Multilingual Learning
Our peer tutors and professional staff support multilingual learners through individual tutoring and workshops. We offer help with English for academic purposes and art and design language for critique, studio visits, and presentations. We are also available to the larger community to assist in building strategies that support more effective multilingual learning.
Our peer tutors can help you:
– Work on all kinds of language-based projects, including writing, public speaking, and visual communication
– Interpret cultural and institutional expectations by sharing their own experience
Our professional staff, A&L Assistant Director for Multilingual Learning Maya Krinsky and Multilingual Learning Specialist Maria Thompson, can help you:
Language proficiency assessments and study planning
Professional feedback on writing, speaking, and presentation skills
Independent study resources for language learning and academic skills
Grammar and writing mini-lessons
Insights on culturally distinct rhetoric and academic/departmental expectations
Support for academic research and study skills
Support for expanding art/design vocabulary and communication skills work on writing and speaking projects
Who Are Multilingual Learners?
Multilingual learners include both international students and US students — anyone whose first language is not English or who was raised with multiple languages. We use this term to acknowledge the importance and influence of engaging with multiple languages simultaneously even when using a single idiom to work or study, as well as the larger multilingual context of the classroom. We also use the acronym ELL to mean English Language Learning, as a way of identifying offerings specific to advancing English proficiency.
Language & Culture
With multiple languages come multiple cultural perspectives. Culture is essential to communication and affects communication styles, regional and cultural semantics, nonverbal language, and other variable aspects of language. A greater awareness of differences and norms helps the whole community foster greater understanding.
For more information about English language support for Multilingual Learners, email multilingual@risd.edu.
