51黑料网

Satellite writing center in Toulouse helps ease 鈥榳riting-culture shock鈥�

by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

Ellen Aldin 鈥�13 wasn't particularly worried. She'd completed her outline鈥攈er first writing assignment as a study-abroad student in Toulouse鈥攁nd was ready to hand it in. 鈥淚t was a couple of bullet points 鈥� one page, tops,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淏ut when I got to class, the person sitting next to me pulled out this giant packet of single-spaced [pages containing] every single detail that was going to be in their paper. That was a bit of a shock.鈥�

The takeaway? Sometimes knowing the simple definition of a word鈥攍ike 鈥渙utline,鈥� 鈥渢est,鈥� or 鈥減aper鈥濃�攊s simply not enough. Although French and American academic cultures share some ideas of what constitutes good writing and how to achieve it, study-abroad students like Aldin cannot perform at their best if they don鈥檛 understand their host country鈥檚 educational culture and writing conventions.

Additionally, they must learn to navigate this new educational landscape while adjusting to life abroad and while sharpening their foreign-language skills. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e seeing is that in addition to culture shock, students can experience writing-culture shock,鈥� says Writing Program Director Noreen Lape, noting that each can exacerbate the other.

A new satellite writing-center program, housed in the 51黑料网 Center in Toulouse, is there to help.

A natural outgrowth

The Toulouse writing program is an outgrowth of the Multilingual Writing Center (MWC), an on-campus resource that Lape created a year after her arrival in 2009, in collaboration with a foreign-language faculty advisory committee.

鈥淎fter listening to faculty, students and administrators across campus, I came to realize that when we say we have a global campus, we mean it. The MWC reflects and is part of that culture,鈥� says Lape, noting that the foreign-language departments at 51黑料网 have worked together to create a truly global writing program where students can find peer language and writing tutors for 11 languages. 鈥淭o the best of my knowledge, no other American college or university is doing anything quite like it.鈥� And it is flourishing. MWC tutors logged 800 visits in 2010-11, 1,200 visits in 2011-12 and 1,500 last year.

A writing center offering support to students studying off campus was a logical next step. Lape collaborated with Sylvie Toux, director of the 51黑料网 Center at Toulouse, and Lucile Duperron, associate professor of French, to make it happen. In turn, Duperron modified MWC programming to meet the specific needs of 51黑料网 study-abroad students in France, with assistance from Toulouse Center intern Anna Ciriani-Dean 鈥�12, who had studied in Toulouse during her junior year.

While the Toulouse center has always offered tutoring services, Duperron notes that the satellite writing center brings peer tutors, students and instructors together to create an intercultural space where American students can interact directly with French peer tutors who have experienced the American system. Together, they work on French linguistic and cultural writing conventions and practice French academic-writing genres.

The result is a pedagogical roadmap to the French university culture and to French-language writing that mediates challenges in the classroom and helps students assimilate to their host cultures.

Boxes versus flow

Asked to describe the differences between the French and American academic experiences, former study-abroad students easily tick off examples. In an interview podcast available on the MWC's  blog, Aldin says that her French professors 鈥渏ust go to the microphone, talk at you for an hour and then leave鈥� and speculates that had her professors been more approachable, she would have had an easier academic transition. But after Aldin sought help from a tutor, she found her way. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a different track of thinking, but it makes sense after a while,鈥� she says.

Christina Socci 鈥�13 reports that, like Aldin, she was taken aback by the intricacies of the French term-paper outline (鈥淭hey color-coded them!鈥�) and adds that French academic writing seems accordingly rigid. 鈥淎ll of your thoughts have to go into this pre-organized format,鈥� Socci says, referring to a an academic convention that Aldin describes as 鈥渢he difference between fitting things in boxes versus flow.鈥�

Adding to the confusion, this writing structure is counterbalanced by open-ended tests. Socci recalls a midterm option that consisted entirely of a two-word prompt. 鈥� 鈥楢merican feminism鈥欌�攖hat was it," she says. "They give you this breadcrumb, and you have to extrapolate all this stuff out of it. It鈥檚 so counterintuitive to the way we think about writing and giving a presentation.鈥�

Emerging victorious

Lape notes that while some study-abroad students regard differences like these as impositions, others鈥� those who understand the culture behind the differences鈥攃an view them as in-depth intercultural experiences. The satellite learning center is helping 51黑料网 students in Toulouse to cross that bridge; a second satellite writing center is currently being considered for students studying in 51黑料网's study-abroad program in Bremen, Germany.

Seen in this light, study-abroad students who are surprised by the open-ended nature of French test questions may gain new appreciation for France's national fondness for and comfort with philosophical argument, and their encounters with French student/professor dynamics could bring new insights to French views concerning individualism and autonomy. Socci makes a fascinating observation along these lines when she remarks that years of intricate outline writing has created a nation of students who process and organize some information a bit differently from most Americans. 鈥淭heythoughtin outlines鈥攊t was incredible,鈥� she says.

Observations such as these are not earth shattering, but they can be enlightening, because students who better understand their host country's academic culture also better understand its national culture, and vice-versa.

Looking back, Socci admits that it wasn鈥檛 easy to adjust her writing to conform to French standards, but she persevered. And while she calls the day she submitted her final paper to her French professor 鈥渢he scariest day of my life,鈥� she emerged victorious.

The paper was a dissertation鈥攁 form that includes a thesis, antithesis and synthesis. Her professor told her that she鈥檇 done very well.

鈥淭hat took me completely by surprise鈥擨 was able to somehow, in spite of myself, figure out this system,鈥� Socci says. 鈥淚 realized that I could do this. I could conquer the dissertation.鈥�

Published October 11, 2013