Tutoring ESL

I have been tutoring ESL students for over 20 years. I started in Korea tutoring students from 6 - 56. I tutored 7 days a week 4 - 8 hours a day. I worked a lot and made a lot of money. I was able to live comfortably in Korea through tutoring even though it was against the law. I have fun tutoring, working with 1 to 4 students. I think through the years I have developed a good system. My philosophy of tutoring is to get them talking and get them involved in the lesson. The reason they want individualized tutoring is they want to do something, not just listen to teacher talk. It goes with the thinking the best teacher is the one that doesn't talk much.

When I start with a new student I give them new vocabulary. In Korea I first used a beginner ESL book that has a lot of simple pictures. I then bought a box of picture flash cards that I use to teach vocabulary. I also use a "word dictionary". I get the student to talk. First individual words, I want them to gain confidence. I want them to use proper pronunciation. As they start to gain confidence they progress to short sentences. "My name is Scott", "I live in California", "I am 17 years old" are some of the sentences. I start to ask questions, talk to them, most of it I know they don't understand. They hear more and more of it and they start to mimic me.

Usually reading is not hard for most ESL students. I have them do homework of reading kids books. Not picture books, but I have them read chapter books written for 3rd - 5th graders. I ask that they read the books out loud so they practice their speaking as they are learning new vocabulary words and about American family life. As they read they keep a list of new vocabulary words that they come across. When they meet me I ask general questions about the book to find out if they understand what they are reading. I tell them to read the book without using a dictionary. I don't want them to look up every word they don't know because that is not the way they do it with their native language.

I have them underline vocabulary words when they come across new words and write them down afterwards. I try to choose high interest books with easy vocabulary. After they read the book for homework I have them read it for me when we are together. As they read I help them with pronunciation and vocabulary. After we do that for 20 - 30 minutes we just have conversations. We talk for another 30 minutes. If we go more than an hour or an hour and a half the session starts to get worse.

I have found this system works well. I have had students with me for 3 months to 3 years. I have seen students grow in their ability on a consistent basis.