Another method of tutoring young students is to offer lessons that enhance their overseas school experiences. One way to do this is to create a project-based program for each student, based on their individual interests. For example, if a student is particularly interested in Harry Potter books or movies, you could work together on writing a fantasy story. You could devote one lesson to talking about characters and mapping out a storyboard that highlights the main actions of each chapter. Subsequent lessons could be devoted to writing out one chapter at a time until the story is complete. With a lower-level student, you may have to be more hands-on with regard to both story development and the writing itself. By contrast, when working with a higher-functioning student, your role may be more about editing chapters that the student writes for homework.
Below is a list of some of the other reading and writing projects I have worked on with young international students enrolled in the public school system:
• A five-part detective story about a missing kitten
• A board game based on questions about famous people and places
• A mini-magazine that featured articles about winter activities, recipes, a winter word search, and a Christmas crossword puzzle
• A radio play about forest animals who save a river from factory pollution
• A comic book featuring a teenaged girl who saves her school from bullies
One of the best things about using a project-based program is that the students always have something palpable to show for their hard work. They can even bring the finished products back to their home countries to show their parents, teachers, and friends.
Program options for adult international students
If your primary market is adult international students, you might offer a range of content-based and student-led academic and social programs. Students with specific academic goals in mind could opt for a tutor who specializes in a popular academic area (e.g., Academic Preparation, TOEFL, Essay Writing), while students interested in business could choose a TOEIC or Business English tutor. For those needing help with everyday English communication, there could be tutors in everyday conversation, idioms and slang, or even a combination of the above.
There are numerous books and resources available to tutors working with academic students. For test-based programs such as the TOEFL, tutors may simply follow a tried-and-true textbook that includes practice tests and audio CDs. Or they may use textbooks and learning materials that have grammar and vocabulary-building exercises, taped news segments for listening practice, or other helpful materials that will prepare students for the reading comprehension section of the TOEFL.
For students interested only in improving their conversation skills, you could offer both one-on-one and small-group conversation tutorials.
Another way to tutor adult international students is to use the project-based system described above in the section on programs for young international students attending public schools. Once you get to know a bit about a student, you can plan a project that reflects their goals and interests. For example, I once tutored a student who was fascinated by Western kitchen gadgets and was hoping to find a job in an English-speaking restaurant. For her program we decided to devote a month to a research project that required her to learn and use cooking-related words and expressions. We created surveys that she used to interview a range of local people including staff at kitchenware stores and adults who loved cooking. She also researched kitchenware products online. In the end, she collated her data and used it to produce a ten-page report of her findings. By the time she finished her project, she said she was comfortable both using a new set of vocabulary words and starting conversations with strangers.
Another student wanted to improve her English so that she could better serve English-speaking patrons at her sushi restaurant back in Japan. For her project, we created English menus, signs, and an operations manual for a fictional English version of her restaurant.
Another student dreamed of becoming an English-speaking tour guide in her country. She wanted to learn tourism-related vocabulary and develop her pronunciation skills. For her project we pretended we ran a tourism outfit and created a brochure based on Internet and in-person research of local hotels, restaurants, museums, shopping malls, and other tourist attractions. For pronunciation practice, we taped her as she read the brochure aloud and asked native English speakers to listen to the tape to see if they could understand what she was saying. We practiced the phrases she had trouble with until she was able to produce a tape that was understood clearly by English speakers.
For adult students who want to practice speaking to native English speakers, here are some other project ideas:
• Adventure diary: Prepare the student to visit a range of local venues — a museum, a video store, an art gallery — by practicing words and even potential conversations he or she might have with staff or customers. Suggest he or she take a camera along to take pictures of what he or she sees and, if possible, the people he or she meets. Then, work with the student to create one-page summaries of the mini-adventures. Finally, collect and package the summaries into a book.
• Job hunt: Teach the student employment-related terms and issues by perusing job advertisements and helping him or her to create a résumé. Prepare him or her to talk about qualifications through mock job interviews. Encourage him or her to use these new skills in a real-life setting by applying for a real job in person or online, or by simply talking to people about skills and work history.
Extracurricular program options for all ages and types of students
In addition to academic or language-based programs, you could offer a range of alternative programs aimed at enhancing students’ social skills and/or promoting their physical well-being. Depending on the size and scope of your operation and your target market’s interests and desires, each week or month, students could be offered a choice of activities and given the option of signing up for them. Activities could include the following:
• Field trips to interesting landmarks or areas of the city
• Art or dance classes
• Guided adventure tours — biking, hiking, rock climbing, canoeing
• Shopping tours in a neighboring town
• Camping trips
• Sports day and picnic
• Book or poetry readings
• Movie night — watch and discuss a movie
• Fact-finding mission or treasure hunt
Organizing and Scheduling
Regardless of the size and complexity of your operation, you (and your team of tutors and staff, if applicable) are going to need an organizational system to ensure that you have all your ducks in a row at all times. Both large and small operations are wise to have a central booking person who is responsible for matching students with tutors and distributing new-student orientation packages that contain some of the following information about your organization:
• Programs and services
• Expectations of students and tutors
• Maps
• Local transportation system
• Landmarks of interest
• Any other “welcome” documents you choose to include
Your booking person may also keep track of start and end