Fei's Case Study

I'm interested in how this study interacts with my own experiences instructing non-native English speakers--particularly as it relates to Fei's personal associations with English as a subject matter. So often our roles as Literature instructors is to cultivate a personal investment in the subject matter on the part of the student. Fei indicated that she associated English curriculum with rigid academic writing, and at odds with reading or writing she might do for pleasure or on her own time. This concerns me as an instructor because I worry that the structure we've put in place for non-native English speaking students is one which reinforces negative connotations/fears/phobias they may already have anticipated or expected at the prospect of taking our classes. How do we, as writing instructors and educators, enable our students to succeed academically without contributing to the impression of English as a purely Academic/Laborious language?

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