The B+ allowed Maria to enroll in First Year Seminar (FYS) in the spring term. On the first day, her professor, Dr. Clarkson, handed out a 12-page syllabus for the course. Students were required to write three 10-page essays and read five books during the term.
The learning goals and objectives of FYS were listed on the syllabus as follows:
At the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Participate more fully in the rigors of collegiate academics
- Appreciate the value of in-depth exploration from several disciplinary perspectives
- Read college-level texts with increasing confidence
- Engage in intensive critical thinking and writing
- Understand the composition process
- Compose effective academic essays
Maria left that first class meeting shaking. This was not the atmosphere she had come to associate with a writing class. The next meeting, Maria sat as far back in the room as she could and reverted to her silent mode. Everyone in the class seemed to speak fluent, native-sounding English. Professor Clarkson kept emphasizing the rigors of the college-level material they would cover, and how this class was not going to be a repeat of high school. She assigned a four-page summary and critique of an essay by Julia Kristeva entitled “Toccata and Fugue for the Foreigner.”
“Was Dr. Clarkson trying to tell me something?” Maria thought. That she was still a foreigner in this country? That she wasn’t bilingual, wasn’t a native speaker of English? Maria took the plunge and wrote about her own experiences coming to the U.S. and graduating from last term’s developmental course. The paper was returned with a big “See Me” across the top. Dr. Clarkson told Maria she shouldn’t be in this class, that she should have registered for WS 01. And, she added, was Maria signed up for ESL tutoring? Maria burst into tears.
Question 5—What was the disconnect between a B+ in a skills course and potential failure in a college-level course?
Dr. Clarkson checked Maria’s transcript and was very concerned that this student, so weak in writing and reading skills, not to mention critical thinking, received a B+ in WS 01. She went to the Writing Center and spoke to the director, Dr. Marc. While Dr. Marc was new to the college, he already saw the problems with the pre-credit courses. There weren’t enough of them to have a year-long sequence; moreover, there was no exit exam to ensure preparation for the credit-bearing First Year Seminar, little supervision of the adjuncts, and no uniformity of the syllabi. He sympathized with Maria’s plight and offered to sign her up with a tutor every week for the term. Dr. Clarkson accepted this solution as reasonable, and Maria agreed to attend tutoring.
The next writing assignment for the seminar class was a difficult one: read two essays concerning whether professors should express opinions in the classroom, one written from the point of view of “neutral teaching” and one from an advocate of passionate teaching. Write a five-page paper comparing and contrasting the viewpoints. Dr. Clarkson gave Maria an extra week to do this assignment and work with the tutor.
When the paper was handed in, Dr. Clarkson was even more concerned. This was not Maria’s writing. Clearly, the tutor had done most of the work on this paper. Another “See Me” on the paper brought Maria to Dr. Clarkson’s office. While the professor didn’t accuse Maria of plagiarism or wrong-doing, she did ask how the tutoring sessions were structured. Maria would talk aloud her ideas and the tutor would translate them into writing. Then the tutor would read the passage back to Maria to ensure that was what Maria meant.
Besides the actual language not being Maria’s, the paper was mainly a summary of the two articles. The critical thinking was weak, with almost no argumentation and clear comparison or contrast between the authors’ viewpoints. Dr. Clarkson could not give the paper a passing grade.
Now, instead of tears, Maria got very angry. She had put in so much time and work; she had done what everyone told her to do. Yet, she was still failing. Her other classes weren’t as difficult. Partly, this was because she again encountered multiple choice and fill-in tests. Dr. Clarkson was the only professor who demanded such work from her.
She was also still insulted by a question Dr. Clarkson had asked her early in the semester: “When did you start learning English?” And the suggestion that Maria enroll in ESL classes. Perhaps she was being discriminated against because of her accent. Maria decided to complain.
Question 6—Was Professor Clarkson’s response to Maria’s problems appropriate? Did it take cultural diversity into consideration?
Question 7—What can instructors do to help students like Maria who have difficulty with academic language/writing skills?
Originally published at http://www.sciencecases.org/bilingualism/case3.asp
Copyright © 1999–2010 by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. Please see our usage guidelines, which outline our policy concerning permissible reproduction of this work.
