Unit 12: ESL: Tutoring Basics

Tutors are experts in speaking and understanding English even though they may not realize it. It’s an integral part of who we are when our first language is English. All tutors need are some ideas on how to help other adults build these skills.

This unit provides a few techniques that tutors can use when working with English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. It takes a general look at language and then focuses on how to develop speaking and listening skills. The unit will give some insight into the learning process from an ESL learner’s perspective, but it does not go deeply into this area. Also, though this unit mentions reading and writing, tutors are expected to gain most of what they need from Reading (Unit 6), Writing (Unit 7) and Spelling (Unit 8).

We have included the Teacher’s Beliefs Inventory to give you an idea of what your tutors may think about how to tutor ESL learners. It comes from Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms, by Jack Richards and Charles Lockhart (copyright Cambridge University Press, 1994, reprinted with permission of Cambridge University Press).

Beliefs about ESL instruction

The inventory is not meant as an exercise to do with tutors, but rather as a way of letting you know what their unconscious approaches might be. We suggest that you might want to do the exercise yourself and then share the results with someone else who likes to think about learning to see if she agrees with your beliefs. The conversation may stretch your thinking (and theirs too!). The statements reflect a variety of approaches and some are more useful for certain circumstances than others.