5 Reflect on Multilingual Tutoring
Effective multilingual tutoring requires thoughtful decision making. Reflecting on your practice and the language use decisions you make will help you to consider the effect of these choices on your tutoring sessions.
As a multilingual tutor, you will want to regularly reflect on your language use as a tutor. Consider the following questions:
- (1) How does my language use affect the rapport I am able to develop with a tutee? How can language be a tool for building a solid tutor-tutee relationship?
- (2) If a tutee is hesitant to use English in the L2 portions of the session, how do I encourage them to develop their language skills?
- (3) How do I use critical questioning to develop thinking skills? How do my language use choices promote deeper thinking processes?
- (4) Assess your language use throughout an entire session. How did your choices contribute to the success of the session? What would you do differently?
You may want to use a reflective learning cycle to guide your thinking and expression.
Cycle adapted from Gibbs, 1988
You may wish to watch the video below to learn more about how to use a reflective learning cycle in your practice.
In an action/ reflection learning cycle, you begin by focusing on an event that happened, considering your thoughts and feelings during and after the event.
You then move to evaluation and analysis, which allows you to incorporate theory you are learning into your understanding of your experience.
The final steps allow you to draw conclusions and consider alternative actions you could have taken, and to consider your future development. These final steps allow for deep learning that supports future growth and the application of insights to your professional practice.
