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The Roger Williams University and Middletown High School
ESL E-mail Mentoring Project
2002 |
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Secondary Education students at Roger Williams University particpated in a project with the ESL students at Middletown High School during the spring of 2002. The ESL students wrote about a variety of topics using e-mail and the Roger Williams students served as their writing mentors. Below you can see a slide show of photos taken when students met their mentors at the end of the semester and read some impressions of the project written by the students and mentors.
Some of the Project Participants
The ESL Students
ESL teacher Luis Oliveira and RWU Professor Richard Audet
Project Slide Show
Student Slide Show
Comments from the Mentors and ESL Students
I really enjoyed this experience. It was really good. You get the chance to meet another student from another culture. -- Belen (Spain)
I think this is one of the excellent ways to learn English. We learned a lot of the ways of life of the American students at the college and they got to know about us too during these e-mails. They were correcting our way of talk. Also, it is compared with our age so we learned with people that think almost like us because of the small difference in the age. -- Jenn (Venezuela)
The communication with foreign students and future teachers is a prefer program. Predicted that future teachers will face foreign students' problems and helping them with their English problems. I really enjoyed it. And I learned a lot. I am sure that the future teachers gained a lot from it. Here with best wishes that all of them will have a bright future. -- Kam Lan "Janice" (Hong Kong)
This program is incredibly worthwhile! I really enjoyed corresponding with students who offer unique perspectives on life. I believe both my mentees and myself learned a great deal about ourselves and each other. I hope to continue writing to them in the future. -- Callie (mentor)
My name is Qian. I enjoy this program when we write e-mail each other. We feel comfortable. We can learn more things from each other. These communicate help us to enjoy the school life. And help the future teachers to have more contat with the students and have more understanding with the students. -- Qian (China)
The experience was engaging and educational. I had fun learning about my students' home country. -- Lisa (mentor)
This exchange has been a difficult task for me considering the fact that I am not an English major, but the converstation went well with my mentee and this experience will help me deal with students whose first language is not English in my classroom. -- Jessica (mentor)
This was a new and exciting experience for me. I was able to learn about differenct cultures. -- Allison (mentor)
This project, although still in development, has been very beneficial to me. As a future educator, it will be important to be aware of ESL issues regardless of what subject you teach. -- Scott (mentor)
This project was very interesting becuase using the Internet can the teachers teach. This is cool because we can see the advancing of the technology. I think that it is a great idea and also I think that it has to keep using. -- Gaston (Argentina)
I thought the project was exciting because I got to learn about a different cullture and I thought my mentee learned a lot about English grammar. I thought it was a success. I wish we could have more interactions throughout the semester by meeting in person with one another to work on other pieces. -- Melanie (mentor)
I liked the project a lot. I believe it helped me with my writing. I also liked the fact that everbody had their own penpal. The topics were various and interesting; they were thought provoking. -- Borislava "Bobby" (Bulgaria)
I liked this project becuase I learned more English and I could correct my English. With this project I could learn about life and culture. I wish that this project continue for other students. -- Gabriel (Argentina)
I really liked this program because thanks to it I got to improve my English and I think I had an opportunity that not every exchange student have. For example, my Brazilian friend, she is not in ESL so she did not have the privilege to meet all these wonderful people. -- Andrea (Chile)
Participating in this ESL project was a great experience. Helping one learn to read and write on top of making a difference in one's life is a satisfying experience and when a smile is brought upon the student then I know that I have made a difference. -- Dennis (mentor)
I think this project was very nice, because this helps people from foreign countries improve their English with the help of wonderful people from this university. -- Leisabel (Venezeula)
I think it is very good idea, to make this project. It improved my English and also for college student it was a good experience. It was very interesting for me to speak with college student. -- Antons (Latvia)
I think it was a really interesting project, we met people that are studying at a University level. I think it was funny and really helpful. I wish I would have met my mentor unfortunately I couldn't but I know she is a really great person. It is good for the ESL people to learn more English and also is good for the future teachers to know how it is to have a student. I had
fun. Thank you. -- Carolina (Mexico)
My opinion about the e-mails is that it is useful, but only if both work. It's useful becuase you can correct errors that you have writing. -- Ignacio (Spain)
I think this few months that we had doing this assignment were very helpful to all of us. Is good to meet students from other places and help each other with the corrections of the language we tried to learn. I'm glad to be of this activity and I hope we keep helping students from other places. -- Saul (Venezeula)
For more information on this project, please contact ESL teacher Luis Oliveira at oliveirl@ride.ri.net, Dr. Madge Thombs at mthombs@rwu.edu, or Dr. Richard Audet at raudet@rwu.edu.
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