J Logan Matthews
TP#1
Aug. 29, 2014 (2:30-4:30)
Dirac Science Library
Haonan Hu or Winnie (from Winnie the Pooh), as she had me address her, is from Shanghai in mainland China. Winnie is studying English to reach a ILETS score of 6.5 or TOEFL score of 80. ILETS is apparently the British equivalent to the TOEFL in the U.S. as she tells me. She wants to score high enough to pass admission into a university dance program.
I asked questions about her background and progress in studying English. She had been studying English for three months before attempting the CIES program. She placed high in composition and reading, but low in speaking and listening. Winnie later told me that she wants to focus on the practice of conversational English first.
I slowly gleaned information on how she learns English outside of the CIES classes. Winnie was able to show me her methods which involved memorizing vocabulary from a bilingual workbook which included a pronunciation CD. I made sure to stress the importance of hearing samples of proper pronunciation and demonstrated my current favorite tool for testing new words and phrases with the Google translate web-app. She showed me how she already uses an app on her smartphone as a dictionary which includes the sound of pronunciation. Besides the workbook she also watches the American shows "Friends" and "Modern Family" with bilingual subtitles added. I mentioned that some video players have options to slow down playback if it becomes confusing.
For conducting a needs analysis, I explained to her the colloquial definition of the shows she was using which was "sitcom." I explained the full definition of the phrase as situational comedy, that is situational (like real life) comedy (makes them laugh). I was prompted to improvise this because of her reply to the question, "Why did you choose these shows?" which was "It is close to life." I thought of elaborating on the lesson by introducing the term "v.s." or versus by comparing and contrasting a sitcom with a documentary. That is a sitcom is a record (with a camera) that imitates real life whereas a documentary is a record that is from real life. I demonstrated how to construct a conversational sentence for versus that included participles and the indefinite article.
Whenever she was confused on a definition I was able to relate it to a physical object, a kinesthetic motion, or a diagram on paper. Although I did begin the lesson 30 minutes before the scheduled time of 3PM the primary reason why it lasted longer than normal was because we kept breaking off the main idea into little tangents to properly illustrate the concepts (I was called the Master of Digression in my early college English classes). I can say that I was having a great deal of fun in the process while I was making sure to keep Winnie engaged in the explanation.
In developing some topics for our next meeting, I determined from her interests that Winnie would like to work on the conversational topics of "Gifts Giving and Receiving," as well as "Describing Life-Changing Events." I think we developed an excellent rapport in the session and she was a pleasure to work with. Because the session lasted so long, she eventually was showing signs of fatigue in her posture so I saw that as a sign to wrap up, but by that time my next tutee in line had appeared for her session and they recognized each other from one of the CIES classes. Winnie would like to do group sessions in the future but I am unsure if I can accommodate her because of the learning differences in my tutees but I will try to make it happen.
For conducting a needs analysis, I explained to her the colloquial definition of the shows she was using which was "sitcom." I explained the full definition of the phrase as situational comedy, that is situational (like real life) comedy (makes them laugh). I was prompted to improvise this because of her reply to the question, "Why did you choose these shows?" which was "It is close to life." I thought of elaborating on the lesson by introducing the term "v.s." or versus by comparing and contrasting a sitcom with a documentary. That is a sitcom is a record (with a camera) that imitates real life whereas a documentary is a record that is from real life. I demonstrated how to construct a conversational sentence for versus that included participles and the indefinite article.
Whenever she was confused on a definition I was able to relate it to a physical object, a kinesthetic motion, or a diagram on paper. Although I did begin the lesson 30 minutes before the scheduled time of 3PM the primary reason why it lasted longer than normal was because we kept breaking off the main idea into little tangents to properly illustrate the concepts (I was called the Master of Digression in my early college English classes). I can say that I was having a great deal of fun in the process while I was making sure to keep Winnie engaged in the explanation.
In developing some topics for our next meeting, I determined from her interests that Winnie would like to work on the conversational topics of "Gifts Giving and Receiving," as well as "Describing Life-Changing Events." I think we developed an excellent rapport in the session and she was a pleasure to work with. Because the session lasted so long, she eventually was showing signs of fatigue in her posture so I saw that as a sign to wrap up, but by that time my next tutee in line had appeared for her session and they recognized each other from one of the CIES classes. Winnie would like to do group sessions in the future but I am unsure if I can accommodate her because of the learning differences in my tutees but I will try to make it happen.
I, too, have concerns about working with different levels of ELLs in the same tutoring session. I'd like to discuss in TEFL class how we can do this well.
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