this saying, “practice makes perfect”. After I came here several times, I feel writing session is the place where I can practice my weakness to improve my writing skills. After I finished my writing piece, everyone will read aloud, I feel when I read them, sometimes, I could automatically correct mistakes by myself. That’s the nice thing when I practice more. Another reason I wanna mention is most of my peers in the writing community are international students. When I practice writing with my peers, I don’t have too much pressure unlike my American classmates. Sometimes, students from other culture group may offer an unique idea.

• What’s the motivation you post online? Some students feel fear about posting online.

Actually, I don’t really feel fear when others see my posting online. I think it’s a place to share your work. It’s a place to recognize my writing. I have written so many posts so far. Some of them are about my class experiences, some of them are about culture differences. One post was even about how I was shocked about the way american eat veggies. It’s  a casual place to express my ideas from a different perspective.

• How work online impact other students?

The impacts can be different forms. For example, it may encourage more students like us to work online. Hopefully, they will join us. Also, the posting content could give readers a view about how other students think about JMU or America overall. I remember one day, my friend said to me that she read my writing online on the blog. She said it’s a great post. I suddenly feel a sense of accomplishments. That encourage me to practice more.

By-Shirley Yang 

Even though I feel more confident than old me when just enrolled in JMU last semester, the confidence just fades away when communicating in academic forms. The first semester of sophomore year, I have started taking some fundamental business classes as my step stone to the major. Professors’ teaching style is kind of special because he likes to put students at the center. The more you contribute to the class discussion, the more participation points you will get. It is convenient when you have problems. The way to solve it is by mentioning questions in the class and then professor guides students to think and talk about the problems.

I realize that having a problem in the homework is normal but doubting myself is distracting. I remember one time, I asked the question in the office hour. My Professor said it’s a great question and he encouraged me to ask it again in the class. He asked me if I could do that, I said yes without doubt. In the class, when he turned to me and said, “I remember you have a question”, and then I felt everyone is waiting for me to ask. I asked that question but my heart was pounding after I finished the asking. When the teacher answering the question, I feel as if someone in my head starts questioning me: are there any mistakes in your sentences? Professor already approves that question, so it’s not a dumb question. What do other American students think? All of the questions in my mind are distracting me.

The reason why I’m so nervous when I asked the question in the class is partly because I am afraid of being judged. Not only judging language imperfect, but also the mistakes I made. When professor asked which quiz questions we want to discuss, I figured only students who get higher points are willing to pull up their results in the class. When his or her quizzes show on the screen, everyone could see how the students did in the quiz. This way pushes me to be quiet in the class.

Another reason maybe because of different teaching style. I still remembered in my high school, teacher always acted as the main role in the class. Even though the learning style is passive, I like it because I only need to listen. When I have a question, I would save it and asking my teacher in the office hour. Now, I still follow the same rule that is going to my professor’s office to ask question.

When I went to professor’s office, I asked my question and he asked my why I don’t like mention it to the class. I expressed my concern to him. He said he understood it and he thought the way of reviewing quiz is helpful for the exam. Doing well in the quiz doesn’t mean you will do well in the exam. The more mistakes you made in the quiz, the more questions you should mention in the class. I guess our students put too much interpretation on how much points we get from the quiz while no one really care how exam and quiz actually function.

I just watched one of the best TEDed videos I have seen so far. It is about spelling, but more so about the meaningful structures of language that we as speakers take for granted. Whether we’re learning a new language from scratch, or just speaking our native language we rarely think about the nature of words. As it turns out, once you break up words into morphological constituents, you realize that words are ideas combined to create a larger idea that transcends immediacy and situational boundaries.

The video (that will be linked below) shows the true beauty of simple words like one, and how from this simple numerical concept many other words such as alone and onion flourished into existence. I think this video is great as a follow up, to the English Conversation Club meeting we had this p0ast monday, in which our special guest Kelly Giles (a librarian at Rose Library), showed us the visual nature of Asian characters to descibe words like mountain and mouth. Language is a beautiful invention.

I can’t believe it has been three years. Three years. That is one year short of a presidential term. Yes, it is hard to believe I have been working at the ELLS for so long, yet It all makes sense in retrospect. I have worked at the learning centers since sophomore year, back when I lived in a tiny apartment (yet waaaaaaaaay cleaner than my current house) and my parent’s had just given me my bicycle as an early birthday present. Kristen still had her office in Wilson Hall, and she did not know yet that she was allergic the the iconic building. It was back in that office where I had my very first job interview, and yes, fortunately I scored the job.

It was Friday November the 9th, and I was getting recognized for being a valuable tutor. I had never thought of myself as “valuable” or “outstanding”, let alone a “servant leader”, and yet as I was being recognized in the tutor recognition ceremony, I couldn’t help but to feel a little sense of pride on myself. Not selfish pride, rather something along the lines of a more healthy feeling–perhaps, content. Working at the ELLS has been a great opportunity for me to grow as an individual, as a student and as a future professional. I’ve presented at conferences, I’ve ridden a train to Baltimore in “business casual” attire, I have talked with the Deans of JMU, I have represented the learning centers at multiple events and trust me, it all feels pretty good.

And yet, the award is not all about me. I have to thank JMU and the Learning Centers and Kristen for being quite simply: awesome. I wouldn’t have done any all of those things if it had not been for the opportunity they gave me to embody one of the roles I admire the most : that of a teacher.

And so to that I say, thank you. Thanks to all who have come to me eager to learn something new. No award means more than an honest “thank you” at 6 PM  when the lights of Taylor Down Under have dimmed and It’s time to pack up my “English Conversation Club” sign within the messy insides of my backpack.

Congratulations goes out to Jose Morales Mendizabal, ELLS’ Bilingual Student Liaison, for earning an Excellence in Tutoring award!  Jose’s service to ELLS spans 3 academic years, in which he earned Dean’s List academic status and dedicated over 460 hours to ELLS.  Jose’s contributions to ELLS include:

·         Participated in the Colonial Academic Alliance Student Affairs Professional Exchange, visiting George Mason University in March 2010

·         Modeled from a GMU program he witnessed on the CAA exchange at GMU, created English Conversation Club for English language learners to practice conversing with English speakers and discuss cultural differences and similarities.  This program has been active over 4 semesters, meeting twice a week and attracting students who otherwise do not utilize English Language Learner Services.

·         Participated in the LC Internal Program Review

·         Represented LC and ELL at the 11-12 Academic Council Presentation

·         Represented LC & ELL at CHOICES

·         Presented a poster at the Colonial Academic Alliance Global Education Conference 2012

·         Collaborated with University Advising to participate in outreach panels for Study Group students

·         Presents ELLS programs to academic classes

·         460+ tutoring hours logged to-date

The annual Tutoring in Excellence award is in its inaugural year and honored 33 of the 600+ peer educators that the JMU Learning Centers have employed since 2006.  Award recipients were presented letters of achievement from President Alger, for President’s List, or Senior AVP Randy Mitchell, for Dean’s List, and a letter of appreciation from the peer educators’ supervisor at a banquet held in the Montpellier Room on Friday, November 9, 2012.  The recipients names are commemorated on an awards plaque that will be hung in Wilson Hall until the Learning Centers move to Constitution Hall upon its completion in fall 2014.

If you have had the pleasure of working with Jose, or if you are just meeting him for the first time, please join me in congratulating him on his award!