Richard CP#8

It has been such a long time that I have not seen Ruiting. I called him last Wednesday -- this was I after I discovered that no English learner was anywhere near the Eppes Building, too -- and he told me he was on Spring Break in Orlando.

I figured the next time we met, which was today, he would tell what he did in Orlando. So it turns out he went to SeaWorld. I've been to SeaWorld many times in my life because I didn't live far from SeaWorld when I was growing up about 30 miles away from it.

He showed me pictures of the sharks, the dolphins, the whales, KRAKEN!, et cetera. It took me back to when I was probably 10 years old, fearful of the sharks and fond of the sting rays!

I would point at an animal in his pictures and ask him if he know what they are in English. He knew some. After all, Ruiting does carry around with him a translator!

We also talked about his recent TOEFL experience, and from what I understood, he didn't do well enough to get into FSU, but his scores were high enough for him to get into TCC. Still, I congratulated him because from what I understand, TCC is an excellent educational institution. He wants to transfer to FSU as a nursing student. I think it's great he wants to help people.

Conversation partner report/Rita Schwab

I finally got to meet with Eric again, my conversation partner from Bukina Faso. I had missed him over the spring break quite a bit, as we have grown to be friends. I think that I have become a sort of mother replacement for him as he confides in me and calls me if he needs help of any sort. He is quite a special person, very intelligent and bright and very honorable with a solid set of values unlike most American kids.
We met for Pizza as he says that he likes pizza, but by his small appetite I began to wonder. I asked him whether they have pizza in his country and he said that he did.
We talked about all sorts of things, personal and not so personal. I shared my travel experiences with him, in which he was very interested. I had brought a map of Florida and showed him the roads that I took and the distances that I travelled - he was impressed. I also brought a book with pictures of the natural beauties of Florida and he was really amazed. He had not idea that south Florida was so tropical and he found it quite similar to his home environment. He asked about the wildlife, the plants various habitats and I told him a bout the state parks that Florida has so many of to preserve the original beauty of this country. It was really in awe. I offered him to keep the book until next week which he gladly accepted.

After our pizza dinner I took Eric to the New Leaf market to pick up an application for work. He has been looking for a job and has not had much success. So I thought of the food coop where I know the manager and several people that work there. And sure enough, they have an opening. I will put in a good word for Eric and help him fill out his application which he has never done before. He has all of his visas to legally work and he is in the process of getting his American driver's license.

I am growing very fond of him and look forward to seeing him again next time.

Tutor Session 5 with Yongheon, my Korean student by Rita Schwab

After a long spring break Yongheon and I met at the library once again. We shared our spring break activities. Yongheon's spring break was somewhat uneventful as his 2 children did not have spring break at the same time. So he stayed home and relaxed.

My spring break however was quite eventful as I had travelled for business and pleasure down south Florida all the way to the Keys and back, leaving 2319 more miles on my speedometer.
Yongheon was impressed and did not know that Florida was this long. I had brought a map of Florida and we outlined my trip and talked about the various stops. I told him about Sarasota being the number 1 cultural city in Florida with many art galleries, museums and theatres. I told him about crossing the Sunshine Skyway bridge, the highest bridge in the United States with quite some dramatic history. I asked him to google this for the next time we meet. I talked to him about my short stay in Miami, Miami being a very diverse cultural city with any imaginable possibilities; a city to flair, of art, of music, of south-American culture, Cuban cafes,, french quarters, parks, beaches, movie stars and large freight boats and cruise liners. Yongheon was very attentive and interested. Then I told him about my camping trip in the Keys, the islands, the state parks and the furthest south spot in the United States in Key West.

This was no doubt a geography lesson for Yonghoen, as he had no idea of the size of Florida and the islands of the Florida Keys. I think a geography lesson of the United States and particular of Florida should be a part of the curriculum for any foreign student.

I had brought a book called 'Florida State Parks' by Michael Strutin. I told Yongheon that Florida has the largest number of state parks in the US. I explained that the state parks belong to the government and they are a representation of the original natural habitat of its environment. I told him how fond I was of state parks and its preservation of the original land.

We looked through the entire book and picked Bahia Honda State Park as an example, as I had just visited this beautiful paradise. Yongheon read the entire chapter to practise his reading and pronunciation skill. He learned about the various facilities and recreation possibilities of state parks, their size, habitat, nature trails, how to read their maps and their accessibility, rules and regulations. He read the entire chapter aloud to me on Bahia Honda state park which gave a description of the park, its particular location, its layout, its wildlife and its special beauty.

