Sabrina TS#1

March 8^th: 9AM- 10AM
Skype

I met So Young through skype for our first tutoring session. So Young is a second year college student in South Korea. She is a history major in Sungkyunkwan University. I was very surprised at her English fluency. She had no difficulty conveying her thoughts to me and was very clear in her articulation of English words. When speaking with her I was wondering how I could help her when she seemed very advanced. We went through the questions on the tutoring handout. Originally So Young is from Busan and is currently living away from home for college. I learned that So Young has been learning English since the age of 12. Last summer she even went to teach English in Indonesia to high school students. So Young has an intrinsic motivation for learning English. She wants to travel around the world and believes knowing English fluently is one strong tool to find opportunities. She also dreams of writing a history book about South Korea in English so that native English speakers can read it with interest and ease. Knowing her goals really set me to find tools that can help improve her English. So Young's main concentration is to improve reading, vocabulary and her writing skills. I did not know what her reading level would be but aimed to get something intermediate. I provided her with an excerpt of the novel “Lock and Key” by Sarah Dessen. It seemed like So Young enjoyed books of the romantic genre from the few favorites I asked her about. We read through two pages and then I asked her a few questions to check her comprehension. After summarizing what she read, I asked her to find any vocabulary she did not understand. We then reviewed the vocabulary and what they meant in the context of the story. I did not having anything prepared for writing that day so I said we would work on that next time. For our future sessions I am planning to find articles of So Young's reading level that could help her improve comprehension but also introduce new vocabulary. I also am researching to see what writing prompts would help her best. So Young is quite an advanced English learner. This makes me worried about how I can teach her without it being boring or too easy. While I am nervous, I am excited about helping her sharpen her reading and writing skills and take her a step closer to her dreams.