The North Park Writing Center

	The North Park Writing Center & ESL Students - by Havalyn Nesler English can be difficult, even for the native writer, let alone for those who grew up speaking a different language. Add to this the intimidation of a new country, distance from home, and often culture shock, and we may begin to understand what many English as a Second Language (ESL) students are forced to deal with on a daily basis. The writing center desires to assist those students whose first language is not English. North Park's ESL Program: North Park accepts a large number of ESL and exchange students every year, all at varying levels of skill with English. Among these, many are enrolled in the ESL program. The writing center is open to working with ESL students, but not those enrolled in the ESL program. The danger in conferencing with students enrolled in the ESL program is that these students would be seeking help with papers that are meant to develop their skill with English. If we assist in any way, we risk doing their work for them or worse yet, undoing all that their ESL teacher has taught them. If an ESL student comes to the Writing Center, we make certain that the assignment they are working on is not part of the ESL program before we begin conferencing. Other ESL Students: Those North Park ESL students who are not enrolled in the ESL program have either passed the classes or tested out, meaning that their English is advanced enough to enter mainstream English classes. These are the ESL students that the Writing Center works with through drop-in hours and/or Dialogue. In fact, a good percentage of the students who utilize the Writing Center’s drop-in hours are ESL students. ESL Class for Writing Advisors: A great deal of information was introduced to the Writing Advisors who participated in the ESL class. Some of the most pertinent information covered an introduction to cultural customs, as well as differences in languages and argument structure and helpful strategies for working with students who are not as grounded in their English skills as others. Most notably, the Writing Center often works with students who would be classified as Generation 1.5 students. These are students who were born and raised in the United States, but whose parents came from another country and speak a language other than English at home. The writing of these students often suffers because they aren’t taught the grammatical structures of their own language. Generation 1.5 students often write like they speak, resulting in difficulty with syntax and sentence structure. Understanding the needs of ESL students is a high priority for the North Park Writing Center, and we are always seeking to expand our department in that area.
Photography courtesy of Stephanie Leahy & Kathryn Sinor \| Designed by Marcus Simmons 2009 The Writing Center at North Park University \| 5114 N. Christiana \| Chicago, Illinois 60625-4895 \| (773) 244-4975