An excellent choice for these young ladies could be Theoretical Grammar, a summer course offered by Scholars Online, an online tutorial service.  The tutor, Dr. Bruce McMenomy, is a classicist with several languages to his credit, and a remarkable communicator himself.  You can read about the course here:
http://scholarsonline.org/Info/coursedesc.php?id=257&title=Theoretical%20Grammar

Bruce's "Molding Your [Prose, Argument, Style]" series are three brilliantly-conceived writing courses with writing assignments conforming to different criteria each week.  This series has been a summer favorite with my students.  Molding Your Prose is the entry level course.
http://scholarsonline.org/Info/coursedesc.php?id=222&title=Molding%20Your%20Prose
http://scholarsonline.org/Info/coursedesc.php?id=223&title=Molding%20Your%20Argument
http://scholarsonline.org/Info/coursedesc.php?id=224&title=Molding%20Your%20Style

The complementary grammar and writing courses could help these students to make marked improvements in their writing in a short period of time.  I've seen it happen.

LaJuana Decker
Veritas Classical Academy
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Geoffrey Layton 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 5:06 AM
  Subject: FW: [ap-english] Self-Study Grammar


  I'm a member a list-serv for AP teachers, and occasionally we talk about grammar.  This one, however, left me stumped.  Any advice y'all can offer?



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 20:06:13 -0700
    From: [log in to unmask]
    To: [log in to unmask]
    Subject: [ap-english] Self-Study Grammar


    Two lovely young ladies have signed up for my AP Lit class next year who work hard and show great insights into the literature. They read well, but their writing leaves something to be desired. Both are Asian and ESL. Although born and raised in California, their parents' speak Mandarin at home (or maybe it's Cantonese), and their writing exhibits something other teachers at my school have called "the Chinese voice."(Subject-verb agreement, verb tenses, preposition difficulties, and unclear or missing pronoun antecedents are their main difficulties, but they also have others). I would love to have the gals in my AP Lit class, but I'm worried about their mechanics. 

    I would like to recommend a self-study or online grammar resource they might work with over the summer to shore up their skills. Do any of you know of such a thing? Or, could you recommend another way to help?
    Thanks so much,
    Lesha

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/