Information for refugees
Individual writing counselling in study preparation and support
As part of the WELCOME projects, student employees provide individual writing counselling to support students and participants in study preparation courses in planning, formulating and revising their current writing projects.
The offer is aimed at:
- International students (with a refugee background) preparing for their studies (TestDaF courses)
- Teachers as part of the Teachers Plus programme
- International students (with a refugee background) studying at university
- How does writing counselling work?
- How do those seeking advice benefit?
- They are at the centre of their respective writing project and are given time and protected space for individual concerns and questions
- You will learn various strategies and writing techniques that make text planning and revision easier, for example
- You will receive targeted text feedback, enabling you to change your perspective on your texts and revise them more effectively
- You will expand key competences such as writing skills, academic language skills and study techniques
- The phases of writing counselling
- In an initial meeting, goals, roles and expectations are clarified and the working methods and framework conditions are discussed.
- In the individual counselling sessions that follow, individual questions and concerns of those seeking advice are addressed. The focus is on the foreign language writing processes and products.
- In a final meeting, the entire counselling process is reflected upon and learning successes and results are evaluated.
- How do the student writing consultants work?
The students involved in the Welcome Initiative are trained in the concept and act in accordance with the counselling standards of the German language centre. Specialist support is provided through regular collegial intervision meetings, among other things, and is co-designed by the student assistants.
We see it as a great success that those seeking advice with the support of the student counsellors...
- ...actively develop solutions to their individual concerns and problems (e.g. starting to write).
- ...are sensitised to the use of expressions and connectors.
- ...deepen their understanding of speech acts.
- ...gain more confidence in the use of written language.
It was always very exciting for me when the people seeking advice described their perception of the situation - e.g. smoking behaviour of men vs. women - in their country of origin in the context of a task. In these tasks, the discussion moved away from the formal descriptions and went beyond the text discussion to an exchange of (cultural) experiences.
Nele Meiser, writing consultant- Further information
Further information can be found here.
If you are interested in supporting the Writing Consultancy team as a student assistant, please contact Marta Kaplinska.