TEA time helps international students with language
It’s an hour of conversation, games, tea and cookies. But besides being just a social atmosphere, it’s time is a way for international students at USU to improve their communication skills.
The Writing Center hosts a weekly Teaching English Afternoon, or TEA Time every Tuesday from 3:30-4:20 p.m. Here, international students can have conversations, ask questions and play games in a way that helps them improve their English speaking skills.
“We’ve done it for several years, it’s just had a little bit different form,” said Susan Andersen, associate director and senior lecturer at the Writing Center. She said the events were called “conversation socials” in previous years. Grad students and tutors would teach concepts about the English language and American culture.
“It felt too much of a teacherly kind of thing in the classroom,” Andersen said. “I think they were doing too much teaching and not enough talking,” she said.
She said the time is all about letting the students talk.
“That’s what we really want to do, so we give them opportunities to talk and discuss things,” she said.
Andersen said throughout the years, different tutors have taken the lead.
“We thought it was time to rebrand it with a new name and just do it in our center so it doesn’t feel like we’re in a classroom,” Andersen said.
She said serving tea has been popular among the students.
“We serve tea and cookies, and I think the international students especially appreciate that because it’s kind of a common thing in the afternoons for different cultures,” Andersen said.
Lindi Andreason is a tutor at the writing center who helps with TEA Time.
“I like that it’s just kind of an easy way to just come and talk, just practice,” said Andreason, a sophomore majoring in elementary education. “Hopefully hearing us talking helps them to kind of know how things should sound. Even just the confidence of hearing other international students and knowing they’re not the only ones that maybe struggle.”
“We’re hoping to get more students coming, especially international students,” said senior Hannah Dulin, an English major.
Dulin said for the first few weeks there were more directors than students, but this is changing.
“Now there are more international students than us, which is nice,” she said. “We like to be outnumbered.”
She said it’s mostly geared toward conversation, and the tutors present topics to guide the conversation.
“The first two weeks, we’d just kind of pull questions out of a hat,” Dulin said.
Dulin said they have tried to gear the afternoon’s activities toward what the students want to do. She said they ask the students what kind of activities they would like to have for the next week.
“But we really want to do something that’s going to help them to talk,” Andersen said.
Andersen said they conduct guided conversations and the students get involved by asking questions or teaching the others how to play card games from their country.
“I like the casual premise,” Anderson said.
She said the idea is that the more students talk and hear casual conversation in English, the more familiar they will be with the language, which will help their writing.
“You have to be able to engage with it too,” Dulin said. “So not only hearing it or hearing it come back to you, but it’s attempting to engage with that language. You hear if you’re doing it right or wrong.”
Dulin said the goal of TEA Time is to get international students speaking where they may not have the opportunity otherwise.
“To kind of sit down, take a break from academics, let it go and just practice English,” Dulin said.
She said the afternoons are focused on speaking and not writing.
“The idea is that speaking will then translate to the writing,” Dulin said.
By participating in TEA Time, students from various countries and languages have been able to improve their communication skills.
“It’s good to improve my English, to talk with a native American,” said Feras Alfuwairs, an aviation student from Saudi Arabia.
Alfuwairs said sometimes his teacher assigns him to go to the Writing Center.
“But I come here to improve my language, not to just to come for class or finish my homework,” he said.
Andreason said she enjoys tutoring at the Writing Center and helping with TEA Time.
“It’s neat just to kind of talk with the international students and hear where they’re from,” she said. “And they seem to sort of know each other so it’s fun to see the little international community.”
– tmera.bradley@aggiemail.usu.edu