We can use many of the techniques used by elementary education teachers in teaching adults who are non-native English speaking students. There are major differences, however,  to be considered.

Adults bring a lifetime of experience with them, and sharing this experience makes the content of the class practical and relevant to daily living. This strengthens the content of your instruction so that life-coping skills and motivation become part of the learning process.

Adult students tend to be highly motivated. They choose to come to class and are financially responsible for their education. If they are occasionally absent, this could be due to family obligations rather than a lack of motivation.

Adult ESL students usually have very specific and immediate goals. They need English today to get a job tomorrow.

Many adult students who are non-native English speakers are afraid to return to school for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they feel that they cannot learn or are too old to learn.

"One of the major problems in the college-level English as a second language class is that foreign students with an ability to express the most complex ideas in their own language suddenly find themselves in the position of having to communicate in a language in which they have only a rudimentary knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical structures," (Green 181). This causes them to feel very frustrated with English, and you as a tutor will sense that. Keep in mind that the frustration is not directed at you specifically.

The ESL students that come for tutoring must be treated as "dignified, mature, competent human beings." Their experiences, their sense of self, their concepts and their motivations must be taken into account to maximize the learning situation" (Ryffel). When tutoring them, ask yourself: "Is this the way I would like to be treated?" Adult ESL learners tend to want "learning that is practical now.. (so) make lessons (or explanations) immediate to their life experiences," (Ryffel). In other words, adult ESL students prefer to learn things that will help them now, such as the correct vocabulary of their fields or how to write a journal article or research paper. A student also might ask for the explanation of some American slang that he or she has heard. Since the tutoring environment focuses on the individual's immediate concerns, it is inherently practical learning.

The tutoring session may not make someone comfortable enough to participate equally with the tutor at first. Cultural background may inhibit active participation, such as with Asian students who are used to less interactive learning environments and are trained to treat teachers deferentially, or a student may be naturally shy. Several tutoring sessions with the same tutor can ease these concerns, as the tutor and tutee develop a rapport. When tutoring, try to adopt the student's perspective to look at English and what learning English is like for a non-native speaker. Try to remember how you felt when studying a foreign language or when you tried to interact with the public in a non-English-speaking country, and then magnify those feelings tenfold. Magnifying your experiences will help you better understand their positions. Remind yourself and the tutee that language learning should be fun, and that can help alleviate much of the tutee's stress (Oller and Richard-Amato 303).

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