Tips for helping a novice with English

Question

Hi everyoneThere i a girl in my college who struggles with English and i would love to help her as i'm English. I was just wondering what way to start off really, its talking and writing i want to help her with.Thanks guysPete

Ieltsonly · Accepted Answer

Is your college one where English used to teach? If so, it is important to know how much your friend struggles with English. Can she communicate at all?

It is not unhelpful to just "chat." Being a "good example" of an English speaker will help enormously.

Peter McgoughI was just wondering what way to start off really, its talking and writing i want to help her with.

1. Listen and gently correct spoken errors but sometimes just listen
2. Proof read any writing that has been done and correct errors. Try to explain why you have made corrections.

I hope this helps

Stephen

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Welcome to the Forums, and sorry for the belated reply.

Learning a second languages takes a lot of dedication and patience.

You can set a good example. When you exchange emails: Always write "I" and not "i", "you" and not "u". These abbreviations and mispunctuations are not acceptable in formal academic writing.

Schedule an "English help" session with your friend for an hour once or twice a week. It is good to have some time set aside devoted to practice.

Let your friend identify the areas where she needs the most help. For writing, it's important to avoid the common mistakes:
- run-on sentences
- punctuation (especially comma splices)

- grammatical structure in sentences

If it's writing, ask her to write often, such as keeping a diary. Then you can see where their most frequent occur, and do some exercises to practice the correct form.

Does she know how to use a dictionary? This handy tool can be a godsend.

All the best,
A

s

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