Schedule of Events

This session highlights the necessity for different teaching approaches, identifies diverse learning styles, and demonstrates respect for cultural diversity. Since many minority students (local and international) lack confidence in their writing abilities, this session demonstrates approaches for discussing writing with this population. We used Elbow’s (2008) believing and doubting game to teach individuals which approach would be most appropriate with different situations or scenarios. The believing game teaches individuals to believe and accept every new and unique idea apart from our own (Elbow, 2008). On the other hand, the doubting game is what we are commonly used to, critical thinking (Elbow, 2008). We concluded that it is important to balance between both approaches in order to build confidence within minority writers. It is important to accept the individual’s ideas but also prompt the student to be analytical of their own work in order to acquire new writing skills and improve their writing style.

We believe that in helping multilingual writers learn about the shared conventions of academic writing, the writing center can also accommodate and advocate for the writers’ diverse linguistic and rhetorical usage in their written communications. This presentation will discuss some ways to help students of different linguistic, cultural, and rhetorical background and to acknowledge their individual strengths through their differences. Based on the framework of Matsuda and Cox (2004) on reading and responding to multilingual writers, this presentation introduces the awareness of both the positive and negative kinds of reading of multilingual writers’ work and how to apply three different methods of consulting. We also include an example from Bonnie Williams-Farrarian which shows how non-academic English can positively contribute to multilingual writers’ academic writing. Overall, the result of the aforementioned research can be boiled down to a list of tips that can be used when accommodating and advocating multilingual writers and their linguistic and rhetorical usage.

The exploration on different cultural sources of success can give writing center consultants context to the world in which international writers identify themselves in. As a student who comes from various cultures, I recognize how motivating factors in academic work affect the way in which I approach various projects and assignments. Through interviews, writing consultation and email communication with Hui Wang, a CLU Chinese international student, this project investigates how Americans credit hard work to success, while Chinese credit success to the connections that individuals have with one another, and the ways that these opposing views on success affects most international students’ approach to success in the classroom.