Directive Approach for ESL students

I have been thinking about some of the things that Professor Grove said last week about ESL students, particularly about the need to be directive. It is interesting that Professor Grove said that the best approach with an ESL student is to be directive because if you give them too many options they will simply be overwhelmed. We have been talking so much about directive vs. facilitative approach and have pretty definitively decided that it is always better to be facilitative. We have discussed the ways that facilitative comments are more appropriate and helpful especially as our role as tutors, but the class with Professor Grove made me realize that this is not always the case. I never thought about the fact that some students might need a more directive approach until Professor Grove pointed it out. She said that in this situation we are like the teacher and they are the student. It took a little while for me to adjust to this idea, since most of the semester we have been talking about ourselves as peers who can help talk about ideas. It is a little intimidating to me that for ESL students we need to assume this "teacher" role. I have been thinking to myself "Why would anyone trust me with such an important job?????" Thankfully, Professor Grove also talked to us about some of the ways to prioritize our concerns with ESL students during one session. We brought up the concern that there are so many things that we could help them with so how do we know which are the most important? Professor Grove suggested that the first thing we work on is grammar. This also was a big shocker to me since previously we have discussed not paying too much attention to grammar and focusing on ideas more. She said that grammar is something manageable that we can work with and it gives the students very concrete things to focus on, which is what they need. All in all, Professor Grove's visit was extremely helpful to me and completely changed the way I view consultations with ESL students. Hopefully, I will be able to follow her advice if and when I am in this situation.