Online Tutoring
Vassiliki Kourbani · 2019
The writing center (WC) at the Hellenic American University is a breakthrough in what conventional writing centers entail, in terms of both target audience and nature. Since its services go beyond the traditional face-to-face approach, it aspires to showcase how collaborative writing is realized in terms of the cooperation among the particular WC stakeholders and the learning outcomes involved. This study investigates the connection between WC tutor synchronous feedback and revision by non-native speakers (NNS) who speak English as a foreign language (EFL), at an American university in Greece. Drawing on sociocultural theories of language and literacy, the study examines tutor-tutee critical moments by linking various features of the interaction during synchronous communication with the revision process to discover ways tutors and tutees co-construct their roles within the multimodal WC tutorial. Results indicate that the effects of online tutoring are positive. However, e-feedback is sometimes ineffective due to NNS students’ difficulty to understand and consequently apply tutor comments, thus presenting solutions to remedy complexities, including the need for further development of quality e-feedback and the combination of online and onsite visits for optimal results.