Language and community: using service learning to reconfigure the multicultural classroom

Universities that lack significant racial or ethnic diversity present challenges to teaching multiculturalism, particularly in linguistics. This article presents ideas from a service-learning curriculum designed to teach university students about diversity through a community-based partnership to provide tutors in English as a second language (ESL). While much service-learning research in ESL addresses pre-service teachers, this article presents an interdisciplinary model for a service-learning curriculum for university students from all majors, focusing on language and diversity. The project's design (especially the pre-planning stages), reflective writing and tutoring experiences all help integrate the voice of people of color into the university, even when the tutors lack racial and ethnic diversity. Additionally, the ESL tutoring allows the leveraging of limited resources into tremendous community outreach, with about 30 tutors contributing 3400 hours of tutoring per year. This article offers a roadmap for instructors interested in adapting this innovative pedagogy in other communities.