listening within the social contexts of tutoring: essential component of the mentoring relationship

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Listening within the SocialContexts of Tutoring: EssentialComponent of the MentoringRelationshipJeanne B. Cobb aa University of North TexasPublished online: 02 May 2012.

To cite this article: Jeanne B. Cobb (2000) Listening within the Social Contexts ofTutoring: Essential Component of the Mentoring Relationship, International Journal ofListening, 14:1, 94-108, DOI: 10.1080/10904018.2000.10499037

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Listening within the Social Contexts of Tutoring: Essential Component of the Mentoring Relationship

JEANNE B. COBB University of North Texas

This qualitative research study targeted fourth grade at-risk children in a culturally diverse elementary school in a mid-sized city in the southwestern United States. The purpose of the study was to describe the nature of social interactions within the context of tutorial sessions and to describe the role of listening within the mentoring relationship. Majorfindings were that highly successful tutors were skillful communicators who modeled effective listening skills, used body language effectively, were knowledgeable about students’ cultures, and possessed a social conscience.

ew research has pointed to the importance of the early childhood years and contributed to new understandings about the needs of at N risk students and the necessity of early intervention programs to

circumvent the cycle of failure before a child reaches the intermediate grades (Clay, 1979, 1985; Johnston & Allington, 1990). This latest research has given impetus to the national focus on volunteerism and renewed community support for mentoring of at risk children and youth, i.e. President Clinton’s America Reads Challenge.

Chapter One research (Carter, 1984; Kennedy, Birman, & Demaline, 1986) confirms that early intervention is important and suggests that remediation of learning problems after the primary grades is generally ineffective. Although the ideal would certainly be to assure early intervention for all at risk readers, there are many upper elementary and middle school students who were denied successful early intervention and are failing to develop essential literacy skills. Barriers such as negative attitudestoward reading, lack of motivation, internalization of poor habits, and lack of solid word recognition strategies are often cited as problematic issues for volunteer tutors (Cloer & Pearman, 1993).

Wasik & Slavin (1993) conducted an extensive analysis of one-on-one adult-delivered instruction for at risk children. Their review found a preponderance of studies focusing on early intervention while only three studies targeted students in grade three or above (Bausell, Moody, & Walzl,

International Journal of Listening, Vol. 14,2000 94 - 108 0 International Listening Association

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Cobb / TUTORING & MENTORING 95

1972; Fresko & Eisenberg, 1983; Shaver &Nuhn, 1971). Benderet al. (1994) proposed a volunteer tutorial program with grades six, seven, and eight.

Several key components have been identified as essential for effective tutoring in one-on-one compensatory/supplemental programs; however, the preponderance of such research again focuses on early intervention. Wasik (1998) has discussed the important factor of consistency and intensity of tutoring with younger children. It is important that a child form a trusting relationship with the tutor, so most programs assign the same tutor to meet with a child each week. In fact, some researchers have identified this positive, caring relationship between child and tutorlcaregiver as the single most important factor in the success of supplementary programs (Vendell, Humow, Posner, 1997). Successful tutors, it seems, are aware of the critical importance of building positive relationships based on trust and respect. These tutors understand that affirming interactions result in a desire to please the tutor, increased motivation to leam, and more cooperative attitudes.

The fact that listening is an integral part of learning to read is well documented, and most educators broaden the language arts skill areas to include oracy, speaking and listening skills (Norton, 1997; Tompkins, 1998; Manzo & Manzo, 1995). The importance of social interactions for reading development has also been well established (Guthrie et al., 1993; Slavin, 1990; Wood, 1990; Mullis et al., 1993). Gambrel1 (1996) has connected social interactions and motivation for reading. When students in her research study were asked what they liked best about a challenging, new reading program designed to increase young children’s motivation to read, the most frequent responses were focused on social interactions related to books and reading. Very little research has been conducted to identify the essence, content, and characteristics of social interactions, particularly as they relate to the tutoring relationship, mentoring style of the tutor, and their effects on the child’s literacy success. In one of the few research studies published to date, which addresses the aspect of social interactions and tutoring, Juel (1996) studied factors contributing to effective literacy instruction in a tutorial program for thirty first grade at risk children. Juel pointed out that children in the more successful dyads experienced significantly more scaffolded reading and writing experiences than the children in the less successful dyads. Juel(l996) also pointed out that this scaffolding, an essential element for effective literacy tutoring, occurred through social contexts and interactions.

