ESL with Arabic and Japanese Students

In a sports game, you only have so much time on the clock, your actions directly affect the people you are working with and overall, what you want is to succeed. Therefore, knowing what the weak spot is of the person charging towards you gives you an unparalleled advantage that can allow you to succeed and succeed well. Similarly, as the article, “Influence of cultural and linguistic background on the writing of Arabic and Japanese students of English” by Bouchra Moujtahid explores, having previous knowledge of the ESL student’s anticipated weakness before a consultation can allow you to have the most effective session possible. Moujtahid narrows in on the examples of both Arabic and Japanese students to highlight the ways in which the lessons, rules and guidelines of one’s native language and culture directly affect the ways in which he or she write.

Having worked directly with several Japanese and Arabic students, I have found that Moujtahid’s experiences are not only similar to my own, but that his conclusions posses crucial information that could have been pivotal to my sessions. I think for any consultant, acknowledging that the student being helped is not stupid, lazy or wrong, but is just following different rules, allows the consultant and the tutor to work more cohesively together. Moujtahid emphasizes this saying, “the difference between their native language and the language they are trying to learn are the cause for most errors.” Understanding this then allows the tutor to not only address the problem as it pertains to the paper, but the root of it as well. As a result, “knowing certain mistakes a student is more likely if they come from a particular country can help make you more aware.” It is only after an interaction such as this that a student can learn to fix these mistakes on his or her own in the future. I think it can often be lost during consultations that the sessions themselves are not just for one paper, but serve as learning environment as well, teaching students how to be stronger writers across the board.

A few weeks ago, I was helping a man from Egypt studying English who was clearly struggling with many of the same issues Moutahid details in his article. He had a tendency to smile, nod and remain positive even when he did understand a particular lesson. As a result, we would move forward only to realize he wasn’t soaking in what we were doing. Within his writing, he liked to repeat himself over and over, even if the claim he was making in one sentence had previously been made and was by no means furthering his argument. The article addresses this very issue saying, “Arabs tend towards exaggeration, emotionalism, overstatement and what is sometimes called “‘purple prose.’” Understanding that this is the case makes it much easier to not only be prepared for such repetition, but to explain to a student how it becomes distracting to a western reader. At the time, I was a little lost as to what to do. He was clearly nervous and I didn’t want to further embarrass him by suggesting lots of changes and left the session unsure of how useful I had been. Thinking back, I think if I understood Moujtahid’s idea that, ““In Arabic writing “there is a greater emphasis upon the form of the expression than upon the content which is being expressed,”’ I would have known to specifically address issues concerning structure in western writing that could have helped to reduce his repetition.

Recently, I have also worked with a Japanese student who I have previously mentioned in my blog. Reading this article’s commentary that Japanese feel that other forms of communication are “more sincere than language” and therefore, find it necessary to convey their meaning in another way, was very interesting. I very much found this to be the case, as there were times when quotes were placed randomly without analysis, explanations, transitions and ties were left out and the student looked at me as if I was slightly stupid when I explained that I didn’t understand certain connections.

With this said though, he states at the end of the article, “These differences between Arabs and Japanese are exactly what students of the two cultures would predict.” Despite my agreeing with him, I have considered whether or not we should also be aware of the assumptions we are making. Although I completely agree that anticipating common errors can help both the student and the tutor be more successful, I think it is still important to take each session with a case to case approach.

After reflecting on this article, I do also begin to wonder whether or not writing style is not only the direct product of not only what is typical in a particular area, but also encapsulates or represents a culture’s ideologies.