Role Technique

Another way of discovering general information about your student is to discuss the roles he plays in his daily life. You could start by drawing a role diagram of your own like this:

Here is the procedure for creating a role diagram:

1. Ask your student to draw his own diagram, or determine his roles through simple questions about his life.
2. Determine the responsibilities that go along with each role. For example, as a worker, does he need to respond to requests for information and relate to colleagues?
3. Determine with whom he communicates.
4. Determine the situations in which he will have to communicate. For example, in his job, does he communicate at an information desk and on the telephone?
5. Determine the language, factual information and cultural knowledge he will need in order to communicate effectively.

Based on your discussion about the student’s needs and circumstances, talk about goals in general and, if possible, try to define them in more specific terms.

Conway, S. (1996). The English as a Second Language tutor's handbook. Toronto, Ontario: Frontier College Press. ISBN 0-921031-17-3. http://literacy.sa.utoronto.ca/resources/esltutorhandbook.html. Used with permission.

Handout 11.9