Understanding Language Difference and Student Writing

International students make up 13% of Duke's first-year class and represent 81 countries outside of the U.S. Yet research and experience alike suggest that many faculty approach teaching with monolingual assumptions or are unsure of how to support multilingual students in classes where the language of instruction is English.

This panel, moderated by Thompson Writing Program faculty Charlotte Asmuth and Rene Caputo, will be comprised of multilingual, first-year Duke students. Students will share more about their language backgrounds, their experiences with writing in English in U.S. academic contexts as compared to other languages/cultural contexts, and what they wish professors understood about multilingual students. Some students will also share the results of research they did in a fall 2022 Writing 101 course on language difference and writing. The panel will conclude with a Q&A session and a more general discussion about how teachers might better respond to language difference and support multilingual students in their teaching.

This event will be held over Zoom and will include auto-captioning. The link will be sent to you upon registration.

This session, co-sponsored by Duke Learning Innovation, the Thompson Writing Program, and the Language, Arts & Media Program (LAMP), is part of Learning Innovation’s 2022-23 Inclusive Teaching series.