Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Enigma]

Most of my students are beginner/intermediate adults who are focused on improving their conversation and/or grammar skills, however I have one class of fairly advanced students. The main goal of one of these students is to improve his writing skill. He's in his mid-twenties and just finished university but hasn't found a job yet. He's been working extremely hard for the last few years on improving his English, and he now spends several hours a day in the library studying. His comprehension level is quite high, and he probably understands me 90% of the time.
To practice his writing, he'll occasionally write a brief essay and have me check it over. Unfortunately, it still sounds like someone's taken a Korean essay and run it through an online translator into English. I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about, and so it's hard to follow a lot of what he's writing.
I'd like to help him improve, but I'm not sure the best route to take. He's made it clear that he's willing to do the work, so I want to make sure I help steer him in the right direction so he can use his time most effectively. I'm going to take a look through Google and see what I can find, but I'd appreciate any suggestions any of you might have.

Thanks

[edwardcatflap]

If your student is in a class of general English and wants to improve his writing on the side, there's not much extra you can, or should do (unless you like working for free). I know some teachers who wouldn't even mark the extra work he's been doing if it wasn't part of the set homework. I would be prepared to correct the odd essay but after that I'd just recommend a book or tell him to sign up for a writing class.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

edward said it-- don't teach him for free. Your job is to provide activities, answer in-class questions, guide/facilitate discussion, and come up with appropriate assignments... not take your students hands and spoonfeed them the answers.

You can't make him improve--he has to force himself. Everything he needs is already out there-- so I would look at where he is/check his level, then recommend him some books that he can use on his own. Or tell him to look for his own darn books.

[Zyzyfer]

[nathanrutledge]

Read.

Listening and speaking go together, reading and writing go together. If he can write well enough, the only way he's going to improve is to continue writing AND reading. If he reads well edited examples of english essays and practices mimicking the styles that he reads, he'll pick up bits and pieces as that goes on.

So, read and ape styles.

[winterfall]

[oldlongears]

And make sure they are reading quality texts written by/for an audience that speaks English. That may be obvious to English teachers, but many instructional texts written (by non-native speakers) for English language learners still have that awkwardness that is difficult to describe but immediately apparent to native English speakers.

[Whistleblower]

Dictogloss is a good activity which can involve listening and writing at the same time. For longer writing practice, get students to start their own blog or get them to do some project which includes some form of writing for their next lesson (book reviews, film reviews, etc).

[Whistleblower]