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.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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 :)
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I think she enjoy and appreciates you as well Maria. One strategy I have used with "fast talkers" like Lu is the concept called "Tai Chi English". That is, really taking sentences slow enough to "monitor" language production and grammatical accuracy. This can seem unnatural and odd at first, but explaining that with time fluency and speed will come with "automaticity" of correct grammar and pronunciation use.
ReplyDeleteI like that! The metaphor of slow precise elegant motion is a positive way of visualizing slowing down speech in order to 'monitor language production' as you put it. I'll definitely remember to use it.
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