Lab aids foreign students

By Sharon Nagy, On-Line Forty-Niner

Wednesday, September 9, 1998

The information learned from a language textbook is often not enough for students when they are faced with the reality of speaking a foreign language in a new country.

The International Students Conversation Lab offers free tutoring services to help international students who speak English as a second language. Volunteer tutors teach students slang, vocabulary and pronunciation, as well as conversation and discussion skills and fluency.

"What you learn in a textbook is valuable to the traveler, but not for someone who is living there," said Genevieve Ramirez, director of the conversation lab. "They can ask where the railroad station is, but how far will that get you? The language patterns, slang and colloquial expressions of spoken English are much different from that of textbook English."

"It's a non-intimidating environment," said Jessica Treglia, conversation lab coordinator.

"Most students are completely unaware of these services," Jessica Treglia, coordinator of the conversation lab said. "It's a non-intimidating environment. We really encourage people to come."

Treglia said students often will not recognize a word until she spells it out on paper.

"The lab's goal is to help students become more proficient in conversational English," Treglia said. "If you only work on reading and writing, your learning process will be limited.

A professor recommended the conversation lab to Tao Le of Vietnam. Le, a junior mechanical engineering major, said she came to the lab because she wanted to improve her speaking and writing skills. Le hopes improving her speaking skills will also help at her part-time job at Boeing, where she works as a draftsperson.

The lab also provides group tutoring. Faculty will often bring classes in, and break students into groups of three to five. Tutors facilitate a conversation that is relevant to their lives as foreign students. The conversation lab is in the Learning Assistance Center, LIBE-012.