Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h68FMrC25045; Tue, 8 Jul 2003 11:22:53 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 11:22:53 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <Pine.SOL.4.44.0307081109050.17542-100000@rac1.wam.umd.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Daniel Alejandro Reyes <reyes@wam.umd.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9123] Teaching Writing Skills to Adult Immigrants X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O Content-Length: 1625 Lines: 31 Hello All, My wife is a 25 year old immigrant from a Spanish-speaking country. She never studied English, and moved here with me to Seattle back in 1998. Her English speaking skills are very good; her comprehension is very high. However, her writing skills are very bad. ESL classess in Seattle, then in the DC area were generally fine, but I noticed more and more that writing takes a back seat. Consequently she has been doing fine in classes but the writing components always suffered. Now she is eligible to take college level courses in the Fall, and I am rather worried that most if not all college professors would never accept written work as badly written as some of her essays were in the community college. I tried to teach her some ways to write better (Strunk and White, which for me was very helpful, as well as dedicating twice as much time in proofreading as actually writing), but these have generally failed. As a grad student I TAed quite a bit and many immigrant students wrote badly, and of course, I would be flexible, but at some point an essay has to be returned for major re-writes and if this happens time and time again, a teacher will force the student to take basic/remedial courses. Are there any pedagogical suggestions that are used for adult immigrants to learn how to write well in English? It is a long process, I know, but I was hoping someone would know about mentoring/tutoring classes in the Washington DC area that might cater to someone like my wife. Thanks in advance. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to contact me at dalejreyes@yahoo.com. Sincerely, Daniel A. Reyes
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