Monica Broido

In a writing center, the relationship between writers and tutors is crucial to creating the necessary connection and trust for the work to be effective. We propose framing the writer-tutor relationship as a Working Alliance, which according to Larose et al. (2010) is "likely to facilitate interpersonal engagement and collaboration" and is composed of three key elements: (1) bonding, (2) goals, and (3) tasks. To examine whether this model can be applied to writing center relationships, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 24 writers and seven tutors in our university writing center. The results revealed that all three components must be present for the interaction to be effective. Additionally, we found that this framework can serve not only as a diagnostic tool for understanding the dynamics of the relationship and for early detection of potential problems, but also as a powerful pedagogical tool for training prospective tutors.

In today's global society, a majority of academic writers come from diverse linguistic backgrounds, where English is an additional language. Publishing in most academic journals, however, is governed by native-English norms. As instructors and tutors guiding novice plurilingual writers through these conventions so that their papers meet publishing standards, we feel that their voices and styles get lost in the process, and fear that the academic and scientific community may be losing out when these writers' work is not accepted. To understand how plurilingual novice writers experience writing for publication, we conducted in-depth interviews, followed by a content analysis of the interviews, which revealed recurring themes relating to barriers and gains from writing in English. We present these along with exemplary quotes from the respondents. Additionally, we examine the ways in which the publication world is changing and how these changes can aid novice writers, as well as...

Increasingly, professionally-oriented tertiary institutions are concerned with equipping their students with the English language skills needed in today’s global professional world. The recently extended 2018 Common European Framework (CEFR) provides useful guidance to help institutions develop curricula to achieve this goal. This paper describes an advanced English for Economics course, whose aim is to facilitate economics students’ traversal from student to professional, in terms of English can-dos (mostly B2–C1), as described in the 2018 CEFR Companion Volume. The pedagogy informing the course is three-pronged, drawing on English for Specific Purposes, twenty-first century skills, and the CEFR. We show how analysing such a course through the CEFR can help devise an anticipated learning trajectory for economics students about to enter the professional world. Our analysis highlights the fact that even though the newly extended CEFR does mention plurilingualism in the mediation can-...

In today's global society, a majority of academic writers come from diverse linguistic backgrounds, where English is an additional language. Publishing in most academic journals, however, is governed by native-English norms. As instructors and tutors guiding novice plurilingual writers through these conventions so that their papers meet publishing standards, we feel that their voices and styles get lost in the process, and fear that the academic and scientific community may be losing out when these writers' work is not accepted. To understand how plurilingual novice writers experience writing for publication, we conducted in-depth interviews, followed by a content analysis of the interviews, which revealed recurring themes relating to barriers and gains from writing in English. We present these along with exemplary quotes from the respondents. Additionally, we examine the ways in which the publication world is changing and how these changes can aid novice writers, as well as consider ways in which academic writing boundaries can become more elastic and inclusive.