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Tutoring English


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It looks like I may be doing some tutoring to help someon get ready for the TOEFL. I have worked with children who are English language learners, but never an adult. Do you have any tips to help me get started with her? Is there a way I can quickly assess her English skills? I will be looking at the TOEFL to see what it involves, but any help you can give me to point me in the right direction would be really helpful.

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The first step to tutoring is always communication. From the verbal exchange, you can tell the level of her English. I'd suggest inquiring about her progress like what she has been working on for her test and her understanding of the test. Also take a look at her study material, e.g books, previous exam papers.

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It looks like I may be doing some tutoring to help someon get ready for the TOEFL. I have worked with children who are English language learners, but never an adult. Do you have any tips to help me get started with her? Is there a way I can quickly assess her English skills? I will be looking at the TOEFL to see what it involves, but any help you can give me to point me in the right direction would be really helpful.

Honestly, teaching English to adults is very like teaching it to children. The only real difference is that most children are learning it while they're also still trying to get a handle on their native tongue, if English isn't their native tongue that is. So, you're able to actually communicate your ideas and issues with your tutee, and best of all, you can draw upon their knowledge of books and films. One of the tricks I used when I was helping my non-native English speaking friends to improve their language skills was to assign them reading which would entail reading books they had already read in their own language.

So for example, Lord of the Rings was the one we used most often, as it was the easiest to come across, and the one which most of them had already read. They knew the plot from having read it before in their own language, so if they ever got really stuck they could worry the meaning out by thinking, "Okay, I'm at the Mines of Moria. What should be happening about now, and how does this help me understand this word in that context?"

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  • 4 weeks later...

I once tutored a Korean studying his Master's degree here in the Philippines. It was rather difficult at first because he wasn't very fluent in English. What I did was to ask him general questions to gauge his level in terms of speaking the language. Make sure that you will answer basic questions to reinforce conversation such as favorite movies, books, TV shows, etc.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi! Hope I'm not yet late about giving you advice on how to start tutoring an adult student to get him started for her TOEFL. I have been consistently teaching English as a Second Language(ESL) both man to man and Home-based online  to Koreans for almost 5 years now, Taiwanese and also Kurdish as Home-based Online Tutor or Teacher for 3 years now. In my years of doing this it's very important that you do a simple "LEVEL TEST", basic questions would be to ask her to "Tell something about herself", that includes about her age, family, hobbies etc. Since you have been teaching you must take note there are different levels right? Beginner, Intermediate and Advance is the level in studying English. Since you said you need to tutor a student and adult in particular to get her ready for her TOEFL, I can say that her level is intermediate to pre advance. You see TOEFL is a very challenging subject to test your accuracy in English most especially your reading, listening, speaking and writing,  so if she would want take up masters and go to the US or other countries it really requires you take up TOEFL test. Hope that helps you and good luck! Here is a link to help your student practice for the TOEFL test. http://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/

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