Working with Language Tutors:Guidelines for students

What Do Language Tutors (L.T.s) Do?

Language Tutors work with you – so that you can fully access and produce written English.

They will:

  • Help you prepare for assignments – for example, by checkingthat you understand the questions and any written materials that you need to read; assist with the planning and organisation of projects and the structure of essays etc.
  • Advise you about the presentation of written, signed or spoken work.
  • Rewrite course material in plain English so that it is easier to understand.
  • Translate course material into BSL so that you can fully understand the content
  • Work with your module tutors to modify the language of exams and assignment briefs (questions) where appropriate.
  • Talk to teaching, interpreting and admin staff to ensure that you receive the best possible service.

They will not:

  • Do your assignments for you
  • Teach parts of your course

What Do You Do?

  • When your language tutor contacts you – you should respond straight away, to let them know you have received their message.
  • Make an appointment to meet your language tutor for the first time. It doesn’t matter if you have no work to do. Meet your L.T., exchange contact details, say “hello”! You should do this within the first week of contact.
  • Always make the next appointment. Language tutors are very busy – and need to book you in advance.
  • Meet your language tutor regularly. Assignments might seem a long way off, but there is a lot that you can do to prepare.
  • Go to your tutorial knowing what assignment you want to work on, and take with you all the relevant books, notes, reading lists, module guides etc.
  • Get in the habit of taking lecture notes with you. Your L.T. can explain any difficult terminology, point out useful information, discuss meaning.
  • If you have problems with the content of your lecture or with the subject itself, make an appointment to see your module tutor. You might want to invite your L.T. to come along too.

Cancellations

  • If you wish to cancel your tutorial, you must let your L.T. know at least 48 hours beforehand
  • If you do not cancel your support, your language tutor will charge you for the session.
  • If you do cancel, make another appointment straight away.

Assignments, Essays and Exams

  • When handing in work, you must hand in two pieces of work.
  • One is your first draft, writtenwithout any language tuition;
  • the second is the same work with support from your language tutor.

The lecturer should see that the content, material and ideas are the same for both pieces of work; the second draft should reflect your discussion about structure, grammar etc. This is the work that will be assessed.

  • Your L.T. will give you a label to put on your work. This tells the tutor to mark your work using the “Marking Deaf Students’ Work” guidelines
  • You must organise yourself, so that you have enough time to complete the work, see your L.T. and hand your work in on time. If you cannot see your L.T. before the deadline;
  • you MUST see your module tutor and explain the situation
  • you MUST hand in your draft work by the deadline – and then hand in the final copy as soon as you have seen your L.T.
  • If you have exams, your exam papers will be re-written in plain English by your L.T. You will receive 2 sets of exam papers; the original and the plain English version.
  • Put a yellow sticker on your exam paper – as it tells the tutors to mark your work using the “Marking Deaf Students’ Work” guidelines.

If you have any problems about language tuition, or if you are not clear about the role working procedures or anything else, please contact

Lynne Barnes (Adviser for Deaf Students)

Livesey House 216

Tel/Text 893098