Obviously, listening plays a central role in the instructional practices and social interactions of teachers, but there is little documented research

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96 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LISTENING / 2000

evidence. Swanson (1 993) describes listening behaviors that encourage/dis- courage student learning. Little, if any, attention has been directed to docu- menting and describing the important role of listening within the social context of the tutorial setting. However, there is strong support for the premise that adults and adolescents develop specific listening styles (Watson, Barker, & Weaver, 1995). Similarly, there is evidence that supportive listening by super- visors in the workplace may be related to support, trust, motivation, and performance of subordinates. (Stine, Thompson, & Cusella, 1995).

Given the strong research base with respect to the importance of social interaction in reading acquisition for younger children, there is a need for more research which focuses on the role of that factor and, particularly, the prominent role of listening within those interactions in successful tutorial programs for older reluctant readers. Closer analysis of the social interactions between tutor and child may determine what, if any, relationship ex- ists between the tutor’s effective listening skills and/or preferred listening style, the mentoring style of the tutor, and the child’s willingness to cooperate with hisher tutor, and the child’s motivation to read and/or write during tutorial sessions.

Statement of the Problem

In an effort to provide a closer analysis of the social context of tutoring with older readers, this research study targeted fourth grade at-risk children in a culturally diverse elementary school in a mid-sized city in the southwestern United States. The study sought to answer the following questions:

RQ,: What is the nature of social interactions within the context of tutorial sessions with older at risk readers and how can naturally occurring social interactions between highly effective tutors and tutees be described? What role does effective listening play in the context of tutorial sessions with older at-risk readers? Do highly effective tutors share common characteristics as they interact with at risk children?

RQ,:

RQ,:

This article will describe common themes, characteristics, and categories, which emerged from data analysis of the social interactions of four highly effective dyads. These pairings resulted in literacy success stories, the successful pairing of four Caucasian college student volunteer tutors and at risk children: two African American boys, one Hispanic American boy and one Caucasian girl. The efforts of these tutors and their students all

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resulted in significant literacy gains, both in reading achievement and in attitudes toward reading.

THE SCHOOL SETTING AND THE TUTORS

Scott Elementary School (pseudonym used) was the setting for the volunteer literacy tutorial program involving a group of seventeen college students, nine athletes, non-education majors, and eight preservice teachers. The principal was disappointed in recent publicized standardized test scores for his school, with Scott ranking at the bottom of the district. The faculty was eager to participate and welcomed the tutoring from the college students on a biweekly basis, thirty minutes each session, for ten weeks during the fall semester. The teachers shared that fifty percent of the fourth graders were reading below grade level at the beginning of that school year. Literacy, they confessed, was a weakness for their team. They used an eclectic approach to teaching reading with a state adopted basal reading series as the primary materials, supplemented by classroom libraries and folder games. Skill sheets correlated to the state-standardized test were also used. All teachers used whole class instruction, and two of four teachers used centers when seatwork was completed.

TUTORING COMPONENTS

Although the teachers and principal acknowledged that there was great need for the one-on-one intervention, they felt thirty minutes twice weekly was all the time that could be spared from their instructional program. This proved to be a major obstacle for many of the tutors. Thirty minutes provided only a brief period of time in which to settle the child into the tutoring routine and to allow for in-depth study or activities.

Each tutoring session consisted of four or five basic activities, consti- tuting the same format used by all tutors. These activities included reading aloud independent level multicultural children’s books, working with practice skill pages provided by the principal to correlate with weaknesses on the state standardized test, writing in journals, and reading from instructional level texts, which included fictional and non-fictional materials, such as Time magazine for kids (Wallis, 1995).

Some of the tutors selected a theme for the sessions, and all books and activities centered on a topic of interest to the child as determined by interest inventories administered at the beginning of the project. The theme,

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chosen by the child, as a basis for the tutorial sessions proved to be one of the most successful tools used by the tutors for establishing rapport and formed the basis for affirming social interactions, based on a sincere desire to appeal to the child’s interest.

METHODOLOGY

This qualitative study used multiple data sources including pre- liminary and post-interviews with the tutors, teachers, and children (pseud- onyms used for all participants) and journal entries of tutors and children. In addition, the researcher and research assistant wrote field notes and recorded comments of children and tutors throughout the project. (Neither was assigned a child to tutor which freed them to be nonparticipant observ- ers during the tutorial sessions.) The constant comparative method (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982) was used throughout the analysis.