Then I asked him to find the closest state park to Tallahassee and we found Wakulla Springs. I asked him to google this for next time as well.

We had quite a long session for 2 hours as Yongheon told me about his past travels in the US, wanting to find out more about American cities. As his means are limited, he travelled to Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. He was in particular interested in the downtown areas and their business centers, as he is a student in the master's program of Political Science and Urban Planning. He was disappointed to find that there is hardly any people and not much traffic In the downtown areas of these cities. He expected to find a lot more activities and people on the street like as he is accustomed to in Korea. He told me that the streets of Seoul in South Korea are packed with people and activities. Lots of cars and motorcycles, that run errands for people and taxi drivers and people on foot, unfortunately not enough bicycles as city planning had failed to design bike trails. I told him that American cities are not like Europeans or Koreans, and that many people just drive to work and park the car.

Then we got talking about New York city, which is most different that any other in regards to activities and people. And I found his great interest for wanting to learn more about NYC. Yonghoen is planning to visit the city this summer and wants me to show him on the map how to get there. He will be travelling by car, but I think I want to show him other travel possibilities, as this might be easier for him. We decided to meet for a lesson on NYC next time we meet.

This was a long and productive meeting and it was good to see him again.

Richard -- Tutoring #6

I just finished this lesson today (Friday). Our focus was still similar to telling narratives through picture-viewing, although this time the primary focus was on writing.

So we begin the lesson by my taking out a few pictures (3 of which were in sequential order). I prepared a handout that had all sorts of vocabulary that he studied before we met, using the pictures to spot vocabulary terms.

For Kyung, writing is much easier to him. Also worth noting, all of his articles were correct! :-)

Anyway, I used one of the pictures as an example. It was a series of pictures in which a waiter collects a food order. But as the waiter brought the tray of food out to his guest, the waiter trips and drops the food all the over the guest!

I numbered each sentence that corresponded to the picture, so for example, the first picture had the waiter collecting the order from his guest.

1. The man at the table orders a meal.
2. After a while, the waiter brings out his food. [But there is something on the floor!]
3. The waiter spills the tray of food all over his guest.

The above was my own example to him.

So in one of the pictures, a man was planting a tree. I told Kyung to use the vocabulary to try to create a story using those four pictures. There were more than three pictures after all, i.e. more difficult!

Kyung is a natural! This is what he writes (parentheses are my corrections):

1. Jeff bought a tree in a pot and a bag of soil. He wants to plant a tree and he digged (dug) a hole. [Firstly, it is possible to buy a bag of soil despite the fact Jeff dug a hole. Yet I explained to Kyung that he didn't have to buy a bag of soil, as there was already a pile of dirt in the picture).

2. He takes off the tree from the pot. [This, I corrected him on. Not "off" but "He takes the tree out of the pot."]

3. He puts the tree into the hole. (This sentence was perfect).

4. The tree is planted and Jeff is like so happy. (I told Kyung I would have used the word "like" if I were in a Anna Faris movie. He laughed. I told him it wasn't necessary to use that word, so he takes it out and it makes more sense).

Although I did tell him that in order to use "like," he would have to compare Jeff's happiness to something. Here's what Kyung said: "The tree is planted and Jeff is happy like the sunshine." /That's some god-awesome poetry, right there!

For homework, I gave Kyung a news article from VOA and will have him listen to it. When we return, I am going to give him this same essay but with blanks where words need to be filled. Yes, it will be a listening comprehension exercise!

Richard -- Tutoring #5

On Monday, Kyung and I focused our attention on telling stories by looking at picture sequences. For this lesson, I focused primarily on speaking exercises, as I wanted Kyung to tell me a story based on the photos I had/drew.

So I had this picture book in which I asked Kyung to identify certain parts of the picture. Of one, he would say, "The woman is wearing a dress." Then I would ask him, "What color is her dress? Why is she looking at the hat?" For Kyung, the latter question confused him a bit.

I reminded him the title of the picture book, which was "Shopping Day." I asked him what people did on shopping day. Of course, it was obvious. "They shop..." he muttered. I happily exclaimed in the typical Richard fashion.

"The woman in the red dress is shopping," he said. This would continue on a bit until he could tell a story using the picture sequences. There were moments of pause in-between so I could tell him what an item was that he would not know. It was like playing "Where's Waldo?" I love that game!

