English Sentences and ESL Students

While I want my ESL students develop critical thinking skills in relation to standard English writing practices, I'd be remiss if I ignored the significance of sentences.

I believe that one of my finest characteristics as an second-language instructor is the fact that I never doubt the native intelligence of my students, but at the same time I try to keep in mind that their experience with English as a second language (especially in writing) will always require an ongoing development of "finesse" as it pertains to writing sentences.

Some of my most orally fluent students have stumbled over basic sentence patterns, and even when I have made audio transcriptions of their near-flawless speaking patterns, ideas would get "lost in translation" as they traveled from mind to paper. As I am not a researcher, I cannot speak to the reasons this may be, and my only recommendations to these students is to read their papers aloud prior to turning them in to their instructors, but regardless of how clear the general concepts expressed within the writing may be, the individual sentences can still be a bit of a bumpy ride.

If I could, I would gather together all of the English-speaking professors and business managers and anyone who holds second-language learners accountable for minute grammatical "errors" and help them see the meaning and not just the meter, so to speak.

But I can't.

And until the day arrives when the meaning behind what an ESL student writes becomes the valued communication rather than just the way it is written, I will not abandon my students' need to meet the standards and expectations of others who play an important part in their lives.