The Student Learning Commons blog is your online writing and learning community
Former SLC English as Additional Language Peer, Trina Lal, shares reflections on the benefits of participating in the Conversation Partners program. The program continues online during SFU's remote instruction. Sign up to participate here.
In these Lost in Translation posts you can expect to read about common words and phrases that result in interesting (and sometimes funny) translations when we try to explain them in English.
Contributions to this series come from across the SLC and we also welcome submissions from the wider university community.
Our second post comes from former Writing and Learning Peer Educator and frequent blog contributor, Deeya B., and highlights her mother tongue, Hindi.
The In Common Blog team is excited to launch this "Lost in Translation" series. In these posts you can expect to read about common words and phrases that result in interesting (and sometimes funny) translations when we try to explain them in English.
Contributions to this series come from across the SLC and we also welcome submissions from the wider university community.
The idea for this series comes from Daniel C. suggestion to include more multilingual content on the blog.
Our first post comes from English as Additional Language Peer Educator and frequent blog contributor, Ashley K., and highlights an Indigenous language spoken by her family, iTaukei.
We first posted to this blog two years ago on July 17th (you can read that post here).
To celebrate our blog birthday, we did a short interview with the Graduate Writing Facilitator who first suggested the idea, Daniel C. Daniel is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education. Read on to learn more about him!
The Student Learning Commons is scouting out new talent for our Writing and Learning Peer and English as Additional Language Peer programs.
Both positions will allow you to develop transferable skills in the areas of client service, interpersonal skills, giving effective feedback, and cross-cultural communication, and will give you access to a professional reference as well as a private study/social space in the library.
We hope you will join our team! Apply now through http://myinvolvement.sfu.ca as part of posting #5254. The posting will be available until April 20, 2020.
By Dr. Timothy Mossman, SLC EAL Services Coordinator
In this post, Dr. Timothy Mossman introduces and invites submissions to the new Multilingual Students' Story Hub. The Story Hub is a forum for multilingual students to share their stories about events or critical incidents that occurred while learning or using English.
The SLC Conversation Partners Program pairs EAL students with volunteer peers. Conversation partners then meet on a weekly basis throughout the semester.
In this blog post, SLC Peer Bessie W. interviews two of her conversation partners to hear their unique perspectives on the program and their experiences at SFU.
Guest blogger and English as Additional Language Peer Educator, Ashley K. writes this week about her experiences with EAL Peer training. In particular, she reflects on a lecture presented by Dr. Ena Lee, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education. Dr. Lee's talk focused on the "commonsense discourses" of English language learning, and how these "commonsense" ideas are often actually wrong.
Ashley connects this talk with her experiences doing a "Pluriligual Identity" exercise and reflecting on her own connections with language learning, identity, and culture.
For the third year in a row, the SLC will host an undergraduate writing contest.
All contest details, and the submission page, can be found here: https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/slc-uwc
The contest opens on November 29th and submissions will continue to be accepted until January 5th 2020 (at midnight).
Are you a multilingual student who would like to improve your English conversation skills in a one-to-one setting with a student volunteer?
The Conversation Partners Program is for English as an Additional Language (EAL) undergraduate and graduate Simon Fraser University students who wish to be paired with a student volunteer to practice and improve their conversational English in a friendly, supportive environment.
The Conversation Partners Program is accepting registrations for the Fall 2019 semester. Only a few spots still remain, so register today to secure your spot!
