Observation

I'm off for a weekend with no internet at the parents' house (I'd trade internet for Spud Day any day!), so I won't get a chance to talk about what happens when I'm in the Writing Center tomorrow since I'm leaving right afterward.  Fortunately, though, I did get a chance to observe a consultation on Tuesday.

I had been chilling on the couch for about 20 minutes, time well spent going page-by-page through that giant book about giant buildings with Crystal (she was killing time after an hour-long appointment was a no-show).  Soon, though, a man walked in and said, "I need an appointment."  The person at the desk walked him through the registration process and when the time came to make his appointment, Crystal volunteered because of her no-show.  She eyed me and said, "Want to observe?"  I said, "YES."  I was a bit antsy since I didn't get a chance to do an observation last week.

The writer was an ELL student, though it took me a while to decide for sure whether he was.  His accent was very good, and his writing was impressive.  He had some awesomely poetic metaphors in his writing, but the one problem he had issues with was deciding which articles to use where.  On about the 4th "This should probably be 'an' instead of 'the'" from Crystal, she asked,  "What's your native language?"  "Korean," he answered.  "Alright, does Korean have articles?  I'm picking up that you're not sure where to put them.  It's hard because sometimes there's no set rule."  I couldn't hear what he responded, because he said it very quietly, but Crystal launched into a little lesson on which articles are used when, using his own sentences for examples.  He did a lot better after that, often correcting his own mistakes when he heard them read out loud.

The body language was interesting.  I always like to pay attention to body language.  At the beginning, Crystal asked if he wanted to read out loud or if he wanted her to.  He said, "....you can do it."  Crystal started reading, pencil in hand like a good English major, and the writer's pencil lay inert on the table.  I had my eye on that pencil, because I wanted him to pick it up and start making his own corrections.  Eventually, Crystal stopped, picked up that sad pencil and handed it to the writer, saying, "you can write stuff too, if you want."  Needing no further permission, he slid his orange paper towards him, turned it over, and started jotting down notes on the back.  I was satisfied.

About 3 pages into his essay, he stopped Crystal mid-sentence and blurted, "Do you have to read the whole thing out loud? I feel bad."  Crystal said, "well, I want you to be involved in the corrections we make.  Otherwise, it ends up being what I would write instead of what you would."  He mumbled something about how "this is different from the Writing Center in Tennessee."

One of the things that made me suppress a chuckle was when we got into the "he or she" vs. "they" situation.  I never thought about trying to explain this phenomenon to a non-native speaker, but Crystal smoothed it over pretty well.  "But, I thought 'they' was more than one person."  "It is, but you can also use it when you're talking about....like, a hypothetical person." He seemed to accept that explanation and they moved on.

At the end, Crystal seemed irritated with herself for spending so much time on grammar.  With five minutes left, she started quizzing him about the assignment, making sure he'd fulfilled it.  When she'd clarified, she wrapped up the consultation with some advice on how to proceed with the structure and subject matter of his essay, and the consultation ended.


I think I would have spent less time on grammar.  The writer had a couple problems with phrasing, but really the only repeated issue was the one with articles.  I think I would have stopped with that mini lesson and then started talking about other things much earlier (It didn't help Crystal, of course, that she only had a 1/2 hour appointment for a 5-page paper).

That's all for now!