Blog Post #1 -- The Prospect of Class-Based Conversations:

When I was reading the final blog posts of last year’s conversation facilitators, one idea really caught my attention: the issue of learning in a non-native language. I have been in several foreign language classes and have always struggled with losing the train of conversation or the professor’s lecturing topic, so I understand how frustrating it must be for international students who cannot keep up with the discussion. I conducted one tutorial in the Writing Center where an ESL student had to write a brief analysis of an article in the Wall Street Journal. She found that she could not even start writing because she, through no fault of her own, had no idea what the article was actually about. A few unfamiliar words can make a piece of writing or a speech completely incomprehensible. And often it is impossible to stop the flow of a class to ask important clarifying questions. So, what is an international student to do? Could we, as conversational facilitators help in any way? Perhaps, we could encourage students to write down words or phrases that they have encountered and bring them to the conversation circle. These confusions could actually act as jumping-off points for wider conversations, especially if a few students are in the same class. On the other hand, it might be pernicious to bring academia into the conversation circle arena. It could turn a supposedly stress-less environment into another part of “school.” I guess that is my ultimate question: How connected will our conversations be with academics at Michigan? To what extent can we escape or embrace our place within a place of higher education?