Teaching English

As I indicated in my previous post, as an English tutor, I see students who have a grasp of English that is less than stellar. Often it is only a part of a greater problem, so it is frequently left by the wayside in favour of exploring themes of the set text. Obviously I fix as much as possible, particularly my pet peeves (such as its/it’s, there/their/they’re etc), but it doesn’t ensure a result of fluent English. As such, this post is dedicated to exploring  how on earth I can get my students to make verbs and subjects agree, or use correct prepositions.

An example of the type of writing I’m talking about would have a sentence that includes the phrase “impart to the reader”, has no apparent end or comma use, or has no agreement between verb and subject such as “the group are very lonely”.

There are two techniques that I often use:

1. Essays. Arguably, going through  and correcting an essay that the student has written is the best way to show students where they’re going wrong with their writing. This is quite useful for students who are in year 12, or approaching exams. The problem however, is that those students are inevitably around the year 11/12 mark, and by then, writing habits are ingrained. Asking a student between years 7 and 9 to write an essay is often difficult, because they either haven’t learned yet to write an essay properly, or they don’t see the point, so gaining their retentive attention is nigh-on impossible.

2. Correction. I remember from my own school days that being given a sheet of writing with mistakes in it was particularly effective at cementing a rule in my mind. This was particularly applicable to French, but it can easily translate to English. For example, my year 7 student has difficulty knowing when to end a sentence (his explanation being that he “may want to add something to it later”). So I wrote out a paragraph with no punctuation and asked him to insert full stops and commas where appropriate. This is quite good, but I feel that it’s not enough to radically change the work of a student who writes with several errors.

The biggest problem for me is that the things that should work are the things that it is impossible to get students to do, and keep your job. Why? Because students will hate you – and a tutor’s job exists off the relationship developed between students and you. You can only get a student to do so much before they resent you. If I could force my students to read, that would be ideal – through reading, you pick up all of the conventions and correct phrasing that I am laboriously trying to impart, but as tutors we are only with our students one hour per week.

I am contemplating trying dictation with my students, but it may simply come across as archaic and pointless.

Half the battle is motivating a student so that they like you, and want to do well. But that rules out more technical work that I would love to give.

If any tutors have suggestions or advice, I’m more than happy to hear it.