We first of all want to express our personal gratitude to the faculty of the Emeritus College who have already served as mentors in the Conversation Pairs program for the past two semesters. All the students you have been mentoring have performed well on the Verification of English Skills Test (VEST) and have become eligible for a teaching assistantship (TA). Your work is also appreciated by the students.
This year we again call your attention to the opportunity to participate as a conversation partner in the Conversation Pairs program. A flyer used to advertise the program is appended. This is the 2nd year the Conversation Pairs program is offered to our International Students as part of the Clemson University International Student Teaching Assistant (ITA) program. Conversation Pairs is offered both as a standalone program or as part of a course entitled “Advancing English for Teaching” offered by Jennifer Brondell in the Office of Global Engagement’s English Language Programs. Students are recommended or required to participate in the Conversation Pairs Program at least one semester given their score on the VEST test. Since mentoring in the Conversation Pairs program serves to fulfill an academic requirement for some students, the faculty mentoring service is reported in the Emeritus College Annual Report to the University. Finally Emeritus faculty have the talent and experience to be very effective mentors for international graduate students.
While the number varies each year, currently 18 students who need to enroll in the Conversation Pairs program based on their VEST test score. The conversation partner’s goal is to help students overcome their shortcomings in their English communication. This will vary from year to year and student to student. But this year the primary work for the conversation partner’s will be to help the students improve their pronunciation so that their speech is easier to understand. Some students will also need to improve their fluency.
We hope that you will consider volunteering as a conversational partner of an international student and look forward to hearing from you. If you would like to volunteer, just e-mail Adolph Beyerlein, Chair of the Emeritus College Language Skills Committee at albrl@g.clemson.edu or Jennifer Brondell at jbronde@clemson.edu.