Dear  Val,

You write that you want to "help ESL students build rapport with
colleagues and fellow employees in their technical writing."

I also think building rapport among the students is very important.
These students have a hard enough time trying to get along on a
day-to-day basis in a foreign language, and most of them are terrified
of English class.  Building a non-threatening atmosphere in the
classroom can help them learn and enjoy English.

I try to eliminate situations where the students compete with each other
for grades. The grades depend on their successful completion of tasks,
and not competition with each other. I also have them work on problems
in groups of two or three before we discuss their conclusions as a whole
class, so they can organize their ideas and discuss them with each other
before they have to present them to the class, and the ideas they
present can be the group ideas and not reflect on any one person.  I let
them form the groups, so if there are people who truly cannot get along
for any reasons, it doesn’t form a problem.

When it comes to situations where they give each other advice -- in my
writing class these are workshops where they review each others’ papers
-- I grade the comments on whether the student came up with insightful
and helpful suggestions, and I don’t worry about use of English.  There
are other situations where I can help them understand how the language
works.

Certainly, when the vocabulary is weak they can be misunderstood, but a
non-competitive situation can improve the relationships among the
students so that they can really enjoy helping each other and becoming
friends.  Hope this works for you.

Jean Waldman