Blog Post 3


I am a rhetoric instructor, and last semester I had an international student in my class. As discussed in “Crossing Cultures,” one of my assigned writing assignments posed a problem for the international student. The assignment asked students to analyze representations of gender and sexuality in a text of their choice. The student reported to me that he felt pressure to pick a text that was U.S. related. He also explained that it was more difficult for him to discern the gender representations in American texts. I explained that he did not need to pick a text that was American, but he did anyway. As a first-time instructor, it did not occur to me that my seemingly straightforward assignment could pose so many difficulties for some of my students. The difficultly of the assignment was compounded by the fact that the student felt like it was hard to connect with other students in the class and to understand the course material because of cultural differences and a lack of familiarity with American culture. “Crossing Cultures” points out many important ways that a writing tutor can mitigate these issues by providing an international student with cultural context and explaining speaking and writing mechanics that natives take for granted.

Comments

  1. Joseph JalinskyFebruary 5, 2019 at 8:33 AM

    I think this highlights a frustration I have with myself when I find that a student missed a critical component of an assignment after the fact when I have already collected the assignment. It can be hard to foresee some unintentional problems a student might have especially those involving cultural barriers. To rectify this I generally try to make myself as open as possible (extended office hours, meeting after class, etc.) and ask the students to let me know if there is any ambiguity in the assignment. As a tutor one technique I will try is to have students tell me what they think the assignment is asking for before we dig in.

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