Basically, I asked a series of questions in relation to shopping in America, which I hope he understood as my attempt to show him the American customs of shopping, i.e. the culture of it.

By the end of the lesson, he totally got it. "The woman is shopping for a hat to go with her yellow dress. She did not like some hats. None were the right fit. (If ya'll ain't familiar with this story yet, think about Goldilocks and the Three Bears.... it's totally the same story!). The last picture showed the woman very happy. She found her hat, and Kyung was able to tell this story by looking at pictures. /End of lesson.

Back from South Florida and tutoring again

my home away from home

Hola friends,

I have returned from my South Florida trip healthy and with lots more stories in my back pocket.

Glad to see spring has sprung in Tallahassee, finally as my suntan is slowly fading.

I have thought about all of you and have missed this class. It was a wonderful experience getting to know all of you and I hope that I will hear more as you enter the world of English tutoring and teaching.

I am continuing with tutoring my South Korean student. We will meet this afternoon at the library

to share our experiences during the spring break. I am presenting a lesson on the geography of Florida, the various natural habitats, wildlife and state parks. I will share some of my travel route and pictures from the trip. This is a 1 1/2 hour lesson plan stressing communication and pronunciation.

I decided to go for my 100 hour TOEFL certification. Yeah.

Best,

Rita

Maria -- CP 6

Last CP blog! For our last conversation, Lu and I went out for lunch. She had taken the TOEFL two days earlier. During lunch she tells me that she almost did not go to the test, as she thought she would not do well. She will know the results in a couple of weeks so, for now, she is simply happy for it to be over with. She is looking forward to her coming trip to Universal Studios in Orlando and soon after that she'll travel back to China. Lu was very homesick about a month ago, but now that it is almost time to go home she is reluctant. She has really enjoyed living for the first time away from home as an independent adult. She's learned to cook for herself, do the laundry, shop for food. She's proved to herself that she can do it. She also tells me how happy she's been to be outside of her mother's range and she goes on to explain the role of the mother in Chinese society. From what I hear, when it comes to moms, cultural differences become a moot point (la mamma è sempre la mamma! as they say in Italian).

All in all, Lu has had a great experience in the US and can't wait to come back for her continued studies. I hope she does!

Maria -- Tutoring 5 (TOEFL preparation)

Last tutoring session and last day before the test. Lu is sure she will not be able to score what she'd hoped for on the TOEFL. Sometimes that is how things are. Still, she's got to try her best. What she scores will make a difference in her plans for next year. I don't remember the actual numbers she gave me, but if she scores the higher one, she'll apply to go to graduate school, if the lower, she'll do one year as an undergraduate in the US in order to improve her English before taking the TOEFL again. From my perspective both options are good (I would not want to go to graduate school without sufficient knowledge of the language), but it is clear that Lu would like to make it to graduate school right away (for the -- arguably -- wrong reasons): it would make her parents proud and she is afraid of letting them down. Finances don't seem to be an issue here, so I point out that if she ends up having to do a year as an undergraduate it will only help her prepare better for graduate school: her English will be better and she'll be familiar with the way the system works. Lu lightens up a bit. This last tutoring session turns out to be more like a pep talk for a consolation price, than anything else; making Lu see the test as a measure of her level of English rather than this forbidding wall that is keeping her from entering graduate school paradise (just kidding). It is, nevertheless, hard to take a test when you know you won't do as well as you'd like. However, it is also good to know that it doesn't mean the end of your life... just quite yet ;).

Maria -- Tutoring 4 (TOEFL preparation)

Today we are dealing with questions 5 and 6 of the speaking section of the TOEFL. These are the hardest questions in the set, as they don't have a written component to prepare the testee to the topic s/he will hear discussed on the tape. However, like questions 3 and 4, the topics of these questions are also college related. Question 5 deals with an "administrative" issue (first day attendance, compulsory discussion sections, and the like) and question 6 is a snippet of a lecture on any academic subject (psychology, economics, engineering, etc.).

Since Lu's main difficulty is in listening comprehension, these questions are the hardest for her. She is a good student and an ambitious one too, but it is obvious more than once that she is pretty much ready to give up on these. "I cannot follow half of what they're saying," she complains. With only two days to go to the exam, there is not much time for real improvement. So, to try to help her feel more in control, I suggest we analyze the structure of these conversations/lecture snippets, since they are all quite similar. For instance, question 5 usually follows this pattern: 1) the issue at hand is introduced (for ex. mandatory first-day class attendance) 2) two students (or a student and an administrator) discuss how this affects them (or the student) 3) a couple (up to three) suggestions are given to solve the problem one of the students (or the student) has.

