Removing Language Barriers to Student Success and Belonging

Tuesday, February 9, 2027
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Allendale Campus
Faculty, Staff

Latoya Booker

As more colleges and universities rely on academic advisors for a positive impact on student retention, many professionals in the field have expanded on strategies and competencies that shift our belief from expecting “college-ready-students” to being an institution that is student-ready. The more research we do, the more it exposes our deep desire as higher education professionals to help students belong. Belonging, in many ways, is a sense that one feels included, considered, and dignified by a community or group. Without belonging, however, students may feel lost, abandoned, or rejected. This presentation explores college as both a foreign culture and language to all new students, regardless of background and experiences – that all cultures commune around a common language, which equips members with cultural currency, social connection, and individual power – that language gives us the power to ask questions, make claims, persuade and convince, share stories, and contribute to culture. In other words, effective communication is a way we can belong to and navigate within a new culture; therefore, if language helps us belong, students deserve a sort of language instruction as they scale the walls of college. Academic advisors can be these cultural guides and translators of a new language. This workshop will share the 6 Principles of TESOL as they relate to activities of academic advising. Participants will gain transferable skills for working with diverse student populations so as to affirm a student’s belonging through the acquisition of essential language features for their new college culture.

Learning Outcomes - Participants will be able to:

Gain empathy and knowledge about the dissonance between wanting to belong and not having the linguistic tools to participate a culture with norms and expectations
Understand how their role at the university contributes to a student’s sense of belonging via language and cultural education
Acquire tools, based in the 6 Principles of TESOL, that will help them guide students toward greater cultural and linguistic fluency within their respective institution Previous Workshop Updates

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