Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tutor the Tutor
As we all know, tutors (and teachers) do not have all the answers. This is my second semester as an English tutor, and my first semester tutoring English As A Second Language (ESL) students. Although English has always been my strongest subjects, I find myself unable to answer a lot of questions I have been asked lately. The problem is... I just don't remember the rules. I can tell a student that something is written a certain way, but I have no answer when they ask me why it is written that way. It has been so many years since I have learned all of the official terms and rules for English, so I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how I could re-learn these things so I can provide my students with the answers they seek. Maybe there is a place online that I can print out worksheets or something? Help me help them!
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Don't overlook the fact that the ESL students almost always have workbooks that give them the rules--if you're working with workbooks. Just ask if you can thumb back a few pages, or model using their table of contents or index to find the topic.
ReplyDeleteI, too, learned LOTS of grammar rules on the job. They simply don't teach us these rules in k-12 schools, and by the time you get to college you're expected to be using them even if you don't know them. And you are. So try browsing our collection of writers' refs, especially looking for sections on ESL tips; a lot of refs have those sections. You'll be (possibly) fascinated at all the rules you've internalized without knowing them!
Try grammargirl.com. But, also, I was in the same boat in my first semester working here. I'm now in my fourth semester here and I'm an English major who will be teaching in the near future. However, I STILL don't know all of the rules.
DeleteWhen you are faced with this situation, find the answer, and in doing so you will begin to learn all of the "rules."