Tutor Perceptions of a University Writing Centre’s Program of Skills Development for Supporting Multilingual Students using English as an Additional Language

Abstract

With growing numbers of multilingual students who have first or primary languages other than English seeking the services of Canadian university writing centres where English is the language of instruction, providing these students with supportive and effective teaching and learning experiences is an important part of their post-secondary education. However, little research has been carried out to examine the impact of writing centre tutor skill development programs to foster meaningful teaching and learning experiences for multilingual students. This qualitative study employed focus group research methods to gather the writing centre tutors’ shared perceptions of their skill development opportunities for working with multilingual students. Data were coded and analyzed using a thematic approach. Findings point to multilingual student expectations, tutoring challenges, program effectiveness, and program applicability as elements that impact the tutors’ overall impressions of the skill development opportunities they encountered. While there were still areas for improvement, implementing a program of skill development for working with multilingual students in a writing centre was generally beneficial for the tutors in this study.