Taylar TS #15

Date/Time: April 12, 2017, 12-1PM
Location: CIES
Ever since our first meeting, Abdulghaffar has made it very clear that his biggest struggle with English is the listening component.  Prior to this session, I gave Abdulghaffar some tips when trying to comprehend dictations and presentations, including shorthand notation and placing less emphasis on trying to capture every word.  He told me that while this did help some, he still trips up on the vocabulary he doesn't know.  He also told me that he is preparing to take the IELTS test instead of the TOEFL. Keeping this in mind, I told him to look up some audio practice in the British accent to better customize himself to the accent.  I found the BBC News' website geared specifically toward ESL education and practice and thought it was perfect for Abdulghaffar.  We did a few of the exercises together in our meeting, which included him listening to level appropriate newscasts provided by the BBC and then answering a series of comprehension questions.  Because Abdulghaffar struggles the most with vocabulary during dictations, I thought it would be beneficial for him to have some of the new vocabulary before the audio starts so he doesn't get tripped up by it during the audio and lose focus.  Most of the questions provided in the activities were comprehension based, so I also asked him some definition sentences for the vocabulary and had him create some sample sentences.