Peer tutoring as a context for children learning English as a second language¹

This paper overviews research reporting the effectiveness of peers as tutors of a wide range of academic skills. It makes particular reference to studies which report academic and social gains for tutors as well as for tutees, especially when tutors themselves are low achievers. These often quite major learning gains for tutors and tutees are interpreted in terms of the characteristics of responsive, social contexts for independent learning. Education implications are drawn from two case studies for the role of peer tutoring in the context of learning English as a second language.