How English Tutors Can Maximise The Performance Of Their Students

English Language

To thrive in English Language the key elements outlined by all specifications across the country entail the ability to successfully extract information through reading in addition to being able to use this information when producing written work. Thus, the tutor must guide the student in understanding what is useful information (and thus to be extracted) and what is useless information (and thus to be discarded). What is `useful` is determined almost entirely by the purpose of the piece being analysed. Students must (before anything else) seek to understand what the purpose of the writing is. Why it is being written, as it were. Followed by this an efficient tutor will nurture the ability to associate useful language techniques to be employed when writing for specific purposes i.e. the use of rhetorical questions where the purpose is to persuade or the use of imagery in more creative pieces. The student must then understand what the effect of these language techniques are and be able to provide a critical analysis of the impact that the technique had on the piece at large followed by evaluations of how everything comes together to promote the particular purpose of the piece.

Of course, this feeds directly into writing, once the student is able to pick up on the different purposes and language techniques that exist and have thought about why certain techniques work well in some circumstances and others don`t they will find their reading naturally improving. As a tutor my goal is to teach my students of the various purposes of writing, the various techniques implemented by writers to achieve an impact and finally how they too can develop into writers they never thought they could be.

English Literature

This is a highly analytical component of English. It requires the student to try and get into the mind of the writer. Similarly to English Language it requires a critical understanding of the writer`s purpose and the techniques he/she uses to convey this purpose. In contrast to English Language this focuses less on technical writing and more on analytical writing, seeking to understand the images the writer creates and the profound impact this can have on the reader. My advice to tutors would be to get the student to think for themselves. Literature is a subject that any student can fall in love with as there really is no right or wrong answer, we all interpret stories differently and students who achieve grade 9 will be able to provide a compelling argument as to what their interpretation is and this will no doubt entail a deep analysis of the words, how they are presented and why this presentation has resulted in the interpretation adopted by the student.