Access to the Truth
In “Zen and the Art of the Writing Tutorial,” Paul Gamache asks, “do you think of yourself as an Expert? Do you have access to the truth?” I like this question because it seems to contradict some of his other assertions. For example, he claims that he sometimes does not provide his students with the help they want; rather, he gives them the help he deems they need, and he only gives them the assistance they desire when he decides that it is also what they require. How does he know exactly what they need? Does he consider himself an expert? Does he have access to the truth? Perhaps Mr. Gamache is overconfident? Perhaps he not only overestimates his ability to recognize the inadequacies of his students but also underestimates their ability to honestly assess their writing and identify their own strengths and weaknesses.
Although some writers may not know precisely what kind of help they need, others are quite aware of their shortcomings. Indeed, many writers who come to the Peer-Tutoring Center seeking assistance know exactly what type of help they need. Furthermore, a lot of writers know that they need help in one area, but not another. I will explain. Like any other English writing tutor I work with numerous ESL writers. Often they tell me: A) I am having problems with articles and B) you may not understand my argument because I am unable to translate certain words from my native language into English. From these tutorial sessions I have learned that: A) they are almost always correct in their deduction that they need help with articles and B) they are almost always incorrect in their assumption that I will not understand their positions because of translation problems.
In my (albeit limited) tutoring experience, it appears that those ESL writers who struggle with articles (which I can relate to as a GSL student), and are aware of this problem, know exactly what type of aid they need. Conversely, those ESL writers who believe that their arguments are unclear as a result of translation issues are often unaware of what they need. That is, the problem is not one of translation but vocabulary, as I can usually decipher their arguments and help them find the necessary words to articulate them.
Therefore, having limited English skills in speech or writing can have a short or long term effect on an individual’s self-esteem and opportunities. Judgment should not be placed nor should one’s worth or potential be judged based off of test scores or stereotypical sayings. Society plays a major role in what its citizens of today think of each other. Therefore, it is up to society to educate individuals who place judgment on those who have limited English skills. Individual’s with limited and temporary ability to speak or write, should not measure that individuals potential in life nor limit his/her opportunities.
English language learners are at different levels of proficiency. Listening, reading, verbal, and writing skills of ELLs will require a variety of instructional levels to meet their varied needs. Understanding the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the learners, will enable the teacher to develop lesson plans that meet and challenge the skill levels of each student. Writing is one of the most productive activities for ELLs (Saville-Troike, 2012). Writing is a common method for testing knowledge and is used frequently for academic
Her friend gave her support and allowed her to realize different perspectives to incorporate into her writing. Duffy’s sophomore year English teacher, gave her the guidance to improve her skill. Therefore, the methods teachers approach teaching their subject matter is imperative to their students’
Born and raised in a small rural town in Taiwan, I never expected to be given the opportunity to be writing this essay today. All the more so, at one of the world’s leading research and teaching institutions in California, UC Davis. Being able to communicate in English fluently--speaking and writing--was something I never thought would happen, nor did I really care about. What would a local Taiwanese boy need to learn English for, in a country with less than 10% of an English speaking population? Being able to form your own sentences, or even write a few comprehensible words in English was already an extraordinary accomplishment for any native Taiwanese children. However, I was inspired to change my views as a language user and taught to be appreciative of the learning process. This change has brought me up from low expectations in learning English to becoming an American college student working my way towards a Bachelor 's degree.
Several people have trouble writing college level essays and believe that they are unable to improve their writing skills. In “the Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer,” Sarah Allen argues how no one is born naturally good at writing. Sarah Allen also states how even professional writers have trouble with the task of writing. Others, such as Lennie Irvin, agree. In Irvin’s article “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?” states how there are misconceptions about writing. Furthermore, Mike Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer” shows ways on how one can improve their writing skills. Allen, Bunn, and Irvin are correct to say how no one is born naturally good writers. Now that we know this, we should find ways to help improve our writing skills, and
Not to mention that whatever it takes some people to do in an hour, it takes me two for not being able to master the language. Practically, I 've always considered myself a strong person, and enterprising, but I have very clear that my language proficiency is one of my greatest weaknesses. It is very motivating for a person like me, to pass courses with a good grade, because it is an accomplishment that was achieved based on hard work. Due to my poor language skills, the hardest part of my paper was actually doing the research, given that it took me a while to understand the peer-viewed articles needed. Generally speaking, I never imagined that it was going to be so difficult to express myself, hopefully, it will be easier in the
In today’s competitive world, academic is very important and a good grade is most have in order to make a decent career. For the international student, this ESL class is very important. This class teaches us to adopt the writing styles used in many fields and also makes us able to communicate properly within the society. The vast diversity and increasing immigration in this country are making the society more globalized. To stand out among those crowds and make a decent career, we have to do better in learning the way the society understands and ESL class teaches us that. Furthermore, as English is generally the language used by almost everyone working and dealing at all levels, mastering it is important for ESL students to like me. Hence,
In Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds”, Amy demonstrates that the American dream may be far from reality. In the story Jing- mei endures many tests and trials forced upon her by her mother, Mrs. Woo. In the story, Mrs. Woo sets unreasonable expectations for her daughter; hoping that one day they too can live the American dream. Amy Tan suggests that it is best for a person to find their own identity and not have one unwillingly forced upon them, no matter the circumstance.
