National Taiwan Normal University's Center for Academic Literacy in English Inaugurates the New Academic Year with Professional Training for Tutors
The Center for Academic Literacy (CAL) at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) hosted a professional training event designed for tutors on September 12, marking the official commencement of the new academic year.
The core objective of the 9/12 tutor training event is to enhance tutors' professional skills in academic English writing and speaking. Since its establishment, CAL has been dedicated to cultivating excellent academic writing and speaking tutors to meet the needs of students, administrators, and teachers at NTNU in improving their professional English abilities. The continuous success of CAL lies in its gathering of tutors from around the world, including Canada, France, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United States, with diverse backgrounds in fields such as information technology, social sciences, humanities, translation studies, language education, literature, philosophy, business management, engineering, art, and science. These tutors possess expertise in academic speaking and writing, including university professors and skilled professionals in both oral and written translation. They are proficient not only in writing and speaking skills and styles in various academic disciplines but also bring rich tutoring experience.
During this training session, both new and seasoned tutors participated in workshops, lectures, and hands-on activities. They deeply explored how to establish a partnership-style interactive relationship with students in one-on-one writing and speaking sessions, aiming to better understand the students' needs and provide precise guidance. The training began with an address from the center's director, Professor Yeu-Ting Liu, who briefly explained the purpose of the training and the future direction of the center. Following his address, CAL's researcher, Dr. Siru Lin, engaged the tutors with a lively introduction to the center's tutoring regulations. Next, the center's full-time assistants, Chong-An Chen and Jyun-Siang Yang, highlighted various details in tutoring practices. The most anticipated part was the tutoring workshop led by Dr. Sonya Yachu Fan. Through this workshop, Dr. Fan first invited each tutor to define their tutoring philosophy and reflect on how to implement these principles in their daily tutoring sessions. This meta-analysis allowed tutors to further clarify their beliefs and actions in tutoring. Dr. Fan also showcased a lively one-on-one tutoring demo video, assisting tutors in better understanding the center's core values and guiding principles while ensuring their tutoring approaches align with them. Under Dr. Fan’s guidance, tutors participated in group discussions, exploring potential challenges in the tutoring process and sharing experiences and strategies. This segment not only fostered interaction among the tutors but also equipped them with effective strategies to address complex situations. Through such interactive workshop training, all tutors, while having their unique professional specialties, could still focus on shared core principles.
In the latter half of the training event, CAL introduced two tech-assisted writing tools to the tutors: IntelliWriter and Sketch Engine. The primary functions of these tools are to assist tutors in quickly identifying issues in students' writing and offer appropriate guidance. This not only makes the tutoring process more efficient but also allows tutors to focus more on helping students organize their thoughts, ultimately providing sharper, more relevant feedback. CAL also showcased the latest revised 90-page tutor training manual at the end of the workshop, detailing CAL’s mission, values, and guiding principles, serving as a comprehensive guide for the tutors.
With this professional training, combined with the teaching materials, professional books, and corpus resources provided by CAL, the center aims to bring a new direction in bilingual education to NTNU and nurture students with global perspectives and academic proficiency in English. CAL firmly believes that in the new academic year, the tutors trained in this session will offer even more professional guidance, better meet learners' needs, and assist everyone seeking help from CAL in achieving outstanding results in the bilingual academic field. Want to experience the rejuvenated academic advancement experience that CAL tutors can offer? Start your booking here (https://ntnu.mywconline.com) and get to know our tutors here (https://www.cal.ntnu.edu.tw/index.php/tutors/).