I ask Lu to take notes while she is listening to the recording, in order to jot down what the issue is, what kind of problem it is causing the student complaining about it, and what suggestions are given to solve it. Usually this is the point of the question, with the testee being asked to comment on which solution s/he would choose and why. Lu can take surprisingly long notes given how little she seems to understand about the issue or topic discussed -- but her notes are of random complete sentences, rather than of the key concepts expressed in the recording. She is trying to comprehend full thoughts, one at a time, instead of trying to catch the gist of what is being said. No wonder she is getting lost in the process. We listen to the recording again. It is a slow process, also because Lu is not convinced that this is of any use toward the exam. "At the exam I won't be able to listen to the recording again," she moans. But now you do :) I counter, so let's take advantage of that in order to try to improve your listening comprehension effectiveness in this specific type of question (talk about learning for the test!). Lu smiles amused and tackles the recording one more time.

Mosquitoes, Centipedes and Scorpions…Oh My!!

My first couple of days in Costa were chill….almost too chill if at all possible. I hung out with my old host mom for a day and chatted it up, catching up on our shenanigans over the past two years. Her daughter is engaged to an American and is working in South Carolina and I relayed how bad healthcare sucks in the USA (which surprisingly came up several times during my stay). The next day I met up with another volunteer, Abe, who is from Brooklyn and is pretty laid back. He's from Brooklyn but he fits in perfectly in Costa. I also met the program's assistant director, Julia, who my parents thought was an imaginary person who didn't exist for any purpose other than to lure me to Costa Rica and scam me! But low and behold she was legit. In fact she's my age and she's from Texas. We had a nice little lunch in San Pedro and got to know each other. It was fun; I was thinking if this is what my experience was going to be like, I shouldn't be worried at all. However, I wouldn't be hanging out with these gringos the entire time. I was assigned to teach English to mostly taxi drivers in Liberia which is a major town in the Guanacaste region. Which, I mean, is a bummer because these people I just met definitely would be a safety net of English I could understand and people with things to talk about that is related to the US, but I know this experience is for something bigger and better. I met the other volunteer Alice in San Pedro as well, she seems cool enough, and she was the person I was corresponding with most of the time before I came to Costa.

Orientation is taking place in a small town near La Fortuna which is the city where the active volcano Arenal is. The small town is about as rural as it gets, There is a paved road that leads off into several unpaved roads, there is a very nice river about 2 miles down said dirt road and it is gorgeous. The school is designed for teachers in training to teach English, the teachers in training that I have met are all really interesting. They come from Chile, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua, one of the guys I met from Nicaragua is the most interesting to me. He grew up in Nicaragua, went to college in Wisconsin, met and married his German wife there, had two kids and went to visit Nicaragua and ended up staying because his grade school friends were working on a project with an orphanage. The orphanage is the most interesting part to me, The government of Nicaragua has really strict rules and laws protecting children from abuse so Ali, said teacher in training, is having a hard time running his organization as an orphanage, which is heavily needed in Nicaragua. So Fabretto, the organization serves as a before and after school program to keep kids off the streets. Ali says he appreciates that the government is so strict against child abuse, but the government doesn't offer any solution to the problem of orphans. So Fabretto has to get its funding from people in the US, Spain and Italy. I am planning on visiting his organization soon, because Nicaragua lies to the north of Costa, I am really interested in seeing how it works and the impact that its making on his community.

Orientation itself was short, but we covered what we should expect from the local partners who are a part of this project. Well I guess I should explain the project. ALIARSE is an acronym for a non-profit organization that runs CREST which stands for Costa Rica English for Sustainable Tourism, their goal is to have over 500 volunteers teaching English by 2017. The program has a lot of intricacies; ALIARSE solicits funding from sponsors like the national phone company, the national electric company and the chamber of tourism to name a few. And they all work together to house, feed, and support the volunteers; the sponsors in the different communities throughout Costa also bring the workers of the tourism industry together so that they can be evaluated by the volunteers.