Standardized test scores, administered by the school district each spring, were used to identify the population of students for the study, those fourth graders most at risk of being successful in literacy endeavors during that school year. These measures and additional pre and posttest measures of reading achievement and attitudes toward reading, provided additional di- agnostic information for the teachers’ use at the conclusion of the tutorial project and enabled the researcher to identify the most effective dyads. Although qualitative data was gathered on all dyads, these pre and posttest scores helped the researcher to refine and to narrow the focus in this article to describe only the social interactions between the effective tutors and the four highest achieving children they tutored.

Characteristics of Highly Effective Tutors: Lessons Learned

The purpose of this research study was to look beyond the instructional component. All tutors implemented the same basic tutoring agenda with a child-centered curriculum. Yet, there were glowing success stories within the athletes as tutors group and within the preservice teachers as tutors group, and there were children from both groups who made negli- gible gains. Within the successful pairings, it was noted that the children exhibited increased motivation and a desire to cooperate. The children in these dyads exhibited more excitement and enthusiasm, performed well on the reading achievement posttest measure and on the attitudes toward reading scale and were eager to interact with their tutors. In this study, it ap-

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Cobb /TUTORING & MENTORING 99

peared that the social interactions and listening within that context played a contributing role to the success of the children in these pairings.

Close analysis of the dyads revealed that there were similar categories identifiable from the data in the naturally occurring social interactions of the successful dyads. Certain similar characteristics of the tutors’ interactions with children emerged. The most prevailing theme from data analysis was that the effective tutors were skillful communicators and model listeners who had past experiences with children, knew how to converse with them, knew the “with-it” slang, and understood the culture of growing up in poverty in America. In addition, the successful tutors had knowledge of andor experiences with the African American or Hispanic culture. Only one pairing was of the same gender, same ethnicity; yet, the Caucasian tutors were knowledgeable with respect to their tutee’s culture and used that knowledge to be skillful conversationalists. This finding parallels conclusions from a listening study conducted by Ostermeier (1993) which found that one’s culture affects the perceptions of the listener in responding to verbal and non-verbal communications.

One of the most effective components of the tutorial sessions for the successful tutors was that the first three minutes were used to reestablish the communication link, to catch up on the latest news in the child’s life, to share tidbits from the tutor’s life, in short, to “socialize.” An essential aspect of this initial socializing time was the ability to listen closely, to “tune in” to the child’s life experiences, hobbies, likes, and dislikes. The effective tutors followed directions well, as this was one of the essential ele- ments we had discussed in our training sessions.

Listening was observed to be the essential component of this introduc- tory activity. The effective tutors’ good listening skills enabled them to become skillful conversationalists, to inquire about topics that would interest the child, and to convey a message of caring. This social time paved the way for cooperation when the instructional part of the lesson began. Those tutors who paved the way with a “spoonful of sugar” and empathic listening were able to convince the children to “take the medicine” later.

One example from an early tutoring session with Sarah and Mary illus- trates how skillfully she uses social interaction to set the stage for the instructional component of the session:

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Tutor: Guess what my girlfriend and I saw this week-end when we were at the mall?

Student: I don’t know. What? Tutor: A really bad beanie baby.. . a pink pig. What is that one called? Student: Oooh! That’s Squealer. I’ve been wanting him. Tutor: I wish I could have bought him for you but I’ve got limited funds right

now. My pay check doesn’t come in for another week. Does your Mom ever buy you a beanie baby?

Student: Sometimes, but not often. She says we need other things more. One time I got a fish at McDonald’s though. I’ve still got it.

Tutor: That’s Goldie, right? Well, hey let’s get our book out now. It’s time to put our heads together and get some reading done. What about it?

Another example of this skillful use of conversational social language occurred in a session with Corey and Russell. Russell had brought along a McDonald’s Happy Meal as a lunchtime treat for his child and chatted with Corey for the initial three minutes while they began eating:

Tutor:

Student: How’d you do? Tutor: Student: That’s bad. Tutor:

We had a track meet last week and our team did so poorly. I don’t know what happened, man. I was bummed out.. .

I usually place in the top five, but I came in at the bottom of the pack.

Do you ever feel like that in reading class? I always like to be fiist at the meets but I rarely ever make it. I always get disappointed in myself when I miss the mark.

Student: Me too sometimes, but ya’ know. I don’t really care most times. My Mom gets mad at me all the time ‘cause I won’t try. But I’m just dumb.. .why try? You can’t give up.. . It’s hard when you keep on failing, I know. I’ve been there too, but next track meet I’m goin’ run harder, try harder. I may not make it every time, but I’m not goin’ give up. Hey! We’ll have to bust it to finish our work today. Let’s get started. We’ll talk some more about this next time.

