Kory will resist the temptation to make a testicles joke… barely.

BALLS!!!

But really. I’m not trying to pull a cop out by basing my blog around the clearest part of the Russell article. I legitimately found his ball-playing analogy great. I mean, of course when you put it that way, the idea that there is no such thing as “writing [as] an autonomous skill” becomes so much clearer! Well done, Russell!

“Learning to write means learning to write in the ways (genres) those in an activity system write…”

So, for better or worse, this was made even more evident to me during my last tutoring session at the ESL center. Multiple students came in asking for help with a business assignment in which they were asked to write a business memo to their supervisor explaining why X, Y, and Z were the best choices for a business endeavor.

Ball-handling skill #1) As students, they had questions about using MLA format and how/when/where to cite articles required to support their suggestions. It’s a general academic skill that many students are just asked to “figure out”. Maybe they’re given a link to the Purdue Owl website.

Mediational Mean: Ok, but this also depends on the teacher. How strict are they? What exactly are the expectations? One professor asked for the articles attached as word docs as well as the citations. In my TIL program, we’re supposed to write using APA format, but most of my professors wanted our papers single-spaced. None of them minded if the papers were double-sided. Only a few cared about a cover page. Rules are made to have exceptions, I suppose.

Ball-handling skill #2) Now here is the one that gave me an “Ah-Ha!”/”Oh no…” moment. One of the students showed me a copy of his teacher’s rubric. It had lovely sentences about how the memo/paper should sound professional, be clear and concise, flow naturally, and have enough supporting evidence.

Mediational Mean: Now… a student with previous knowledge of how to write a memo and who has had English as their first language might find these guidelines sufficient. ESL students… not so much.

Cultural differences are a huge factor is what “professional” even is. Here’s a fascinating link (at least I think so) to a series of charts of how negotiations “should” be run around the world. Take a quick look at the American and the Korean. My students happened to be Korean. See the problem?

http://www.businessinsider.com/communication-charts-around-the-world-2014-3

Now, let’s say they understand how to organize their thoughts in an “American business” way. There’s still the language gap. I sympathized with them SO MUCH while I explained how “a lot” is better than “lots”, but not as good as “several”. I struggled to explain why “we will try” is a phrase to avoid in a business memo… even if that’s exactly what will happen. “Try” is no bueno. Better to sound assured and confident; “we will” (even if we won’t).

As for clear, concise, and flowy… who decides something like that? News flash: as an ESL student, none of this is probably completely clear, concise, or flowy to them, so they are trying their best to bullshit it!

The same goes for evidence. Based on background knowledge, enough “supporting evidence” differs. If I wrote a paper for this class referencing the need for teachers right now, I might not need to cite any specific article because it’s pretty much general knowledge for us. If I mentioned that to an electrical engineer, they might ask how I know that it’s true. I found it difficult to give sufficient help because they were writing business information and I wasn’t sure what the general pool of knowledge was for them. I’m not part of the Business Activity System.

Ball-handling skill #3) My student was very concerned with making sure his memo sounded “good”. He even had me read an example of a past memo by one of the other students in the class (who was obviously a native English speaker). He proceeded to tell me that he wanted his paper to sound like this one… but obviously not like this one since the subject matter was different and we kinda frown on plagiarism.

Mediational Mean: Even the title of his memo was difficult because when your language skills are limited, it’s hard to make the same thing sound different. For example, tell me other ways to say, “The box is red.” As native speakers, we might come up with “The cube is scarlet.” “The package is crimson.” “The container is vermilion.” You get the idea. BUT FOREIGN STUDENTS DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO THAT! AND EVEN IF THEY HAVE SOME IDEA, THEY’RE AFRAID OF GETTING IT WRONG! God forbid, they try to say the “The parcel is wine” instead of wine-colored because it changes the meaning completely!

My point is this:

There are very specific ball-skills needed in the real world and a lot of students are lacking in both the skills and the tools needed to succeed. I am not trying to criticize the business professors, but it worries me that they probably haven’t ever taken a class on teaching, much less teaching ESL students. It takes a lot of awareness to see how large the skills/tools gap is for many of the ESL community at Chico State and unlike children, the negative consequences are big and wear on them. These students might just give up on the idea of walking and that’s not ok.