Too many mistakes

[jori]

When I speak with one of my university level students, I hear that he has so many mistakes. He has mistakes in word order, word choice, and tenses. There are also many missing words in his sentences. I wonder how can I even start to correct him. I want him to speak with perfect grammar.

[Sally Olsen]

Really? What is perfect grammar? I am a native speaker and probably don't have perfect grammar. But I can understand your interest. It might be an idea to have him tape his conversations with you and then come the next day with a written version where he has corrected as much of it as he can. Then you will begin to see the kind of errors he is making and maybe even find a pattern. Correct his written version and give him some alternatives as well at a more academic level of speech. Just four or five sentences a session will be enough at the beginning and it will give him the idea that you care and that he has to be more careful about his speech. We usually say many of the same things over and over so whatever he learns with you will carry over to other situations in his life. Don't spend too much time or you will feel overwhelmed with his needs but give him the idea that perhaps he needs a tutor and to spend more time thinking about his language needs. Don't judge him by his poor speech though because probably by the end of his years of study he will have caught up to the rest. Advise him to hang out with students whose speech is much better and to listen to taped books and read along so he gets a better rhthym and pronunciation or even to songs where he has the lyrics in front of him. Point him to the services available at the university to help him - do you have a peer tutoring club run by students? Perhaps you could start something or refer him to the International Student facilities on campus. Assign him a peer tutor in your classroom and ask them to email or form a chat line for the class to discuss after class and get him to participate. If he tapes your lessons he can listen to the types of conversation over and over and get a better idea of what he should say. He could also put on the subtitles on the TV so that he is reading what he is hearing.