Tutor:

Listening as an essential component of the mentoring relationship emerged from the data in all of the successful dyads. In the researcher’s and/or research assistant’s field notes were the following notations all re- ferring to the presence of good listening behaviors:

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Cobb /TUTORING & MENTORING 101

Tutor listened patiently. Mary laughed as Sarah told her a joke she had heard. John nodded his head in approval as Victor did retelling of the story he had read. Tutor extended conversation by asking great open-ended questions. Lisa maintained eye contact, listened attentively. Tutor said, “I just love to hear your stories about your week-end, you’re a great storyteller!”

The teachers of the children tutored by the effective tutors commented on the importance of this close personal attention, having an adult to listen, and the quality of social interactions. Sarah’s teacher, when comparing her scores to the previous spring [third grade achievement] before the tutoring began, noted that at the end of the tutoring project, Sarah had posted an impressive 43-percentile point gain in reading achievement. She was so highly motivated to do her best that her teacher related that she was amazed at her change in attitude toward school. She also described Sarah’s response to her tutor and her need for someone to listen to her in a post-instructional interview:

Sarah, She’s very bright ... and finally she started coming around with that ac- countability factor and she loves working one on one, that’s her favorite thing to do. She wanted to stay after school and work [one on one].

Sarah’s success story is ongoing and the effects still being noted. Just recently she was selected for the gifted and talented program at her school; her teacher felt it was due in large part to her positive tutoring experience and the special attention and encouragement she had received.

Another child, Anthony, a young African American boy and one of the lowest-performing children in the fourth grade posted dramatic reading achievement and attitude gains and was described by his teacher in this way:

Kind of like a dormant seed in that for the first six weeks after school started, it was always ... ‘I can’t, I don’t know how, I can’t do this; this is too hard.’ One time we played a math contest with flash cards, “Around the World” and he just stomped the whole class. I was just stunned because his ability finally just reared its head. I think he was used to getting by with not giving his best. He likes working one on one and I guess maybe a combination of me holding him accountable and the tutor working with him made him focus better on doing his best.

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The teacher further explained that she credited his special friendship with Lisa as crucial to his success that year. When Lisa, his tutor, was asked what she felt was the significant factor in her success with Anthony, she credited her own ability to encourage, to be a good listener, and to convey her concern for him. Lisa established rapport easily, in spite of their differ- ent genders and ethnicities. She had a unique understanding of African American culture and family life, which proved invaluable.

Anthony was one of nine children being raised by a single mother, father absent and living in Europe. Lisa shared with Anthony that she knew what it was like to miss your father since she too grew up in a single family home. Later, in her elementary school years, her mother married an Afri- can American man and so, although Caucasian, she had African American step-brothers and step-sisters. These cultural connections coupled with her attentive listening to Anthony’s special interests, allowed her to form a unique bond with Anthony. Lisa’s life experiences formed the basis of her social interactions with him, experiences, sometimes painful, but shared freely with Anthony. She explained in a post-instructional interview that she had been inspired by one high school teacher in her majority African American high school to stay in school and go on to college. No other teacher had ever believed she had the ability to succeed or had ever taken the time to listen to her. Lisa convinced Anthony that he too could succeed, just as she had.

Another teacher in the post-instructional interview praised the tutors’ successes and their special abilities to listen to the children in this way, “The one-on-one started the ball rolling, made them feel special, helped these children blossom. It would be interesting to know what they would have scored without that.”

However, not all the tutors in the project were adept at the socializing. Many felt awkward about talking with children informally and bypassed this step to immediately begin the lesson. The less effective tutors were obviously not good listeners. They did not practice listening behaviors such as changing body language from being a deflector to being a receiver, using non-verbal signals with the face and body, using receptive language such as “ I see,” or “um, huh,” or “oh, wow!” to indicate sincere empathy and continued interest in the conversation. The less effective tutors often appeared, on observation as recorded by the researcher in field notes, to be preoccupied, as if to send the signal that “I am really elsewhere now; I don’t care too much about these little problems you’re having.” Often, the tutors who were not adept communicators would congregate at a table with

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two or three children in a kind of group lesson. These large groups robbed the children of the special one-on-one social interactions and an adult focusing only on their unique personal and academic needs. Obviously, those dyads were not as effective, and the result was a weaker tutorhtee bond.

