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My husband works with an Indian woman who would like grammar lessons. She asked if I would be willing to give her lessons, and I am. However, I can't figure out how much to charge. I looked at a tutor site for this area and tutors charge anywhere from $15 to $45 per hour. I have a BSW and my two older children have scored very well in English on the PSAT and ACT. On the other hand, I do not have experience teaching grammar to someone who speaks English as a second language.

 

 

This comes at a wonderful time as medical costs (adoption related therapy, medication, and testing) are mounting for us and I don't want to take too much time away from my family for work. It is an answer to prayer for me to be able to help someone else and ease the financial stress.

 

Also, if anyone has any literature recommendations, I would appreciate them. I am going to advise her to read and listen to well-written books so she can begin to hear the patterns of proper English.

 

I hope this all makes sense. I am sleep deprived right now, but will work on that before we begin!:D

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I did volunteer adult literacy tutoring for ten years (though I have not done so in ten years).

 

What is the prospective student's level of English fluency now?

 

There are many literacy materials available; you might check to see what your local library has. The program I tutored though used the Challenger series by Corea Murphy.

 

While I have never used it myself, I often saw Understanding and Using English Grammar by Betty Azar recommended as a teaching resource. (Your library might have this book; otherwise, older editions are often available used for pennies plus shipping.)

 

I agree with your idea of having your student read and listen to good books. I often suggested my students do this beginning with children's books on tape (which often come packaged with the book) and working their way to more advanced materials.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Thank you both so much. The info on books and fees is very helpful.

 

Kareni, she has been in the states for about 10 yrs. She is studying for an MBA entrance exam and needs help mastering the English portion. She has already tried preparation classes, but recognizes that she needs one- on-one help. She struggles with understanding conversations at work and is very literal. She misuses words and puts sentences together incorrectly. I think she needs help in understanding sentence structure, verb-noun agreement, and the proper use of prepositions. She listed parts of speech as an area of concentration.

 

She is a career woman and is very driven. I think she will be willing to work hard outside of our time together. I plan on doing research and analyzing her progress as we go along.

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It didn't occur to me to address the question of fees previously. My husband, who has a PhD in Chemistry, tutors private students and teaches classes. We live in a fairly low income area; his fee is $16.00 an hour. I would try to get information from local tutors as I believe fees vary tremendously from area to area.

 

She is studying for an MBA entrance exam and needs help mastering the English portion. She has already tried preparation classes, but recognizes that she needs one-on-one help. She struggles with understanding conversations at work and is very literal. She misuses words and puts sentences together incorrectly. I think she needs help in understanding sentence structure, verb-noun agreement, and the proper use of prepositions. She listed parts of speech as an area of concentration.

 

Is the MBA entrance exam a standardized test? If so, it is likely that there are test prep materials available. If so, I would use those. If not, I would see if she can find out what specific areas the test will address and focus your attention on those areas.

 

Many of my non-native literacy students were immersed in their own language outside of our meeting times. You mentioned above that your students works; I presume she is with English speakers at that time. I wonder if she could augment her exposure to spoken language by accessing movies with subtitles (or broadcast TV with closed captioning).

 

I hope that others might chime in with specific suggestions.

 

Best wishes in your work with this student.

Regards,

Kareni

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