Your next step might include reading through the student’s paper and, if included, professor’s comments. The technique of, “Listen, can’t you hear what’s wrong?” that we sometimes use with our English-speaking students is not a reliable method with international students. As you help these students with their writing, you’ll also be helping them to improve their facility with the language. Feel free to break some of the rules that you usually use with native speakers, such as making corrections for the student; perhaps the international student needs for you to add an article to her sentence, without which the sentence would be incorrect. Just be sure that as you help the ESL student make corrections, you are explaining the reasons behind these corrections. Help her to come away from the conference with a new insight into the language and its conventions.