ESL Tutorial Guide
It is an indisputable fact that the English language is difficult. Due to English being their second
language, the tried and true methods utilized by tutors like reading a paper aloud to discover
errors will not work to the same effect for ESL students. Below are a few suggestions on how to
best help with ESL students’ writing:
1. Breakdown the issue found within the writing into higher/lower level concerns. The main
objective with an ESL student, just like with any other student, is to make sure that he/she
follows the parameters of the assignment and maintains a coherent, organized argument
throughout the paper over grammatical concerns:
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Higher: Coherency, Structured Argument, Supporting Evidence, and Audience
Lower: Sentence Structure and Grammar
2. Commenting:
All students require some type of feedback. With ESL students, be as clear and
concise with comments as possible. The one-hour tutorials allow more time for
the tutor to go over comments and concerns raised in the structure of a student’s
paper. Take the time to go over any grammatical marks made on the assignment
to ensure that the student understands his/her errors and to prevent confusion from
vague or cryptic comments, abbreviations, and/or correction codes from the
Writer’s Resource.
3. Focus on the rhetorical structure of the paper’s argument.
Grammatical concerns are a necessary component to improving a student’s
writing, but the rhetorical structure of the argument needs to be sound first. If the
student insists on grammatical help, meet the student halfway by addressing some
of the higher-level concerns first, and after resolving some of the issues, begin to
address the lower-level concerns.
4. Reading the paper aloud.
While reading the paper aloud to an ESL student will not help him/her in the same
way as a native speaker, it will help the student become more comfortable with
the English language. Students with a more thorough grasp of the English
language will be more apt at catching errors through oration of their work.
ESL tutoring requires patience and the ability to be thorough. If you have any question or
concerns while tutoring an ESL student, feel free to ask a UWC staff member or another tutor.