I am an English teacher in a parochial school. I have one student who is not a native speaker. Traumatic events brought him to our school when he was a freshman. Now I have him as a junior. He is a lovely young man and very smart. His language is understandable. His writing is pretty basic. It lacks proper conjugation of verbs or declension of adjectives. Sometimes his subject verb agreement isn't correct. However, his sentence structure is pretty sound. He uses simple words when possible. He kept me after school recently and asked me to help him. He wants to speak better English. He said that he feels like he doesn't know enough words and also that he doesn't know how to use the words he knows in his writing. He is very frustrated. My student has already grown leaps and bounds in the last three years. I have no experience with ESL. My background is in English and mild to moderate learning disabilities. This young man has not asked anyone else for help. He does not have money for a tutor. I want to help, but I don't know where to start. Please advise.
Sincerely,
Mary