Things Aren't as Hard as They Seem

Although I have profoundly enjoyed our discussions in class about ESL tutoring ( I thought that our speaker on Monday was incredibly insightful and helped me realize just what I’m getting myself into), I have not yet had the opportunity to tutor an ESL student. In fact, so far I’ve only had one opportunity of tutoring anybody, but that one experience made me realize something that I think applies to every type of student we might get. After sitting dutifully in the writing center for about forty-five minutes my first session, in comes three students, each simultaneously needing advice. Although I had been planning on observing a more experienced tutor at work for my first session, I didn’t really have a choice other than to just dive into the experience head first. The boy I was talking to needed help with topic sentences and transition phrases. As I began explaining the importance of these writing techniques to him, I noticed that in his paragraphs he already had written his topic sentence, but had simply put it in the wrong place. After pointing this out to him, I think he and I realized simultaneously that he had known more than we both thought he had. It was actually quite a fulfilling moment when he walked out of there, appearing at least, to feel better about himself and his writing skills.

My point to the story is that I think sometimes the people we are tutoring actually are doing more than us tutors and the students themselves give them credit for. At least with this tutee, all he needed was a prod in the right direction. I think that this idea applies to ESL students in a similar way. Although these students don’t have the same natural proficiency of the language that native speakers have, maybe it’s possible that their teachings have stuck with them more than anyone expected. I am a student of French and often times when I feel that I am doing everything wrong, I find that I am doing much better than I ever imagined I could be and that, honestly, all is not wrong with the world. My problem with my first tutee was that I was so intent on focusing on the wrong things in his paper, that I almost missed the right. I know that what I am focusing on is perhaps relatively ideal compared to the basic reality for most students, but I think there are some cases where the student’s answer is right in front of them and they just haven’t seen it yet. Maybe sometimes the students will simply need an assurance that the path they are taking is the right one, especially if they are so unfamiliar with the language that nothing seems right.

Anyways, back to the main topic at hand, I believe that sometimes that are things about our English language that simply can’t be explained clearly to somebody to whom it is completely foreign to begin with. As Dr. Curtis advised, we may just have to correct the ESL student without a viable explanation as to why, simply because it makes the sentence flow better. I am sure that this must be a very frustrating situation for the student as it is a rather awkward one for the tutor. The main thing with ESL students, in my opinion, is to get their confidence and their ease with the language up in any way possible. Of course, this is obviously the whole point of the writing center in theory, but like I said before maybe at times the problem is an easier fix than we first thought. After beginning a lengthy explanation on the importance of topic sentences and how to formulate them to my student, I realized that it was almost entirely unnecessary. As soon as I pointed out the sentence in his paper that, in reality, was his topic sentence the comprehension dawned in his eyes. Basically, especially for us high strung folks, life just isn’t as complicated as it seems.