Anna TP #2

Anna Prorok

September 7, 2014

TEFL Tutor Session No. 2

Atomic Coffee,  W Call Street

Today I had a wonderful two hour tutoring session with Abdul and Nina at Atomic Coffee. Abdul arrived first and he had a homework assignment that he wanted to get started on so we began with that while we waited for Nina to arrive. His assignment was to write a three to four paragraph essay on a moment or memory that he spent either taking a trip or with family or friends. He had to incorporate six phrases (i.e. to worry about, thank someone, etc.) that were listed on the directions area of the page. He decided to write about an Arabic holiday called, Al-Eid, which I had never heard of, but he explained in great detail to me which was great. I believe there is a month called Ramadan which involves fasting, then the three days after Ramadan ends, Al-Eid begins and that starts their time on holiday. The holiday involves food specific to the Arabic culture, activities, and time spent with family. He wrote his introduction paragraph and after he finished, I had him read it aloud. Then, I used the grammar correction worksheet given to us and helped him fix his “beautiful mistakes”. Most of them he was able to pick up on and fix himself.

When Nina arrived we all introduced ourselves. She is from Brazil and has only been in America for three weeks. She studied English (British) in Brazil for two years prior. She speaks Portuguese and is studying for the TOEFL which she takes in October. She informed me that if she does not pass it in October (which she needs to do in order to enter FSU as an undergraduate – she is currently on a scholarship from the government in Brazil to study in the United States). She is pretty easy to understand and most of her trouble comes from grammar and some pronunciation issues as well. I had her do the same activity as Abdul because I figured it would be good practice for her even though it wasn't an actual assignment she would have to turn in. Nina decided to write about the Brazilian celebration called, Carnival. I learned that Carnival takes place the entire month of March and the last week is the best because everyone goes out to the streets to celebrate in one big party. They also have a week of holiday with no work or school during that week of celebration. Her introduction was great, except for a few beautiful mistakes where she had some issues with subject-verb agreement. She also struggled with capitalizing the first letter of months and days of the week. I transformed her beautiful mistake into a teaching moment for both of them.

The final activity was pronunciation. I found a worksheet/hand-out online that provided a list of eighty words. The words then had to be pronounced in the past tense (-ed ending) but some of these words had a /t/ sound (i.e., washed) and others had a /d/ sound (i.e., answered) depending on if the final sounds at the end of the words were voiced or unvoiced. We spent at least forty-five minutes on this activity but it was well worth it and we had a blast sounding incredibly silly in the middle of a coffee shop. They both had difficult enunciating the /d/ sound at the ends of words like, explored or considered. Nina also had a difficult time pronouncing words like, waited and treated because in Brazil she studied British English where more emphasis is placed on the /t/ sound (say “waited” in a British accent and you’ll know what I  mean) versus in American English where the “t” sounds more like a /d/ (waited sounds like waded with an American accent).

Altogether it was a great tutoring session and they said that had a great time and learned a great deal about my tutees and from them as well. Our next meeting will take place this Tuesday at the Chick-fil-A on Tennessee Street at 7:30 PM. I am planning on bringing some easy picture books for them to read and discuss (comprehension skills) and more worksheets to practice pronunciation. Abdul really wants to focus on listening skills and note-taking so I am going to show a short movie clip and have them fill in the missing words that they hear in the dialogue (nothing too difficult of course).