4. Language First
If you've left your country to come to school in the United States, particularly if you have come here to attend college, you were probably confronted with a shocking realization: The English courses you took back home did not prepare you for the writing (and perhaps reading) assigned to you at college here. After taking a timed placement exam, you may have found
yourself in a special writing course for students whose first language isn't English. Or you may have ended up in a freshman writing course with peers who are all native English speakers but who can't write in English as well as you can write in your first language.
There are many foreign students in similar predicaments across the country. Researchers estimate that by the year 2000, ESL (English as a Second Language) students will make up more than 25% of the college student population; colleges in some large cities have already reached this percentage. Teacher education programs are beginning to realize the importance of understanding how to address the needs of students like you, and special ESL courses are being developed to meet these needs.
But this is small consolation to you, as you try to understand just what it is that you're doing wrong when you write. Some of your teachers will correct all your grammatical errors before returning a paper to you; others will fill the margins with question marks implying your language was too confusing for them to understand at all; still others will just write a note at the top of the first page: "See me after class. You need help!"
Try not to be discouraged by the responses you get from your teachers (and from your peers). Read between the lines to get to the basic message, which is: You're intelligent, you just need to learn more English so that your readers can understand what you're trying to say.
Actually, you may need to learn more than just the language to be an effective writer. The writing style you developed in your f
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