So far I'm scared out of my mind… This will be my first real teaching gig and I'm scared I might choke and be a horrible teacher. In theory I think I'm a great teacher in training, but in practice…ehh…I have only so much experience. And to think that tomorrow I will meet 100 students who are eager to begin learning….Alright enough with the negative talk. The grandson of the older couple that I am staying with just told me that he will be a part of one of my classes…talk about pressure…at least ill know if I suck right off the bat! Well now that I have unloaded my fears onto this blog, I guess I should star lesson planning for the first week….lets hope I don't screw this up too much!

 

Dwinetta

Richard -- CP #7 (which is to say I'm getting a 100 hour certificate)

The last time I spoke to Ruiting was before spring break. Again, we played Scrabble, only this time we played with 3 other people: Eric (Rita's CP), Rachel (Eric's new CP (?)), and Ruiting's friend Lu (?), who is also from China. I know... 5 people can't play Scrabble, but who cares?! Rules (from board games) are meant to be broken

First of all, the Americans won. That's to be expected if you're playing an English version of Scrabble, yes? Actually, I commend Ruiting, Eric, and especially Lu for having good sportsmanship. Yes, although I had won again (with Rachel being in second), I feel as though they all were winning in their own way. Every time I put down a word neither of them knew, I took the opportunity to explain it to them while Ruiting and Lu searched for the word in their translators. It is actually a very good learning tool! We ended up playing for 2 hours. Hey, I love Scrabble, and I am glad that the English learners love it, too.

I don't want to spend the rest of my CP hours playing Scrabble, though, so I am going to try to get Ruiting out of his comfort zone again. The last time this happened, I took him to First Friday and he was so awkward during the expo. Anyway, it's baby steps I'll need to take with him.

Richard -- Tutoring 4

As far as I know, few Asian languages have no definite and indefinite articles. For Kyung, this was the case, so I decided to focus this tutoring session on his writing. I had read his writing before and there were instances in where he would use an article incorrectly... and very frequently, too. Anyway, I started the lesson by explaining to him what the differences were between definite articles and indefinite articles.

Let me tell you, articles come naturally to me. I never thought even once whether I used them incorrectly (because I knew they were correct). Still, it is EXTREMELY difficult to teach.

So I use the white-board to draw pictures, telling Kyung that THIS drawing is a PARTICULAR one, different from all the rest. So I ask him: Is it "I saw the woman in the red dress walking" or "I saw a woman in a red dress walking" ? He was correct, so that was a relief.

As we moved on, it got more challenging for me to teach. There are always exceptions when it comes to articles. Yet I was constantly repeating myself. I had given Kyung a handout the week before with 60 questions with nothing but fill-the-correct-article-in-the-blank. We went down some (because I honestly was at a standstill). He had some correct, some not. I tried to explain to him why a certain one was wrong. I also explain to him why he was correct in some of them, hoping that that would reinforce his understanding of it.

Anyway, it was well over an hour, so I decided to stop with that handout and gave him a new one, which he never saw or even worked on. We went down the list of questions... and you know, he got them mostly all CORRECT. I was very surprised. I actually felt like a real teacher despite how I taught articles (because I thought I was failing, honestly). It was great!

He told me I was a good teacher! I was happy and confused. How did I do this? -- especially with how I approached in teaching it. The lesson was over by then, so I gave him a short writing assignment asking him to write about what he does when he wakes up. I told him to try to use articles as much as he could, but to use them correctly. I'll see if he gets it, still. Hopefully he does.

Anyway, I thought he learned something. I mean, he was very happy he got most of the questions right in the handout, so I must have done something right, huh?

Maria -- CP 5 and critical incident

On our 5th meeting Lu gives me a cute little necklace she's brought from China. She tells me she has brought a few tokens like this in order to show her thankfulness to those who would help her in this new and foreign country. To me this is a very nice thing to do, and I smile when she makes a big point about wanting to bring to the US something "made in China". The true big point for me is that she feels that I've been of help to her. (In fact, I decided then to give her a small token in return. It was fairly difficult to find something actually made in the US, but I did, and the whole process of looking for this little object made me think about how much I myself have learned from this tutoring experience, and how glad I am to have done it).

