ESL students are an integral part of the community at the College of Wooster and subsequently, ESL resources are an integral part of the college's Program in Writing.
The Writing Center is one of the most accessible, comprehensive resources for ESL students on campus. At the Writing Center, students can receive one-on-one writing support from helpful, experienced staff. Jenny Derksen is the Writing Center's resident ESL writing expert and several peer writing tutors on the Center's staff have extensive training and experience in assisting ESL student writers.
In addition to her work at the Writing Center, Jenny Derksen (JDerksen@wooster.edu) also conducts a weekly ESL Study Table where students can come together to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their writing and can receive informal, self-directed assistance both from Jenny and from one another. This is the perfect opportunity for students whose first language is not English to come together and explore writing and academic issues typically faced by ESL students and to talk with one another about how to combat these issues.
In addition to on-campus resources, ESL students are encouraged to take advantage of many online resources designed specifically to meet their particular writing needs. The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University offers an extensive, comprehensive collection of ESL resources, all available online (games, workshops, lessons, message boards, etc). Different resources will prove beneficial to different learners, but we've highlighted just a few here to get you started:
- UsingEnglish is user-friendly and includes a wide array of glossaries and quizzes designed to help you through some of the messier areas of grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation.
- Abroad Languages offers free online English games such as word searches and crossword puzzles designed specifically to help ESL students practice their English skills.
- English Consultor distributes a free weekly email newsletter to ESL students that includes articles on grammar and vocabulary, interesting and informative articles, and questions/answers submitted by readers of the newsletter.
