This past Tuesday, September 2nd, I met with my child tutee, Youngseo, for the first time. In our email correspondence before the session, Youngseo's mother, Hyunju told me that her daughter, a kindergartener, spoke no English. In addition, she revealed that the family had just arrived in Tallahassee from Korea about two months ago. As someone with limited tutoring experience, especially with small children who don't speak English, I was obviously a bit nervous about the situation I was walking into.
I arrived at their house and after introducing myself I was pleasantly surprised to find that Youngseo was a very outgoing kid who was eager to learn. She had several Disney princess books (her favorite) that her mother wanted us to read together. I could tell that she had probably read these books multiple times, so I tried to test her English knowledge by asking her questions about things that were not necessarily related to the story, such as questions about color or the clothing the characters were wearing. Hyunju's position that her daughter spoke no English proved to be rather humble, as Youngseo already had a solid foundation in English. She knew letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and a surprising amount of animals. After we were done reading, she showed me her favorite Legos, and after that we were done.
Fortunately for me, Hyunju wants to meet at the Collins Main Library downtown for our next tutoring session, as she herself is meeting with another tutor then. I am hoping to find some other children's books there to read with Youngseo to continue to help her expand vocabulary of basic words and phrases. If anybody else has any tips on how I should go about tutoring a child who speaks little English, I'm all ears!
Harrison
I think it's awesome that you used the princess books to read with. I think it's easier to engage children in something that could prove to be challenging when they have an interest in the topic. I would suggest looking up games online or fun worksheets that you can do together. Kids love that stuff. Even short clips from Disney movies and then asking her what happened in the clip and what it was about could help improve listening skills as well as comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI am glad she is so obsessed with Disney because I think it will make it easier for me to create some learning materials that will hold her attention and make it more fun for her.
ReplyDeleteIt could be helpful to find out what skills and topics she is learning in school. You might also be able to help here with these materials as well.
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