Like many of her international students, First Year Writing instructor and doctoral candidate Subarna Banerjee came to Temple from an academic background that provided no formal instruction in English composition.
“I had no clue that writing was an integral component of U.S. higher education,” said Banerjee, who was born and educated in India.
“In a way, I learned as my students did. I struggled with my literature reviews in my graduate courses, as my students struggled in their classes.”
On Friday, April 27, the First Year Writing program will host “Many Englishes,” a conference focused on the give and take relationship between ESL instructors and their students.
(Photo by Ryan S. Brandenberg / Temple University)
Subarna Banerjee, a First Year Writing instructor and doctoral candidate, helps international students improve their composition skills.
University of New Hampshire professors Paul Kei and Aya Matsuda will deliver a keynote presentation focused on promoting language diversity in the classroom and new research in second-language writing.
“Identifying and meeting the needs of our ESL population is important not just to ESL instruction but to the writing program as a whole,” said Christine Palumbo-DeSimone, First-Year Writing test coordinator, said. “We have come to realize that we cannot segregate the ESL writer's experience from our overall vision of what the first-year writing experience.”
The daylong conference begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Gittis Student Center North, on the second floor. Registration is $10 for faculty and free for full-time students. For more information, e-mail Jennifer Maloy at maloy@temple.edu.