Another unique characteristic of the social interactions in the successful dyads was the masterful use of body language and gestures by the tutors, also an essential part of effective listening behavior. Close physical proximity, sitting side by side, as opposed to sitting directly across from the tutor seemed to send a message of “I care” and a “team” approach. All the successful tutors used this position, while some of those less successful tutors sat across from the child, as if to keep distance between them and to communicate a message of “I’m the teacher, you’re the student; I have the power; you do not.” Direct eye contact, a “high five” or pat on the shoul- der was a common occurrence in the successful dyads. These tutors used non-verbal communication to convey the message to the child that, “You are the most important person in the world to me, right now, and for the next thirty minutes, you have my undivided attention.” One example of the use of gestures was Lisa’s response to a successful reading performance by Anthony with a thumbs up sign and the words, “Wow, you’re awesome, just like Emmitt Smith when he scores a touchdown!” John frequently used a pat on the back when Victor tried hard to complete his assigned tasks. He would keep his hand resting on Victor’s back as if to communicate support when the task was particularly challenging. One comment directed to Corey from Russell, accompanied by a high five, was “Man, you’re bad, you’re awesome. You’re batting two for two today!”

Another common characteristic of the interactions within the successful dyads was the use of the child’s interest. The effective tutors had gained this knowledge so crucial to planning instruction through purposeful listening. This provided the “spark” to engage the child in conversation related to the books being read, to present an instructional strategy, as an attention-getter, and to form the theme for the sessions. Although in training sessions, all tutors were advised to use this simple principle, some chose to ignore the advice. All of the highly effective tutors used information from the interest inventories to select materials and books centering on the child-centered theme. Because the child was vitally interested in this topic, he/she brought more prior knowledge to the books and the “grand conver- sations” about the books were livelier. In one of the tutor’s journals, these words were written:

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I can see that I have to plan very concise, specific activities this semester, and I found out that she likes science and math. I don’t know why but that actually surprised me. I guess I assumed that because a student scores below grade level that she wouldn’t like school at all. Wrong! The science connection will give a base from which to plan our lessons . . .

Another example of this use of interest is demonstrated in Lisa’s tutoring session with Anthony. The tutor learned that he was passionately interested in football so Lisa illustrated the rereading comprehension strategy by relating it to a touchdown pass thrown by Troy Aikman:

Lisa:

Anthony: Lisa:

Anthony: Lisa:

Anthony: Lisa:

Anthony:

Now, Anthony, what do you think Troy does if he drops the ball on first down to keep the San Francisco players from grabbing the ball? Well, he probably fall on the ball and cover it with his body. Right on! Well, does he quit there? Does he get so frustrated that he asks the coach to pull him out of the game and put in the backup quarterback? Of course not! That be ridiculous. Troy no quitter. He awesome! Right and neither are you. So what should you do now that you just read that paragraph and you couldn’t answer my question correctly? (Shrugs his shoulders) no response. When we read and don’t understand, we do what Troy does. He throws the ball again on second down. So we reread the paragraph and try again to understand it. Sometimes that helps me. Let’s do it again. Okay.

Without careful listening to determine the child’s special and unique interests, this vital component of effective instructional planning would have been lost. Post interviews confirmed the importance of listening for solid instructional planning in statements such as the following:

“Once I got to know him; I listened to him, I learned he liked.. .” “I chose the theme of football because I asked him . . . and I heard him saying.. .” “He loved to retell the stones he read; I would always listen intently.” “My tutor listens to what I like.. .she makes learning fun.” “She loves working one-on-one; she likes having someone to listen to her.”

All research points to the importance of consistency in a mentoring relationship, and this study confirms previous findings. Another characteristic of the successful tutors was that they were highly committed and

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well organized, faithful in attendance, missing no more than one session. Two of the four had perfect attendance. They took their volunteer jobs very seriously, as if they were being paid for their work. Positive social interactions with children demand repeated contacts over time. Infrequent attendance or inconsistent communication by the tutor resulted in poor progress for the child.

All of the successful tutors expressed in pre or post-instructional interviews that they possessed a social conscience, being keenly aware of their responsibilities to help those in society who are at risk and who need the helping hand of a positive adult role model. Repeatedly in the tutors’ journals were comments such as:

“I want to make a difference in this child’s life.” “She explained to me that she will never read or write when she becomes an adult except to read and sign her children’s field trip permission notes. I find that to be truly depressing.. . I only wish that I could make a difference in her life, but I can’t help her unless she wants to be helped.” “I have a responsibility to help those who are less fortunate than I was. I had supportive parents and teachers. I was so lucky.”

