Leading a Session - #3

The first session I led today was with an ESL student who had a response paper to a podcast he had to listen to for his ISS class. He had actually already asked a friend to go over the paper for him, so he had a copy with lots of corrections already marked. He also had his own updated version on his computer, which is what he primarily worked on and where he made corrections. I had the student read the paper aloud, and we stopped for corrections as we went along. The consultant I worked with today didn't actually step in at all during this session except to agree with me once or twice, and to clarify one thing I brought up about the paper's formatting.

This student was not as good of an English speaker as many of the other ESL students I worked with, but he easily understood the corrections I pointed out. Since it has been mentioned that ESL students often do not understand the use of articles, I especially made sure to explain why "the" or "a" was needed. I tried to explain most of the corrections I pointed out, by pointing out differing verb tenses or subjects that did not match their verbs. There were also places where I did not understand what he was trying to say, so I tried to help him clarify his writing as best I could. Sometimes he was able to articulate out loud what he was trying to write, and I had him write that down.

I'm afraid I might have been too directive in changing what he wrote, but he was an ESL student, so he genuinely didn't know a lot of the errors he made, whereas a native speaker probably would have been better able to figure it out with less help. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to ask my shadowing consultant what she thought of my methods since she had to leave us during the last few minutes of the session to work the reception desk and I had to leave as soon as my second session was through.