ESL Hooper

  For the most part, I would agree that the ESL label does play strong part in many ESL student’s identities and writing motivation in classrooms.  To be labeled “ESL”, or something other than “Standard English”, carries a social stigma in schools and in colleges.   Many ESL students I tutor tend to assume that there is a kind of hierarchy of the English language at the Success Center.  They, especially first time ESL students tend to view themselves as the bottom of the barrel and have a very negative self-image  of themselves as writers and even as students.  The students that, I guess,  acknowledge that their “place” seem to be more docile, although still resentful of the lave, but willing to learn more to move up out of that “place” much like Misha.  I’ve met students like Misha who take pride in their progress and work.  Some of these students even come back and update my co-workers and I on their progress in English or some side projects they’ve been working on.  

Then there are, however, students like Sergej who absolutely feel patronized and belittled by ESL.   When I started tutoring ESL students, I would always try to make them feel comfortable by pointing out what they were doing right and what looks interesting in their essay assignments.  However, sometimes I would come across students who were very distant and felt that I was patronizing them rather than encouraging them.  You can kind of get sense of the student’s personality as you go over the essay with him/her by how they react to your questions or through their participation in the tutorial session.  But I can understand why some ESL students become very indifferent.  I think some comments from instructors like “Thanks for sharing this” can be superfluous to ESL students like Sergej.  They just know because it’s like the the instructor has an opportunity to sit with every one of his/her students and converse.  

To avoid being patronizing, as a tutor, I try to initiate small conversations with the ESL student.  Most of the time, their stories are very compelling.  Most of the time, they respond to me with great detail because, I think, I am genuinely interested in what they have to say or write.  If I come across a student like Jane, who has a great of being marginalized for not being a "regular" student, I would always remind him/her that he/she is a regular student who is just learning another language.