What does an ESL Mentor do? The most important thing of all is simply to give your student the opportunity to talk English. Through relaxed conversation with their mentors, students get to practice their English language skills and learn more about our Australian customs, manners, sport, culture, current affairs and so on. The mentor doesn’t have to be an ‘expert’ in any of these things, and you don’t even need to have previous ESL, mentoring or teaching experience