The children easily perceived this personality trait as desirable and appealing, believing that their tutors cared about them specifically as valu- able human beings. While some educators point to the present emphasis on squads of “volunteer do-gooders” as undesirable for solving the illiteracy problems of inner city children of color; certainly, this desire to “help a child” is a motivating factor for tutors which impacts their decision to volunteer. It is a factor, which also impacts social interactions of tutors with children. In the present research study, when a social conscience was coupled with knowledge of the child’s culture, often gleaned from purposeful listening in social interactions, it was a winning combination that resulted in positive significant changes in behavior, attitudes toward school, and literacy achievement. No one would disagree that social conscience alone, without a concurrent knowledge of child’s culture is insufficient and ineffective; “do-gooders” must be culturally knowledgeable.

Another characteristic in the data that appeared to affect the quality of the scaffolding and the quality of the listening behaviors, resulting in more positive social interactions was a match in life and/or literacy experiences for tutor and child. In a study of this nature, it is impossible to ascer- tain the direct relationship between this characteristic and the child’s achieve-

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ment. Yet, it appeared that whenever the tutor felt a connection to the child due to similar life experiences or similar personality type, there was a closer bond and easier communication. As expressed in journal entries, when the tutor could relate to the child’s socioeconomic status, the child’s being raised by a single mother, the child’s being a second language learner, the child being a “rebel like me”, or a child who was “eager to please the teacher”, the pairing seemed to be a true bonding of kindred hearts.

CONCLUSIONS: DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

This research project supports the premise that effective literacy tutoring for the older at risk student can not be defined by looking at the instructional component alone; effective literacy tutoring for the reluctant older reader is multidimensional as are listening and motivation. Several characteristics were observed within the unique social context of each successful dyad: tutors were skillful communicators who modeled effective listening skills for their tutees, tutors used purposeful listening to acquire knowledge about the child’s special interests which made instruction more mean- ingful, tutors possessed a social conscience, tutors felt a kindred bonding to their child because of a match in life or literacy experiences which enabled them to be better listeners, tutors effectively used body language as an essential part of good listening behavior, and tutors were knowledgeable of students’ cultures. Consequently, tutees were motivated and cooperative and posted significant gains in literacy achievement, attitudes toward school, and in attitudes toward reading.

In this study with fourth graders as in Juel’s (1 996) research with emer- gent readers, the most successful dyads experienced significantly more scaffolded reading and writing experiences. Vygotsky (1978) confirmed that this scaffolding occurs through social contexts and interactions. In the present study, this scaffolding was often observed to be embedded within a conversational framework, which tapped into the child’s special interests, culture, personality, and life experiences. Essential scaffolding responses occurred quite naturally in the successful dyads. The highest achievers thrived within a tutoring context rich with enhanced social interactions made possible by the effective listening skills of the tutors. The effective tutors became quite adept at providing the necessary support structures for the literacy instructional activities.

One fundamental characteristic that was consistently present in the social interactions of the effective dyads was the use of effective listening skills

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by the successful tutors for establishing rapport, for gaining useful information about a child’s interests for the purpose of instructional planning, and to convey care and concern. The use of effective listening skills in mentoring relationships, particularly with older at-risk students, and as a tool for planning successful instructional activities is an area needing further investigation.

In this research project of a volunteer literacy tutorial project with college student athletes and preservice teachers as tutors of at-risk fourth graders in a culturally diverse elementary school, it was indeed difficult to circumvent the cycle of failure after grade three. Although there were model dyads with praise- worthy accomplishments, and it was possible to note successes; certainly, this researcher does not advocate volunteer tutoring as a panacea to America’s problems of illiteracy and children at risk. Reading educators would agree that the key to improving the literacy achievement for children at risk is the regular classroom teacher and herhis instructional program. Community volunteers may play a crucial role, and further research is needed to refme the roles of these tutodmentors and to propose models that capitalize on the tutors’ strengths as complementary to the classroom teacher. A close examination of specific factors related to the social context of the tutoring relationship and specific interpersonal skills of effective mentors, particularly listening behaviors and preferred listening styles of highly effective tutors, may provide insights as we continue to search for effective models to enable the older reluctant reader to succeed.

NOTES A vmion of this paper was presented at the 1999 conference of the International Listening Associa-

tion, Albuquerque, NM and previously published in Reading Horimns, Vol. 39 but did not include the specific findings pertinent to listening.

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listening within the social contexts of tutoring: essential component of the mentoring relationship

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