During our conversation, Lu tells me about a problem a friend of hers has had with her CP. They had gone to Orlando on a trip, but at some point a heated discussion had broken out between them. So heated in fact, that Lu's friend had stormed out on her CP. The topic seems to have been China or Chinese politics. Lu cannot explain it very clearly, but the bottom line is that the CP showed a tremendous lack of respect for China and its people and "knows nothing (Lu's words -- I decide it is not the right time to interrupt with some grammatical prudery) ... like all Americans." Ouch! But, the story gets better. After Lu's friend takes off and does not come back for a while, her CP calls the police on her (!!). At this point of the story Lu is fuming: "stupid, stupid, stupid" she repeats in disbelief. Well, I venture to interject, if the CP could not find your friend and they were in Orlando on a trip, maybe calling the police was the only thing to do? "She could have called my friend on her cell-phone" comes Lu's quick reply. "My friend's CP is stupid," she concludes.

In the end things got straightened out and the police let both Lu's friend and her CP go. From Lu's explanation it is not clear to me what really happened, but it seems (to me) that a cultural misunderstanding was at the root of this incident and that the police got needlessly involved. It sounds like a perfect critical incident to me, so I ask Lu what she thinks about it. In her opinion, one should not speak without knowing what they are talking about and that Americans have a tendency to do so. She finds Americans to be over confident in their beliefs (she mentions other examples) and thinks they should listen and learn before they start preaching to others. (Sounds like a familiar complaint). She herself prefers to be quiet rather than open her mouth before knowing enough about the subject being discussed. She adds that this is the proper thing to do in China, where society and the language itself recommend that you measure your words. So, we continue, trying to compare both cultures on this topic, and pretty soon the hour is over.

Hey class!

Well this is my first morning in Costa Rica guys! My Spanish has been getting me around pretty well so far. Although the adresses here aren't really addresses theree more like directions. For example, I'm staying with my old host family for the night and to get here from the airport, I had to tell the taxi driver the address which is: Moravia, neighborhood Los colegios by the Guaria Pharmacy, 200 meters east and 150 meters south, green house on the corner....lol so yeah its a little tricky... Anywho I'm meeting with the program in a few hours and Im pretty sure we are jumping right into teaching. I have all of your great lesson plans and the resources from Ramin, but I'm currently trying to start a syllabus, which is harder than it looks. I'm thinking I want to have a pretty open class flow, where I can feed off of what the students already know. I just want something like a guide, just in case. I plan on doing a diagnostics to see what the class is expecting and what they have learned from previous volunteers. Wish me luck!! Also I have created a skype ID so if any of you would love to see and talk to me that would be great! I would love to hear from you! you can find me through my full name Dwinetta Rozier or my skype ID : Dwinetski

Ta ta for now....

Rawan-CP-Week 6 (to replace week 5)

Well, today I am inputting my final CP blog!! I met with my Turkish 'friend' today. She is doing great, and her English is improving. I think her listening skills have gotten better. The only thing that hasn't changed is that she is still using 'later' to substitute for 'in'....for example, 'my husband, 2 years later will get his citizenship,' instead of saying 'in 2 years, my husband will gain his citizenship'...so, I had to correct her and explain that. I think I did right by stopping and explaining it. She didn't understand why 'later,' didn't really mean what she thought....it just didn't sound right.

I am pleased to say that I AM CONTINUING my TEFL efforts!!! I'm so glad I stuck with it. I feel useful to someone, and that's nice to know!!!

:0) She also considers me a FRIEND, which is really nice, too.

Over and out. --Rawan.

Richard Tutoring #3

I think this tutoring session went better than last's. Basically, the lesson was about how one would ask for or answer something politely. I had a list of about 14 things, e.g. "What do you say if someone asks you to accompany them to lunch, but you can't?"

We proceeded down this list as Kyung would tell me what he would have told the person at first, and in most cases, this is when I interfered by telling him a more appropriate way, after which he wrote it down and we practiced.

We went through the list 3 times, and he was writing all this stuff down because next week (after Spring Break) I plan on giving him a handout with MC style questions for purposes of reviewing.

Also next week, we're going to go over (in)definite articles and how they're used. I'm starting to feel like a good tutor now. He thanked me for giving him an informative lesson, so that's all good.

Sebastian - CP - Week6

Hello guys (and girls)! Long time no blog...

