Joe Lennon
Masaryk University Language Centre, Brno, CZ
Over the last year, with the help of colleagues, I have taken the first steps toward establishing an English Writing Lab at Masaryk University Language Centre. The Writing Lab is an active resource for anyone at MU needing advice or help with their writing, offering one-on-one consultations, writer's groups, and other services. Most universities in the US and the UK have writing centers – they have been an established part of higher education there for decades. They are less common in Central Europe, although they are becoming more widespread in Germany, and there are now a few in Czech Republic as well. As universities in this region place more emphasis on their international reputation, and on the publication and presentation of research abroad, the need to support fledgling academic writers who are also learning English is glaringly evident. And yet my experience with undergraduate, Master's and PhD students at Masaryk, many of whom have never been offered any explicit guidance with writing in their native language, let alone in English, suggests that we need to look for more effective ways of sharing writing resources and expertise with those who need it. Writing centers have proved very popular and effective at Anglo-American universities – but will they work here? And are they something language centers should offer?
This study begins with some large, existential questions: What role can and should language centers play in the teaching of writing at Central European universities? To what extent is our (relative) independence from specific departments/study programs an advantage, allowing us to occupy an unfilled niche in the teaching of a universal skill like writing? And to what extent is it a disadvantage, since our instruction may be perceived as too unspecialized in a highly specialized academic context? With those questions looming in the background, I will use a combination of literature review, correspondence with teachers and directors of writing centers in the region, and surveys/interviews with my students at Masaryk, to answer these more specific, practical questions: What are some recent and exciting innovations (especially, but not limited to writing centers) in the teaching of writing at Czech and Central European language centers? What are some specific ways language centers are responding to their unique institutional and cultural challenges to develop new models for teaching writing? And could these new directions in writing pedagogy in turn provide new opportunities for language centers to assert their value and importance?
References:
- Björk, Lennart, et al. (2003). Teaching Academic Writing in European Higher Education. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
- Bonazza, R. (2016). Locating L2 English Writing Centers in German Universities. Journal of Academic Writing, 6(1), 1-16.
- Boquet, E. H., & Lerne, N. (2008). After "The Idea of a Writing Center." College English, 71(2), 170-189.
- Bräuer, G., & Girgensohn, K. (2012). Literacy development projects initiating institutional change. In C. Thaiss et. al. (Eds.), Writing programs worldwide: Profiles of academic writing in many places (pp. 225-238). The WAC Clearinghouse.
- Rafoth, B. (2015). Multilingual Writers and Writing Centers. University Press of Colorado.
Joe Lennon has a PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Denver, and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Washington University in St. Louis. Over the last 16 years, he has taught English language, academic writing and creative writing at universities in the US, China, and the Czech Republic. He is currently Assistant Professor at Masaryk University Language Centre, where he teaches academic writing in a variety of formats, and is a consultant at the newly established Writing Lab. He has a cat named Professor Cuddles.