International Students and ESL Resources by Andrew Yim

I have been shadowing tutors in the Purdue Writing Lab for a class this semester.   Freshmen have come in frantically looking for help with documents like their English 106 papers.  Many freshmen feel overwhelmed since many have never written an essay for college before.  Freshman year, I struggled with English 106 papers because I did not develop a strong foundation for writing.   Staring at a blank page for hours, I struggled to come up with ideas, but thank heavens that I had an extraordinary English 106 professor.  His class improved my writing immensely by teaching principles that I could use for future papers.  After taking his class, I realized that speaking fluent English has always made me feel more confident about my writing. I have observed many international students come into the Writing Lab looking for help on their essays.
 
Observing these sessions were eye-opening as many international students lack confidence in their work; however, I have observed many students formulating great ideas for their papers.  However, they believe that their language skills are not up to par and this mentality has made it hard for them to communicate their ideas.

Figure 1

As a native English speaker, writing in English is second-nature to me.  I could only imagine how international students feel when they are trying to write an English paper.    As they begin to formulate ideas, they might struggle with communicating these ideas onto paper leaving  them feeling frustrated.  If I tried to write a paper in Chinese or Korean, I would definitely feel lost.  This previous summer, I served as a Boiler Gold Rush Team Leader and I had quite a few international students from other countries shown in the photo above. Also, I am currently a part of an international ministry and have become friends with many international students.  For many, this is their first time visiting the United States.  Many believed that they would struggle with their classes because they struggled to understand English.  Some asked me to slow down my talking or to help them with their English papers   Students who come to the United States  have to demonstrate foreign language proficiency, but students still struggle even after demonstrating minimal proficiency in understanding English.

Figure 2

A few months ago, I was not sure how I could help them; however, working on redesigning the OWL has provided me with a clearer answer.  As seen in Figure 2, the English as a Second Language pages provides more clarity to international students who want to write more efficient essays. These pages contain a wealth of information about ESL resources.  However, international students are not aware of the many resources out there for them.  These pages also have resources for tutors wanting to learn strategies to help international students learn English. Furthermore, they cover a variety of grammar topics like adjectives, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, pronouns, and other resources.    As our class are redesigning these pages, we need to target our audience and I believe that many of my friends will benefit from our redesigns.

Throughout my experiences in the Writing Lab, many international students have negative expectations of their own writing.  They are so focused on correcting their grammar that they doubt their own ideas.  As non-native English speakers, they will often feel frustrated and seek out resources that will help them improve their English.  Through my observations, I have seen many non-English students struggle with understanding certain phrases in English.  Many phrases that are common to native English speakers are completely foreign to non-native speakers.     This disconnect in language makes it hard for them to write essays in English.

With many of my international friends, I have practiced speaking in English with them.  I speak quite fast so I have learned to slow down my talking.  In return,  I see them improve their English through conversation.  Thus a great resource that international students can take advantage of is ESL conservation groups.   I believe that the OWL Staff needs to be aware that these conservation groups can help improve students' writing.  Posting the hours of these conversation groups will be immensely beneficial to students looking to improve their language skills.    I believe that helping international students learn the basics of the English language can lead to better developed essays. This will can improve their self-confidence and help them become better writers.

Thus the OWL staff should make non-native speakers more aware of these resources when international students first arrive at Purdue.  The OWL Staff needs to find ways to help direct users, especially non-native speakers of English,  to information that will be most helpful to them.  Students in 515 need to be aware of this audience as they are proposing suggestions to help redesign the website especially for the pages about ESL.   I believe that it is crucial to use certain words on these pages to help international students understand certain concepts.  If there is too much text, international students will feel overwhelmed reading these posts.  Thus students in 515 should suggest a way to redesign these pages through observations of international students.

I believe that an ethnography will be helpful for gathering data to help redesign the ESL pages.  An ethnography is the study of people and culture and studying international students will help the OWL staff and students in 515 understand how to tailor these pages for international students.   Some ways to study international students would be to set up a Qualtrics survey interviewing international students about how they view the English language and if they believe that the ESL pages help them learn more about the English language.  Also, doing in-depth interviews with international students can be beneficial.  All of this data can be used to help effectively redesign the ESL pages.    I will definitely be advertising the ESL Pages to all of my international friends and to students who I meet in the future.