Last year, Hannah Goodno showed her Conversational English class episodes of “How I Met Your Mother,” “Modern Family” and sketches from “Saturday Night Live.”
Afterward, the group discussed the shows and talked about idiomatic expressions the characters used, among other exercises.
“They’d ask questions about why a certain joke was funny,” Goodno said. “It makes you think about what you consider normal, and what you think is something everyone could just ‘get,’ and you realize it’s more influenced by culture than you ever realized.”
Goodno, a lessons instructor for the Greater University Tutoring Services’ Conversational English program, said the experience gave her an opportunity to step outside her comfort zone.
“You have to think more about your culture in a different way because you’re teaching it to someone else,” Goodno said.
Despite attempts to reach out to students, GUTS’ CE program faces a chronic shortage of English tutors.
The organization has tried sending mass e-mails to the student body, to people within the GUTS organization and to high-level language students, but all attempts proved ineffective, according to Yuntong Yan, GUTS’ Conversational English Curriculum Specialist.
The only requirement to become a tutor is to be a native English speaker.
Yan has led the CE program, which has trained international students in the cultural aspects of conversation in English-speaking culture since 2010.
The international student population has grown steadily in the past five years, explained Yan, who describes the problem as a failure to catch up with the growing demand.
“I feel like there’s a misconception about our program,” said Yan. “We are not an [English as a Second Language] program.”
The goal of the program, she said, is not to teach English grammar or sentence structure, but cultural norms of American society like how to tip, how to order or how to book hotels.
CE offers both one-on-one conversation tutoring and group sessions. The group lessons are generally team-taught by two volunteers—this is where the need for tutors is greatest, Yan said.
“A lot of international students find it easier to hang out with other international students because there is less of a language and culture barrier,” Yan explained. “We want them to have the chance to get as comfortable as they can.”
She said teaching the lessons is rewarding for student volunteers, yielding experience, letters of recommendation, friendship and new perspectives.
“I’m sure a lot of people are interested but just haven’t found us yet,” said Yan.
