Claire TS #9

Date/Time: March 31, 7:00-8:30pm

Location: Tutee’s home in Sienna Square Apartments

Topic/Skill: Action verbs in present progressive

I met with Damarce and her sisters for the fourth time on Friday. I tried to make some last-minute changes to my lesson plan and ended up being really late to meet with them. I know that “African time” is a thing, and my tutee’s family seems very merciful, so I figured it wouldn’t be completely disastrous that I was late, but I felt really awful anyway as I was driving there. When I arrived at their apartment I knocked on the door several times, but no one answered. I was about to leave feeling very discouraged that they had given up on me and left when a van pulled up in the parking lot, and they all started getting out carrying bags of groceries! They were glad to see me there; one of the older girls apologized to me for being so late, to which I unsuccessfully tried to explain that I had been super late too and had only been standing there for a few  minutes. Yay African time! I definitely don’t want to pull a stunt like that again though.

My lesson was a third installation of the verb “To Be” in the present tense, this time with 16 action verbs as vocabulary forming the present progressive. I had found an explanation online of how their language represents the present progressive and infinitives, so I tried to explain and compare how English does this, but my examples didn’t seem to click for them. I tried approaching it from a couple of different angles per what I had read online, but maybe I got something wrong or it was an oversimplification. I tried incorporating a game this time to make the vocabulary practice more fun and engaging, but I think the rules of the game were a little unclear to them and they didn’t really get into it. I have a couple of games in mind for my next session, so I hope I can lead them better and they can have a fun time practicing together. 

One of the girls made a comment Friday night that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. She said “America is good!” to which I replied “Thank you! I agree.” Some of the other girls nodded in agreement and then one said “Africa is bad!” I said, “No! Africa is good too! Africa is beautiful.” Then the first girl asked her older sister for some translation help and replied, “Africa is hungry.” I have absolutely no idea what these girls have experienced. Whatever it is, I am humbled by their resilience and joy and I am grateful for the chance to serve them as part of this course.

Claire TS #8

Date/Time: April 3, 12:00-1:00pm

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: TOEFL Q5/Q6 and pronunciation practice

I met with Ana for the fifth time today. Since Ana has gotten a lot of practice on TOEFL Speaking Questions 1 and 2 during our previous meetings and in her Speaking class, I decided to move on to TOEFL Questions 5 and 6. These prompts require her to read a brief text or listen to a recording of a lecture or a conversation in English and then respond to a related question in 60 seconds. Ana responded very well overall to the question she answered based on a conversation, but she ran out of time on the reading and wasn’t able to produce an appropriate answer during the allotted time. I definitely want to keep doing these practice activities with Ana so she can feel more prepared for her TOEFL exam. I feel like my ability to give her valuable feedback immediately after her timed speaking practices is limited; I haven’t honed in my ability yet to assess a reliable TOEFL score, and I find it hard to focus on many things at once (pronunciation, word choice, grammar errors, overall response to the prompt, etc.) in order to give her targeted feedback on the response. I will try to take better notes or errors while she speaks next time for quick comments and revisit the recordings of her responses for more thorough feedback later if it seems worthwhile. Perhaps I could also ask a CIES teacher to help assign her recordings a TOEFL score. I brought some pronunciation games to do with Ana today that I found online. They were designed specifically for Brazilians learning English and were really effective at addressing points of difficulty for her, such as pronouncing the ends of words accurately and not mixing the sounds “r” and “h.” I found some Youtube videos with short audio clips for Ana to listen to and practice imitating for correct pronunciation. She seemed to really enjoy and benefit from doing this during our session, and I emailed her the Youtube link to do some further practice at home this week.  

