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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Christopher Leyland
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Routledge, 2020.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
To support international students using English as a second language, many universities now provide access to one-to-one writing tutorials with language teaching specialists. Although writing tutorials have become widespread, the current study is one of very few investigations into their interactional unfolding. This study examines advice giving as an interactional practice in 21 video recorded writing tutorials at a British university. Using Conversation Analysis and drawing upon Membership Categorisation Analysis, this study highlights two main contextual features of writing tutorials. First, advice is given in a context in which students can make use of two advising bodies for their studies; writing tutors and academic tutors. Second, although the writing tutors cannot give definitive advice on some issues raised by students and defer to their academic tutor, there still remains an interactional oppor- tunity to offer some alternative forms of support during the tutorial. This study will primarily focus on the writing tutors’ post-deferral sup- porting practices. Despite claims that the writing tutors’ lack of sub- ject-specific knowledge can lead to ineffective support, this study argues that writing tutorials with generalist language teaching special- ists are a valuable site for international students to develop institutional knowledge that can support effective contact with academic tutors.
Author(s): Leyland C
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Language and Education
Year: 2020
Volume: 34
Issue: 3
Pages: 212-230
Online publication date: 23/02/2020
Acceptance date: 12/10/2019
Date deposited: 14/02/2022
ISSN (print): 0950-0782
ISSN (electronic): 1747-7581
Publisher: Routledge
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2019.1682008
DOI: 10.1080/09500782.2019.1682008
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