Emily CP #4

Date/Time: 4 April 2017 @ 6:45 PM

Location: Tallahassee, FL

This week Saeed and I continued our Starbucks routine yet again. As I was getting my coffee Saeed looked over one of his class assignments on unprepared and prepared speeches, and asked me to help explain the difference. As Saeed read through the assignment descriptions he stumbled over a few words and asked for my help in pronouncing them. This act then led to a lengthy discussion on accents and colloquialisms. Saeed shared that he has difficulty understanding English spoken by individuals with heavy accents, and also shared his desire to try and lose his own accent. I told him that since he is learning English as an adult he is unlikely to lose his accent altogether, but if he focused on enunciating each word, and spoke loud and clearly, his accent would not seem so heavy to native English speakers. We then talked about the difference between Southern, Northern, and Midwestern accents, and why even Americans poke fun at accents like those from Boston or Minnesota. I asked him if there were any distinct accents in Kuwait and he couldn’t say whether there was either way. After our accent chat I taught him a few funny things that Americans say in the south such as “y’all” or “bless your heart.” It is interesting to note how tough on himself Saeed is, I’m really beginning to notice that one of the biggest obstacles Saeed faces in learning English is the expectations he has for himself; I told him to be patient, and to practice intentionally, and that after a while English will become a habit. 

Emily TS #6

Date/Time: 1 April 2017 @ 8 PM

Location: Skype

This week my lesson with Dojun was pushed back, and, in an unusual turn of events, it was evening for me and morning for Dojun. Unlike the past few sessions where I would read aloud to Dojun, this week I used only videos. For the first part of our session I had Dojun watch an educational video on the US Supreme Court. After the video Dojun and I reviewed the new vocabulary, and I answered any questions Dojun had. Dojun then watched the video a second time after which he answered some comprehension questions. Though the vocabulary was a bit more difficult this time Dojun answered all, but one, question correctly; and, even on the question he missed, which was a little bit of a trick question, Dojun argued with me. It was nice to see his confidence. After the first video I had Dojun watch a short clip from a Will Smith movie, Hitch, in which the main characters go on a tour of Ellis Island. After watching the video Dojun was supposed to explain to me what was happening in the scene, anything he learned, and anything he could extrapolate about the characters. For this portion of the session I wanted Dojun to focus his listening skills on casual language and recall. This video was much faster than the educational one and Dojun managed to keep up quite well, but I advised him that even if he does not hear every word or understand every word, he can make an educated guess as to what is being said or implied. Since Dojun has a relatively broad vocabulary, and can keep up with newer vocabulary well enough, my new goal moving forward is to work on his comprehension of quickly spoken English and heavily accented English.

Emily TS #5

Date/Time: 30 March 2017 @ 7 PM

Location: Tallahassee, FL

For my third session with Kavira instead of focusing on the sounds letters made and reading, I wanted to teach her words to express herself with. Using a video shared in class by another student, Muzzy in Gondoland, I worked with Kavira on descriptive words like fat, big, small, tall, short, young, old, etc. Kavira responded really well to the videos I showed her and enjoyed describing the characters she saw in the videos. Once she had a rudimentary grasp on the new concept I had her point to her family members and describe them using the words she just learned. For example, her grandmother was old, her baby sister was young, her brother was short, and I was tall. In the next few weeks I think I am going to further focus on helping Kavira express herself with fuller sentences. Also, since she loved the videos so much, and it was the longest I have ever seen her sit still, I’m going to try and incorporate more age appropriate videos. Tutoring Kavira has definitely been trial and error, and this past week was one of the better sessions we’ve had. 

Peter CO #1

            On Thursday 9 March, I observed Victoria Davis’ group 3B reading class.  The topic she introduced was the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing. The instructor, before lecturing on the difference, invited her students to guess at it themselves, and they were successful at doing so. Before she began the active lesson, she went over ways of beginning a summary and the general parts of an essay (i.e., a beginning, body, and conclusion). The active lesson had students reading, analyzing, and summarizing a paper. Victoria left some notes on the board for the students to refer to. During the activity, she played relaxing music. At the end of class, the students turned in their work. I did not get a look at the rubric, but Victoria said that she would consider comprehension most of all when evaluating the work. There was more time given to students for writing; it did not take long for the pre-lesson activity.

Peter TS (child) #1

        On Friday 10 March, I tutored Umutoni, my Rwandan tutee, at her family’s apartment on Capital Circle NE. When I arrived, Umutoni and her siblings answered the door; their mother was apparently in the hospital and had given birth. (They facetimed her and she waved to me, smiling, over the phone.) There were no other adults present. I began the lesson by asking Umutoni to recite the alphabet; she did so perfectly. Then I asked her to write it out. She did well up to the last few letters (WXYZ), but I gave her space to think and she was able to correct herself. (She had transposed W and X.) Umutoni knows only a few basic sentences, like, ‘please, take a seat’, or, ‘I like to play’. I began to teach her new words. I pointed to objects in the room and asked what they were. She did well with the words ‘table’ and ‘chair’; knew the words for basic food items like ‘banana’ and ‘apple’; but didn’t know what a ‘sofa/couch’ was, or what ‘roof’ or ‘ceiling’ meant. We then worked on numbers, and she showed off that she knew the numbers up to one-hundred. She knew two-hundred, three-hundred, and so on, but couldn’t write out the numbers between them (one-hundred and one, or one-hundred and fifty five, for example). 

Peter CP #1

            Raul, my conversation partner, and I met at Merv’s, a sandwich shop on Railroad Ave, on Friday 10 March. He once lived in Columbia, but was born in Mexico. In Columbia, he studied at a catholic university and earned a degree in psychology. He’d like to move to Texas, and his goal, after passing the TOEFL, is to obtain a master’s degree in his field. He is unsure of his future; returning to Columbia is an option for him. I mentioned that I may visit Playa del Carmen (which is a city in Mexico) during the summer; he mentioned that the Aztec pyramids, most notably, Chichen Itza, is not very far from there, and that if I have time, I should visit it. We discussed music: he plays the guitar. He likes to play popular songs, though at some point in his youth (he’s thirty), he played classical music. He had just started learning English in the fall, but spoke to me fluently, and there was maybe an instance or two during our lunch when he found that he couldn’t express himself. He attributes his quick progress to the novels he’s been reading in class.

Claire CP #3

March 30th, 7:15-9:45pm

Norah’s apartment

I met with Norah for the third time on Thursday. For the first hour or so we sat out under a gazebo in the courtyard of her apartment while her kids played. I brought Norah some cupcakes to congratulate her on getting accepted to FSU for her graduate program. Her husband is still awaiting an admissions decision, and we spent a lot of the evening talking about her family’s dilemma and the stress of having everything be “up in the air” about their future. Norah explained that she has come to love Tallahassee and is feeling like she will really miss it when she goes back to Saudi Arabia soon. Later, when we were inside the apartment, I saw a copy of the Qur'an on their kitchen table. I started to reach for it and asked Norah if it was indeed the Qur'an and whether I could look at it. She said it was and that I wasn’t allowed to touch it—that you must do some ritual washing first as they do before prayer. I was really surprised and quickly flung my hands back (I think I may have touched it for a second before she told me not to 😐). Norah walked over and flipped through some of the pages for me, though, so I could see the text and the decorative designs. It was really beautiful and I told her so and thanked her for showing me. Later I asked Norah about her friends back in Saudi Arabia, whether she had close friends from her childhood still or from later in her life. I really enjoyed hearing Norah describe her 4 best friends, whom she has known since grade school. It helped me put into perspective how Norah’s good friends see her and how she sees herself when she’s in her element.