The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

Reading Out Loud
As tutors, we don’t want to miss any opportunity of improving the writing of the student. Many students
catch their own mistakes when reading aloud. During every session, if a paper is read out loud, in addition
to a student catching his own mistakes, he will be working on speaking clearly. Talking out loud and
asking questions will help the student put together his own sentences and learn by listening to the way the
tutor speaks to him. I had a student whose sentence structures rarely made sense. The positive thing was
that he never spoke the way he wrote. He spoke in full sentences missing just a couple of words.
Whenever I came across sentences like these, I turned them around into questions and had him answer it
out loud. For instance, he wrote, “To stay safe on MySpace, you should put age 99, location, add
strangers, put pictures private.” I would ask, “I am going to make a MySpace. What can I do to stay
safe?” He would answer slowly and in short sentences, but they were not run on sentences when he spoke.
I would quickly start writing down what he said word for word. When I showed him what he spoke
versus what he wrote, he agreed that writing something down was a problem he faced. I suggested that he
ask himself what he wants to write in a sentence, and then answer that question out loud while writing the
answer down. He is currently working on editing in this manner and shows much improvement.
Making an Outline
ESL students at many times have problems with development. They have a topic and know what side
they are on, but don’t know how to turn that topic into a 3-4 page paper. One way to help an ESL student
is to ask him many questions while going through his essay. When a student has to explain everything, he
is forced to think about ways to expand his ideas. If he had a good idea written down on paper, asking
numerous questions shows him what his reader needs to see more of in his paper. In future papers, he
would find it easier to clarify many ideas because he gets used to explaining one thing in many different
ways. By asking questions, the tutor not only shows interest but also challenges the student, which makes
the student a better writer as well as a better speaker. Asking questions leads to new ideas. If one has a
weak thesis for a paper, he can make it strong by answering a variety of questions the tutor asks. If this
process is followed for all papers, the student will become a strong writer on his own through continuous
writing.
Focus on Higher Order Concerns First
It’s always helpful to educate the student about higher order concerns first since they need to be able to
structure their paper before structuring their sentences correctly. The structuring may be something new
to a foreign student since writing styles are different in different countries. If a tutor provides them with a
handout of the basic structure of an essay, it can be used by the student for future papers. Students who
are new to the academic writing structure are not likely to get it the first time. Therefore, it is important
that they are given something to reference.
Take it One Step at a Time
Most importantly, be aware that if this is your first time being with an ESL student, it is normal to be
frustrated. They need help in many areas, and at most times, it is not in our control to help them with
everything in a 30 minute or one hour session. You are just one source through which they will learn a
few things to carry on into their future writings. It is not the tutor’s responsibility to make a student a
perfect writer by the end of the semester. It is our responsibility to make sure that we are steering the
student in the right direction, that we are not just helping them to get a passing grade on one paper, but to
make them good writers in one small area or another.
---------- ---------- ----------
We might remember that multilingual writers are not only trying to acquire academic writing
skills but that they are also struggling with the threat of loss of identity by forgoing the style of writing
106