Marissa_TP#7

Marissa M.
Tutoring Blog #7
9/26/14

For my second session with Ibrahim I tried printing off several worksheets I found online that discussed business vocabulary and issues.  I found what I thought was a really neat site that had a series of multiple choice answers of common business phrases.  These were mostly idioms that are used frequently in business interactions here in the US.  For example:

He used to work on the factory floor. Yes, he really started out as a ______ worker.
a. blue collar
b. back to the drawing board.
c. bottlenecks
d. bottom line
e. blow-by-blow 

We looked at one or two and then Ibrahaim did not seem interested in these.  He said he did not understand the vocabulary enough to have these help him and he wanted to know just more words.  I then showed him a few vocabulary lists that I had printed out and he seemed more pleased with these.  He wanted to run through them all and ask for better definitions of the words he did not know.  Additionally, he has asked to learn more business grammar and wants us to focus on that next time. 

I have to admit, I'm having a difficult time figuring out exactly what he is wanting.  He told me that next time he would bring some materials and that we can work on forming sentences and going over the grammar then.  That sounded good to me - I really need to see what he is wanting to try and help him.  I did look for additional handouts of phrases directly relating to grammar and there were a few that focused on tenses of verbs.  I might try using these to see if they would help him.  When we talk about different words it is usually the tense and/or form that he is questioning.  Thus, I'm wondering if that is more of what he wants help with?