This document provides tips for tutoring English language learners and developmental students. It emphasizes focusing on the overall goals, content, organization and vocabulary of assignments rather than just grammar corrections. Tutors should ask questions to understand areas of difficulty and have students explain their ideas, while modeling clear language themselves. References are also important to help explain concepts without directly editing student work. The role of the tutor is to facilitate student learning through directive and nondirective questioning techniques.

1. Teach, Don’t Tell
Working with English as a Second
Language and Developmental
Learners

2. Ten Tips for a Successful Tutorial
1. Explain the goals, procedures, and participant roles for a tutorial.
2. Emphasize the assignment.
3. Emphasize the planning.
4. Emphasize the content and organization.
5. Ask if students would prefer to read or to listen.
6. Concentrate on the macro-structure—the entire piece of writing.
7. Read through mistakes that do not interfere with your
understanding.
8. If some language related issue seriously interferes with your
understanding, either stop reading and try to identify the problem
or mark that place in the text for your attention when you finish
reading.
9. Emphasize vocabulary development.
10.Emphasize proofreading strategies.

3. Honest and
Compassionate
Tutoring
1. Be realistic
2.Be honest
3.Be interested

4. DePaul Writing Center: The
Breakroom S01E01 "The Mime"

5. LocusofDirection
Let the student
decide, even if
it kills you.
Your role as
consultant:
directive vs.
nondirective

6. Identifying and Correcting Errors

7. ESL -ing
1. Show an interest
2. Identify problems
3. Plan for long-term success

8. Asking the Right
Questions
1. Ask students to identify
areas they need to work
on.
2. Ask students to point out
areas where they
struggled to make word
choices.
3. Identify the places where
you don’t understand or
identify an error.
4. Take one or two pages
and underline all the
errors without correcting
them.
5. Explain what you can,
and don’t be afraid to use
references!

9. Strategies for Tutoring Sessions
• Validate the student’s need for help with lower order
concerns.
• Prompt them to discuss other concerns in the paper.
• Always have them explain their assignment.
• When you get to a trouble area, ask the student what
they mean or get them to tell you more about the
idea.

10. Strategies for Tutoring Sessions (cont.)
• Negotiate meaning by asking, “Did you mean…?”
Rephrasing the statement in grammatically clear terms.
• Provide “linguistic input” by modeling phrases.
• Provide options, explaining essential grammar and
vocabulary. Don’t let students use your exact words;
rather, help them to find their own.
• Try to explain why things are done this way, but don’t
be afraid to look it up! Looking up answers models
how to find the answers you don’t know off the top of
your head!

11. sources
1. Don’t Tell Me How to Write, Teach Me:
http://www.peercentered.org/2014/03/dont-tell-me-how-to-write-
teach-me.html#links
2. ESL-ing: https://writinglabnewsletter.org/archives/v29/29.9.pdf
3. UNC Chapel Hill Writing Center Resources:
https://writingcenter.unc.edu/faculty-resources/tips-on-teaching-esl-
students/just-check-my-grammar/
4. Tinberg, H.B. (1997). Border Talk: Writing and Knowing in the Two-
Year College. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Available at http://wac.colostate.edu/books/tinberg/
5. Geller, A. E. & Eodice, M. & Condon, F. & Carroll, M. & Boquet, E.(2007).
Everyday Writing Center: A Community of Practice. Logan, UT: Utah
State University Press.