Writing an essay often seems to be an overwhelming task for many individuals. For students like myself, who came from another country, writing can be more difficult and challenging. It can be very frustrating to fully comprehend an idea, and being unable to express it proficiently in English can be excruciating. For these reasons, assistance is often needed to become an effective writer. The focus of this paper is to demonstrate the process on how I organized and accomplished my most recent essay, and to identify the struggles I encountered when writing the paper. In addition, plans on how to improve my next paper, based on the teacher’s feedback from my previous essay, and topics including methods on how instructors can help develop my essay
Any craftsman knows that you need the right tools to complete a project successfully. Similarly, people need the right language and usage to communicate in a positive way. How people write is often a problem because they don’t have the right tools, but a bigger problem occurs when a writer “is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything at all” (592). If a writer carries this mentality, why try to communicate in the first place? People need...
The purpose of this assignment is to explain the impact of English language learners in the classroom. As a foreign student, English language learner in the United States faces multiple challenges for achieving academic success. To successfully complete a task, they need to master both English as a language and how it is used in core content classes especially when they are an adult. When trying to assist in instructing English language learners, they usually have many concepts and language abilities that they need to master, as do the teachers that are trying to teach them. With the incorporation of the concepts and approaches to identify and assess the issues and concerns that we have learned in our classroom instruction, such as lesson preparation,
Everybody has to find out what they believe and take responsibility for it at some point. Our parents teach us what they know about the world, religion, and politics, but we can’t just ride on our parent’s beliefs forever. Judy relized at a very young age that she didn’t agree with the view points of he`r parents religion. Judy felt that it was difficult to grow up in a home where she was raised on beliefs she didn’t agree with and she often felt confined by its strict rules.
During the course of this semester; the variety of writing styles and essays assigned to me in my communication skills class encouraged the development of my writing skills, as well as provided me with more self-assurance in my abilities. My writing, research, and presentation abilities enhanced through practice, determination, and the understanding I gained during this course. With every single writing assignment, I learned new innovative approaches and skills, which enhanced my abilities to improve my thoughts logically, enabling me to write more clearly, and to organize my papers more effectively. At the beginning of this semester; despite the fact that I already knew the terminology MAP: message, audience, purpose; I never really understood the significance of MAP. For this reason, my writing lacked clarity, organization, and my writings appeared less focused on the topics. As a result my research papers and essays did not flow as smoothly from one passage to the next. Furthermore, I was unaccustomed with the precise procedures used when writing an essay. For instance, my previous classes before college, although requiring a reference page, did not require me to include proper citations in my writings. After evaluating the quality of my writing toward the end of the semester, I recognized vast improvements in several areas of my writing. By concentrating on the beginning stages of my writings, I could distinguish ahead of time my audience and my message. As a result, my essays are clear, and I remain on topic. In addition to that using transition phrases efficiently also helps my writing to flow smoothly. The proper use of transitions makes my writings easy to follow from one topic to the next. I also learned that pre-writing...
Truth can be defined as conformity to reality or actuality and in order for something to be “true” it must be public, eternal, and independent. If the “truth” does not follow these guidelines then it cannot be “true.” Obviously in contrary anything that goes against the boundaries of “truth” is inevitably false. True and false, in many cases does not seem to be a simple black and white situation, there could sometimes be no grounds to decide what is true and what is false. All truths are a matter of opinion. Truth is relative to culture, historical era, language, and society. All the truths that we know are subjective truths (i.e. mind-dependent truths) and there is nothing more to truth than what we are willing to assert as true (Hammerton, Matthew). A thing to me can be true while for the other person it may not be true. So it depends from person to person and here the role of perception comes into play. As truth is a vital part of our knowledge, the distinctions between what is true and what is false, shape and form the way we think and should therefore be considered of utmost importance. We often face this situation in real life through our learning curves and our pursuit of knowledge to distinguish between what is true and what is false. The idea of there being an absolute truth or also known as universal truth has been debated for centuries. It depends on many factors such as reason, perception and emotion.
...fer, M., & Rivera, H. (2006, October). Practical guidelines for the education of English language learners. In Presentation at LEP Partnership Meeting, Washington, DC. Available for download from http://www. centeroninstruction. org.