Last Sunday I met with Juseob for the sixth time. I almost ran out of things to say when, out of nowhere, he pulls out a practice copy of the TOEFL test that he is going to take this Friday. He mentioned to me how disappointed he was. He had many incorrect answers and so he asked for my help. I helped him by replacing some of the words in the sentences with the correct ones. He was happy that I could help him at a personal level, and told me that he thought I was going to do a good job in teaching whenever I had my students. I was also very pleased to hear that I spoke in a manner that was very easy for him to understand. I shared with him my feelings on learning English, since my first language is Spanish. I think he appreciated the fact that I could relate to him in that way. In that moment, I recalled the class where Ramin told us to learn another language, to become language learners. I think that is a very important part of being instructors. We will be able to empathize with the students, and that will definitely unlock their hearts and minds to learning.

Well those are my thoughts, anyway. Until the next time!

Maria -- CP 4

This is a conversation Lu and I had about a week ago -- I realize there is a lag in my blogging! We had not seen each other for three weeks because I had had to travel first and then had fallen sick with the flu. Lu told me about her date with an American and how that compared with China. Then we spoke for a while about her studying for the TOEFL, how important it is that she score well, and how I could help her prepare for it (this is what the tutoring sessions have been about). Lu likes speaking in English and is genuinely interested in learning it, so it is easy to have a conversation with her. She is going through a phase, though (I think): her speed has increased, but her pronunciation sometimes suffers from it, so I find myself having to concentrate on her prosody in order to follow what she is saying, and then speaking back to her in a slower and more enunciated way as a subconscious reaction (I just realized that I do this!). I should just tell her that she need not hurry :)

She has also gotten into saying "they don't know nothing" -- I have to admit it does sound juicier than "they don't know anything", but grammar always had a reputation for being dry, so I remind her. Other than this and the occasional odd word, Lu is very capable of expressing herself in English. I am really enjoying these conversations.

Rawan-CP-Session 5

My CP and I did not meet due to her recent bout with the flu or some other kind of illness. I would like to continue meeting with her during the next few weeks, if she's up for it, because I think she's getting a lot out of our meetings.

however, I think I would like to do more outdoor stuff with her; lake ella walks, whatever, in order to strengthen her knowledge and vocabulary. I found that she had a lot of questions: what is this? What is that? And I think if we expanded our surroundings a little, she might find it easier to learn more.

Let's hope she's feeling better soon!

Maria -- Tutoring 3 (Day 2 TOEFL preparation)

Lu and I met again at Strozier library a few days ago. On this day we were going to practice questions 3 and 4 of the Speaking section of the TOEFL test. These questions integrate reading and listening with the speaking part. For each question, the testee first reads a short passage, then listens to either a conversation (question 3) or a snippet of a lecture (question 4) related to the passage just read, and finally answers orally to a question regarding what s/he just heard. After looking at several examples it becomes clear that question 3 usually deals with a college student's "administrative" issues (attendance to class, required discussion sections, holds on account due to unpaid fees, and the like); whereas question 4 entails reading for a college level class and understanding a lecture on ANY given topic (homeostasis, infant communication, Malthus's gloom and doom economics, you name it). Given that the TOEFL test is taken in order to attend college/graduate school in the US, it seems only fair that its content should be university related. However, this very content makes these questions more difficult than one would think. Question 3 deals with problems/issues/realities students experience in an American college, but these can be quite different from the ones experienced by students coming from another country's university context. For instance, Finnish college students will never have to deal with a hold in their account because they don't have an account to begin with, since college in Finland is free of charge. This, obviously, does not mean that once a Finnish student is in an American university he or she won't understand the concept (or reality) of "having a hold in your account" -- but that will happen after having taken the TOEFL. That is, the TOEFL, although logical in its content, by being so US specific adds a "cultural" difficulty to the linguistic one. Maybe this is unavoidable, I don't know.

But going back to Lu. She is not having an easy time with these questions. After practicing a few of them we realize that her main problem is their listening part, rather than the speaking one. She just doesn't understand enough of what is being said to be able to speak about it with the required detail. This is also reflected in the low score she got in the listening section of the mock TOEFL test she did as her homework. It is a good thing she did this test, as now she is aware of where she is and what her likely score on the real test will be. It is, unfortunately, much lower than what she expected and nowhere near where she would like it to be. She is worried and feels self-defeated, so I point out that learning a language takes time, much like learning to play the piano, or skating, or any other skill. You cannot cram a language into your head, like you can the Napoleonic wars or the elements on the periodic table. Practice makes perfect and it takes time. This universal truth helps her realize that it is not her fault that she is not where she would like to be and look instead at how far she has actually advanced in the short time she has been in the US. Still, she has to take the TOEFL, so we will meet again tomorrow.