TUTORIALS IN ESL: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF THE TUTORIAL COMPONENT OF A WRITING PROGRAM FOR ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL) STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL: TEACHER AND STUDENT PERCEPTIONS, TEACHER DIFFERENCES, STUDENT-TEACHER INTERACTION, AND THE ROLE

A study was done of the tutorial component of a writing program for English as a Second Language (ESL) students enrolled at The Ohio State University. The study explored the student and teacher perceptions of the tutorial, the role of the tutorial in the program, and the benefits and problems of the tutorial. In addition, the similarities and differences of tutorials with different students and different teachers were examined. Qualitative instruments and techniques were used, including observation, interviewing, audiorecording, videorecording, questionnaires, and introspection.;Recommendations are made for improving the value of the tutorials, including increasing the flexibility of the tutorial set-up, observing teaching staff more frequently, conducting workshops on the special problems of foreign students, on sensitivity, and on tutorial teaching techniques, further articulating the objectives of the tutorial component, and encouraging more student input.;The results of an analysis of the data indicate that both students and teachers on the whole perceived tutorials in a favorable light. There were some reservations, however, about the amount of time involved in tutorials. Both teachers and students developed strategies to cope with the extra burden tutorials presented. It was found that two different teachers used tutorial periods in very different ways. These differences included methods, content, and amount of student input allowed.