Supporting Multilingual Learners

 

If you are a multilingual student whose primary language is something other than English, there are several resources available through the Academic Support Office to help you succeed over the course of your career at Moravian University! Handling college-level academic work with the added difficulty of learning a new vocabulary within a language that you are not quite comfortable with can be a challenge, but the following strategies and resources can help ease the burden of managing both English language learning and collegiate work: 

  1. Utilize class recordings as a tool for studying, note-taking, and vocabulary acquisition! Although it is required that you receive faculty permission prior to recording class sessions, these recordings can serve as excellent reference materials for studying and comprehension. Additionally, "Notability" is a note-taking app that has recording functionality that links audio to notes that you keep within the app.

  2. Electronic textbooks and the Voiceover app are both great resources for familiarizing yourself with new or unfamiliar vocabulary. Sometimes you might recognize a word when it is spoken but not when it is written, and the Voiceover app will work together with your electronic textbook to read the content of your text aloud to help you follow along!

    Voiceover is available on both your iPad and Macbook, and Instructional Technology can provide further assistance with the technology if necessary - they can be reached at instructionaltechnology@moravian.edu.
     

  3. Time yourself when reading a course text with a certain length goal or time goal to help determine how long it will take you to digest the course material - and how much time you need to plan to study. Then, once you have a time block determined, try the following strategy:

    a. Read the first time, noting only things you don't understand, such as new vocabulary, expressions, etc.;

    b. Read a second time while translating or looking up new vocabulary as needed;

    c. And read a third time with this added content for better context and comprehension.

    Once you have done this, compile your new vocabulary (be it with any technology tools you are using or old fashioned flashcards!) and also summarize what you have read to create reading notes for future study use. Over time, your reading speed and comprehension will increase, and you won't need this process in quite the same way or at all.
     
  4. The Academic Support Office offers a number of Skills and Strategy Sessions to help with reading comprehension, time management, study skills, and preparing for tests and quizzes. The full list of these sessions is available on the Academic Support webpage, and they are available to all interested students. If you'd like to attend a session, you can schedule times to meet with the Academic Support staff through Navigate; for any questions, please email academicsupport@moravian.edu.
     
  5. In addition to Skills and Strategy Sessions, the Academic Support Office offers Academic Planning sessions: these meetings can be used to help organize your semester, create goals and checkpoints for your learning across the term, and provide regular check-ins with the academic support staff to discuss grades, course progress, and other details related to your semester. If you are interested in scheduling one of these sessions, please reach out to our team at academicsupport@moravian.edu. 
     

While the above resources are directed towards multilingual learners, please know that these are services available to all students across campus.