Non-native speakers of English survey

Given that a whopping 47% of our sessions here at the SLCC Student Writing Center are with non-native speakers of English, I decided to conduct a survey of writing center folks on the listserv WCENTER to see how we compare to others around the world. Initial results indicate that the majority of respondents have similar non-native speaker statistics as SLCC. The few community college respondents seem to have even more. I am working with overall numbers from the last 2.5 years, however. Last year's usage was a whopping 61%. I think it has been up considerably over the last couple of years.

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Blogging It Up at WCJ

My colleagues Dawn Fels, Maggie Herb, Lila Naydan, and I have been asked to innagurate the Writing Center Journal's blog community series. We're writing about the working continditions of contingent writing center employees weekly during the month of February, 2016.

Peer Tutoring: The Essential Contact Zone

I recently had the honor of giving the keynote address at the 2013 South Central Writing Center Association's Annual Conference. Here is the text of the speech:

Keynote Address for the South Central Writing Centers Association Annual Conference February 21-23, 2013
Corpus Christi, Texas Clint Gardner
Salt Lake Community College Student Writing Center
PRE-INTRODUCTION
How many here are peer tutors?

How many here have been peer tutors?

Being the good writing center person that I am, I’m going to have you do a little writing first. Strange thing in a keynote address, I realize, but bear with me. “What are the most significant abilities, values, or skills that you developed in your work as a peer writing tutor?”
Peer Tutoring: The Writing Center's Essential Contact Zone
INTRODUCTION
Today I want to talk about why I think Peer Tutoring is the essential contact zone for a writing center. By contact zone I mean the place where learning happens, in all its glory: learning about wri…

Keynote Address for the Middle Eastern & North African Writing Centers Alliance Conference

Sustaining Writing & Writing Centers Adapting & Growing Under Challenging Conditions

November 7, 2014 Canadian University of Dubai
Thank you and good afternoon.
I've been told by very reliable sources (students) that funny cat videos get people’s attention and help you make new friends. Since I want to do both, here goes nothing.

But if that didn’t get your attention, here’s another one.

Sorry for that.
But I did get your attention, right? Getting the attention of people isn't always the easiest thing to do. I think we know that as teachers.
In the classroom, I find that starting with writing tends to get everyone’s attention, and gets them focussed on the subject matter In the spirit of engaging you with my subject matter this afternoon, like the inveterate teacher of writing that I am, I’m going to have you do a bit of writing. About a month or so ago, I was chatting online with my writing center colleague Dawn Fels, who you may remember served as the Internatio…

Clint Gardner

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