Tutoring second language text revision: Does the approach to instruction or the language of communication make a difference?

This study describes the dynamics of problem solving through spoken discourse in one-to-one tutoring of second language writing, aiming to determine if these processes might vary according to the instructional approach or the language of communication utilized. We tutored 20 adult students of English as a second language (ESL) in 4 sessions of text revision on 4 similar compositions they had written, alternating these sessions between provision of (a) conventional error correction versus procedural facilitation and (b) use of the second language (English) or learners' mother tongues (Cantonese, Japanese, and Mandarin)—forming a 2 (Approach to tutoring) × 2 (Language of communication) factorial design. The discourse of tutoring seems to have been highly normative in this context, sequenced into transactions of problem identification, negotiation, and resolution that did not vary appreciably across any of the conditions for tutoring. Tutors' and students' cooperative efforts to solve problems in the students' draft compositions focused primarily on local levels of the compositions (i.e., grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation), guided mainly by the tutors' decision making, in all of the experimental conditions. This finding parallels what has been found in most previous studies of text revision. However, individual tutors tended to differ from one another in the extent to which they solicited students' input to the discourse, suggesting this is an important factor to be considered in future studies of the impact of tutoring on ESL students' writing.