I've got a friend at work who's trying to learn English. She'd like me to help her out, and I said I would. There are ESL schools in town, but you have to pay for them, and she can't really afford it. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for teaching ESL. When we're working, I teach her phrases here and there, and she's already picked up a lot (from me and other people), but how does one go about doing an actual tutoring session? Any ideas? I used to tutor math, but this will be totally different.

I don't feel like I would be able to teach her English from the ground up, like we learn Spanish in American classrooms. For one thing, English is just way too inconsistent. I was thinking of having her make lists of all the words and phrases she needs to use the most, and then teaching her those and branching out from there. I was also thinking of taking her around my apartment, outside, around stores, etc and naming things in English. Does anyone out there have experience in this sort of thing? I want to do this well.

Thanks

Vida