Kim CP #1

I had my first meeting with my new conversation partner during the CIES lunch hour on Thursday March 30. I met Abdulrhman at the Starbucks across Tennessee St for coffee. Abdulrhman is from Saudi Arabia and has been living in Tallahassee and attending CIES for just one month. He came to CIES to better his English because he wants to follow his father's footsteps and study law. We talked about the differences between Tallahassee and his hometown in Saudi Arabia. He thinks Tallahassee is boring and misses spending time with his family back home. Abdulrhman's English isn't very good so I made corrections for him while we were speaking, he appreciated the help. He told me he lives with two American roommates so he is forced to speak English at home. He said it's been helping him with his speaking skills. We talked about the differences between American and Arabic culture, about traditional gender roles, and how he is very close with his family of six brothers and sisters. He told me that his family is considered small in Saudi Arabia and considered very large in the US. He remarked how American families don't seem very close but in Saudi Arabia family is everything. He told me he calls his mom every day after class even if that means he is calling her at midnight due to the time difference. It was a bit difficult for me to find out what he was really interested in. I asked him what his hobbies were and he was unsure how to answer so I asked him what he liked to do and he just shrugged. I asked him if he played any instruments and he said no. I asked him if he liked watching television or movies, whether he liked to read or play sports, and to every question he just answered with "sometimes." So I asked him what his typical day looks like, or what he would like to do on his day off and he told me "I don't ever make plans." So I'm not actually sure what he likes to do in his free time so I guess I will have to figure that out in our next meeting.

Kim TS #6

I had my fourth tutoring session with my child tutee on Tuesday March 28 from 7-8 pm. When I arrived to his home he was watching a movie with his siblings called "Megamind." He shut it off so I could begin our lesson but all 4 children continued to stare at the paused screen throughout our meeting. In this session we watched two short videos on the terms for body parts and then practiced reciting the names of each body part while referencing them on our own bodies (i.e. tongue, forehead, arms, legs, etc). I then would ask them questions like, "where are your toes?" and they would point to their toes. I then asked them if they knew what clothing they wore on each body part. For example, "What would you wear on your feet?" "Socks." They seemed to already have a pretty good grasp on clothing terms so I decided to switch the movie back on and center our lesson around the movie. I asked them questions like, "What color is the superhero's suit? Who is the bad guy? Why is he bad?" etc. The kids really liked being able to watch the movie and talk about it during our meeting. I am trying to get them to answer me in complete sentences so this exercise really helped them with that. I know they were antsy to finish the movie so I thought it was best to incorporate it into our meeting rather than keep them from enjoying it. I ended up staying an extra 30 minutes over our usual hour-long meeting session because Amidu's brother asked me if I could help him with his homework. He had to read long word problems for his math class and then write the proper numerical equation. It was definitely difficult for a non-native English speaker so I was happy to help him. He understood all of the numerical math symbols and their functions (+ - x ÷ ) but he wasn't sure what "subtract, add, multiply, or divide" referred to so I explained to him how each term corresponded to a symbol. His new understanding of those terms made his homework so much easier for him. It felt so good to help him understand his assignment. I left this tutoring session feeling really proud of myself and excited for our next meetings together.

Chloe TS #2 (adult)

I met with Haiqiong for the second time at her house. She lives in a beautiful area of Tallahassee with her husband and two young children. Haiqiong and her husband cooked a delicious lunch of grilled chicken wings, vegetables, and tomato sauce with scrambled eggs- something I had never tried before. I love to eat and try new foods so it was perfect! After lunch, we walked on a trail behind her house, which led to a greenway next to a lake. We stopped at a bench facing the water to sit and work on her paper. Haiqiong had written a paper which doubles as her speaking material for an upcoming ethnomusicology conference. Prior to our meeting, I read the paper and highlighted areas to improve. The paper was very well written and impressive for a non-native English speaker, but there were some mistakes in word choice and grammar. In some cases, I completely understood the meaning but the phrasing was awkward. As a native speaker/writer, these things are intuitive to me but not to Haiqiong. I explained each point to her so she can understand the reasoning behind it. Hopefully in time, it will become intuitive for her as well. I really enjoyed spending time with Haiqiong and her family and learning about her subject area, the role of nature in traditional Chinese music.

Chloe TS #1 (adult)

I met my adult tutee Haiqiong on campus for the first time. We had been corresponding by email and text, and she was very excited for the opportunity to work on her English. Haiqiong is a graduate student at FSU as well as an internationally renowned musician. She plays the zheng, a traditional Chinese string instrument. She already obtained her Master’s degree in Ethnomusicology at FSU and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology. I’m so amazed by all of her accomplishments! Haiqiong speaks English very well, but she needs help writing her academic papers. Doctorate-level writing requires a very advanced grasp of English and the ability to make careful, nuanced decisions about word choice, sentence structure, and much more. I completely understand why she needs help from a native speaker! She receives help from her advisor and colleagues in the music program, but they don’t have the time to work with her intensively on her papers. It’s so fortunate that we found each other because I consider academic writing my greatest strength, and I would love to help her.