Working with
Multilingual Writers
Writing Center tutors are
knowledgeable about best practices for tutoring multilingual students, and they
are also familiar with the basic premises of a field of study called
contrastive rhetoric that researches how different cultural practices and
assumptions inform rhetorical and linguistic choices in writing. (For example, many Asian cultures do not
privilege premise first thinking and writing, and writers from Arabic cultures
may embrace, say, exaggeration as stylistic tactic. In short: writer and reader expectations can
vary across even English speaking countries.)
In ENG 200, the
required tutor training course, peer tutors watch the DVD Writing Across Borders, which offers an excellent introduction to
the concerns noted above and one that engages them from both student and
faculty perspectives. The Writing Center
has a copy of this DVD for loan; instructors may also view clips of the film
and access a written transcript of it at the following webpage: http://cwl.oregonstate.edu/writing-across-borders