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Teaching Support

The Miami University English Language Learners Writing Center offers essential resources and support for faculty to effectively assist and guide English Language Learners in their writing endeavors. Explore a wealth of tools and services tailored to enhance the academic writing skills of ELL students and promote their language proficiency across various disciplines.

Introduce Students to the ELLWC

Learning to write in a new language is about more than acquiring new vocabulary and grammatical structures. This learning consists of internalizing new values, rhetorical preferences, and conventions shaped by a new culture. This is as true for elementary school students as for college students and adult learners. At the ELL Writing Center, we aim to enhance multilingual writers’ awareness of rhetorical assumptions and expectations prevailing in U.S. academic culture and create multiple opportunities for students to engage their writing skills in new rhetorical contexts.

Include a Statement about the ELLWC in a Syllabus

The Howe Writing Center (HWC) and English Language Learner Writing Center (ELLWC) recognize that all writers have more to learn and provide free support to Miami students and alumni in this work. The HWC offers help with academic, personal, and professional writing at any stage in the writing process, from brainstorming to polishing. The ELLWC offers more specialized help for students whose first language is not English, and who need particular assistance with grammar, word usage, style, and punctuation. Neither the HWC nor the ELLWC will edit your work; both will help students develop better strategies for invention, revision, and self-editing. Please visit our websites for more information, and to sign up for either on-campus appointments (HWC and ELLWC) or online appointments.

Invite an ELLWC Consultant to Class

In a short 15-minute session, an ELLWC consultant will

  • clarify the ELLWC’s goals and services (face-to-face and online consultations)
  • make clear how students can get the most benefit from the ELLWC
  • explain how to find our locations on campus
  • demonstrate how to use our scheduling system
  • help to create accounts and schedule appointments

Your request must be submitted at least one week in advance. It will be satisfied based on consultant availability. You will receive a response within a few days.

Submit a Class Visit Request

Integrate ELLWC Services into Your Curriculum

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Resources for Faculty

The English Language Learner Writing Center has compiled a list of resources to help you better understand multilingual students’ challenges and to offer practical suggestions informed by research in second language acquisition and ESL writing.

Responding to Multilingual Student Writing

We provide recommendations on responding to ML student writing, emphasizing the importance of considering the nature of second language acquisition. If you want more detailed information on the pedagogical tools offered on this page, there is also a list of additional resources.

Assessing Multilingual Student Writing

This page outlines approaches to assessing and grading multilingual student writing in content-area courses and provides a list of books, articles, and online resources to help you make pedagogically informed decisions on scoring ML student writing.

Teaching Consultations

The ELL Writing Center offers one-on-one consultations to faculty members who seek to improve their support for multilingual students in their courses. Questions to consider for these consultations include:

  • How to make writing assignments more explicit for multilingual students?
  • What students’ prior knowledge to consider when developing writing assignments and assessment?
  • What difficulties you might anticipate students will experience with assignments?
  • What difficulties you might anticipate students will experience with assignments?
Request a Consultation

English Language Learner Writing Center

MacMillian Hall, Room 15
Oxford, Ohio 45056
513-529-8615
Schedule an Appointment Academic Integrity