Estela Ene and Raeeka Sadri, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Introduction

Language learning takes time and resources. Even on campuses that have an English language program, students need support beyond the classroom. The number of hours spent in class may be too limited, the teachers’ attention divided among too many students, and the environment too public to meet students’ needs. A tutoring center is a necessary resource to offer students the additional support they need to develop as language learners and function well in U.S. academia.

This article describes the rationale and process of developing an ESL Tutoring Center affiliated with the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Program at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). We provide tips for tutoring online, based on our experience tutoring during the COVID-19 crisis and the belief that online tutoring will remain a part of our activities moving forward.

Rationale for a Tutoring Center

The decision to supplement EAP courses with tutoring services was based on feedback from EAP and other IUPUI instructors. At faculty meetings, EAP instructors had been reporting that class time was not enough to respond to their students’ needs. They pointed out that it would be beneficial to the students to hear explanations, receive feedback, and practice language with more people besides instructors and peers. Although IUPUI has a writing center which had been dedicating more than half of its appointments to international students, students were reporting that they needed more appointments than the writing center could allow. More importantly, there were needs that no other student service on campus was providing: for example, grammar and speaking practice. Informally and through a program review, other campus faculty had provided feedback that non-EAP international students would benefit from tutoring as well.

Based on that feedback, the ESL Tutoring Center started functioning in the fall 2016 semester, when it operated as a pilot, serving only EAP students for 10 hours per week, with a TESOL graduate student working as a tutor under the supervision of the EAP director. The tutor created an ad which was distributed in paper and electronic format to EAP students and teachers. She visited the EAP courses to present the center. The director created an electronic resource folder where she, the tutor, and other EAP instructors began organizing articles and book chapters on best practices in tutoring as well as EAP course materials that could be of use to the tutor and students during sessions. Appointments were made via the center’s email account and a sign-up form in the EAP office. Sessions were held in the meeting/library room of the EAP office. The tutor was closely guided by the director via regular and ad-hoc meetings. The associate director of the program and class instructors also checked in as needed. Record keeping of attendance and feedback began immediately.

One of the main goals of the center is to offer wide support for a number of skills. This is different from the typical writing-focused tutoring center one can find on most U.S. campuses (see the 2004 special issue on writing centers of the Journal of Second Language Writing). Thus, students were assisted with understanding assignment requirements, as well as being provided help with readings, oral presentations, pronunciation, grammar, editing, and brainstorming for any type of assignment. Some EAP instructors began requiring that students attend tutoring sessions.

Attendance at the center grew over time. Based on demand, services were open to non-EAP international students at the graduate and undergraduate level, and online tutoring was introduced in 2016, for a total of 20 hours per week. A TESOL graduate student and/or adjunct faculty served as tutors. Three to five hours per week were open for online tutoring using the videoconferencing tools built into the learning management system supported by the institution (OnCourse and then Canvas). Attendance was stable during the COVID-19 crisis, although operations had to transition fully online in Spring 2020 due to closures. Many students left the U.S. in Spring 2020, and many students who were newly admitted in Fall 2020 were attending IUPUI classes from abroad. Even so, the number of online tutoring sessions were unexpectedly high in Fall 2020. The table below shows attendance at the center in number of sessions per semester. Some individuals attended the center multiple times per week, reaching their limit of three forty-five-minute sessions each week. In Fall 2019, the center began offering group conversation sessions.

Table 1. Tutoring Sessions 2016-2020

The second part of our article focuses on tips for online tutoring based primarily on the experience gained during the COVID-19 crisis.

Tips for Online Tutoring

1. Learn about the Platform

Before starting any online instruction, it is vital for tutors to familiarize themselves with the platform they will use by participating in training webinars or watching recorded tutorials that their institution may offer. At IUPUI, University Information Technology Services (UITS) has recorded webinars and offers individual or group training for faculty and students. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) also began a series of technology-related workshops after the pandemic hit, in addition to Indiana University’s series called “Keep Teaching” which offers resources including webinars on how to teach more effectively online. Alternatively, online video meeting platforms, such as Zoom or Google Meet, have free training webinars or videos that tutors can easily access and also recommend to their students. The more students and tutors know about the platform they are using, the better their e-learning experience.

2. Tutor about Language and the Platform

ESL students commonly struggle with finding their way around learning management systems (LMS), such as Canvas or Blackboard. Hence, navigating the LMS can be one of the main activities tutors help with. The advantage of a shared screen on a video meeting platform, such as Zoom, is that students can take charge of the exercise by leading the steps using the shared screen. The tutor can give the students directions or elicit information and predictions about next steps and let the students navigate the site. In addition to supporting the students’ need to learn about the learning platform, which they need to be familiar with for all of their classes, this activity also involves using one’s reading and listening comprehension skills and can be expanded to digital literacy activities.

3. Engage: Students Share, Tutors Annotate

One of the most helpful features of Zoom or other online video meeting platforms that can greatly enhance an online tutoring session is the annotate option. If students share their screen, the tutor can choose annotate in the drop-down menu and use drawings, text boxes and other features to mark their work. The main benefit is that the students are fully engaged and focused. They cannot passively listen and hope that their work will be edited for them. Annotating allows tutors to better fulfill their role as a facilitator who lets students take control of their own learning.

4. Record Sessions

Recording sessions is not only an excellent way to save the tutorial for students as a reference source, it can also be an excellent reference for tutors and their records. Naturally, student consent needs to be obtained before recording. In addition, recordings can be used for self-observation and professional development purposes.

5. Take and Save Notes

The chat feature can augment online tutoring sessions, whether it is used to post the session agenda or take discussion notes. The chat notes can keep the students focused on what is being discussed and can serve as time-saving notes for the tutors who need to write reports of the sessions but cannot do it immediately after each session. Just remember to “Save Chat” each time or turn on the automatic save chat in setting in order not to lose your valuable notes.

6. Keep Track of Feedback

The importance of feedback in second language acquisition is well known, and timely, direct feedback, which does not raise the learner’s affective filter, is effective (Ellis, 2009). A method we found useful in our tutoring is to take notes for delayed feedback. This way, students are not interrupted while they speak and the tutors will not forget their comments. When online, notes can be taken in a document, such as Google Docs, that allows users to simultaneously work on the same document, while the student is speaking, without sharing the screen. This allows the conversation to continue as naturally as possible. When it is time for feedback, the tutor can share the document with the student and encourage them to self-correct. This discussion is a great opportunity for the tutor to make suggestions about vocabulary, pronunciation, or grammatical points. In addition, the notes can be saved and reviewed after a few sessions to look for patterns in the students’ performance and development.

Conclusions

The ESL Tutoring Center at IUPUI has been able to support many ESL students since fall 2015 and was able to adapt to unique circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The adaptations described above enrich e-learning in our center and program, and hopefully, through this article, will do the same in other ESL tutoring centers.

References

Ellis, R. (2009). Corrective feedback and teacher development. L2 Journal, 1, 3–18. Indiana University. Keep Teaching. Retrieved January 1, 2021 from https://keepteaching.iu.edu