Use and Effects of the Tutoring Service at the English Writing Lab

The purpose of this study was to examine the use and effects of a writing tutorial service provided to university students at a Writing Lab. Participants in the study included 57 students and seven tutors including two Korean teachers and five native English speaking teachers (hereafter NESTs). Data were collected for a semester, and included a student survey, a tutor survey, individual interviews with students, and documents related to the tutoring service. Results of the study are as follows. First, more than 41 students (72 %) considered their level of English writing ‘below average’ and it affected their choice of tutors as 27 students (47%) selected only Korean tutors throughtout the semester. Second, diverse students from different academic disciplines came to the writing lab for tutoring; thus suggesting a need for an English writing tutorial service. Third, reactions toward the writing lab from both students and teachers were very positive even though some tutors had problems with the attitude of some students. Fourth, students presented various writing assignments to tutors: however, the genre the first-year students brought most was English writing journal, while fourth-year students were mostly concerned wtih resume and cover letter writing as well as practice essays for TOEIC and TOEFL tests. Further, there were some discrepencies regarding the feedback the students wanted to receive and the assistance, editing, and revision provided by tutors. Finally, some suggestions were made by both the students and the tutors to improve the quality of the service in the future including extending tutoring session lengths and enforcing rules more strictly. Drawing on the findings of the current study some implications were provided.