The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

grammar. After free-writing, a tutor can ask the student to explain what he/she wants to say in the writing
in English. The rational is that most students feel more comfortable communicating in person than writing
due to their lack of academic writing skills. The students can develop their ideas fully by just writing
down their flow of thought.
Processed writing, another useful strategy, requires many hours work. This activity can guide
students into logical, persuasive writing and train them to be good negotiators with their ideas by
discussing the purpose of writing and organization with them. Processed writing can save students from
frustration and even the loss of confidence caused by the pressures to write a perfect, native-like essay.
Communicative relationships between a tutor and a student can also maximize learning potential.
“Language acquisition emerges from learners wrestling with meaning in acts of communicating or trying
to communicate” (Myers, 231). Guiding students to achieve focus, clarity, connectedness, specificity in
their writing will be a very critical role for tutors. I think it is an important role as a tutor to introduce
students to the variety of styles, conventions, and different academic disciplines. Tutors can help them
feel more like insiders to the academic discourse community by encouraging them to express themselves
explicitly. Finally, I ask you to listen carefully and actively when your tutee speaks slowly or in broken
English. This thoughtful consideration can encourage the student to become more willing to speak what
he or she wants to express in the paper.
The Testimony of an Indian Working with Diversity
Manpreet Devi
It is important that tutors create a close relationship with bilingual students to make them feel at
home. Having been in the shoes of an ESL student, I can say that it is extremely hard to share personal
feelings or thoughts with a person who was raised in America because there is always a fear that my ideas
might not be accepted or would not be understood. For example, I have worked with a student from
Thailand who presented himself as a very timid person. He would ask for exact guidelines of what to
write and in what structure. Soon enough I felt that I was doing the work for him. It is his job as a writer
to present me with many ideas which I can then help him develop. I asked him to write down his thoughts
for a paper: the uses of MySpace. He wrote down terms like, predators, young teens, safety, and privacy.
We talked about these terms for a little bit and what they meant to him. He said he thought about his
younger sister as he was coming up with those terms and how she could be in harm’s way if she doesn’t
use her new MySpace safely. A little conversation led to a good idea of what the paper was going to be
about where it was headed. Thinking about his culture and how it is a brother’s responsibility to watch
over his sister, he was able to make close connections with his topic. Bringing his personal life into this
also made it easier for him to write with less help from me. As a tutor, I encouraged him to talk to me
more about his family and the role a male plays in his culture. Seeing my interest encouraged him to
pursue his paper the way he wanted to.
Making the Student Feel Comfortable
When multilingual students don’t feel comfortable sharing their idea because their culture doesn’t allow
them to be so open about a subject, it is always a good idea to show extra interest in their background. I
always found it very helpful when a tutor or a teacher would compliment my unique or indifferent ideas.
It’s important that they are encouraged and appreciated for working hard. When they see that their ideas
are valued by someone they look up to, it is satisfying and very encouraging. This helps the student
express ideas more freely since their ideas are not “odd” but useful and interesting to others. Once
students create a channel through which they can express whatever they please, it then takes them to the
next stage of sharing information with more people. Likewise, I was able to help the student with a
MySpace paper as well as his future papers because I invited his ideas and wasn’t afraid to show my
amazement towards some values that people from his descent hold.
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