Logan_CP#2

J Logan Matthews
CP#2
Sep 8, 2014 (4:10PM-5:20PM)
Osceola Ridge Apartments


I initially had some trouble trying to correspond with Paterne. He is a foundations student, so trying to coordinate over email, text, and phone was challenging. Eventually I was able to communicate that I had no problem swinging by his apartment today since I was already running errands in town. Paterne comes from the Ivory Coast in Africa and his first language is French. He has worked for Ford Motor Company in the Ivory Coast and he is attending CIES to pass the TOEFL required for entry into a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate program at a prestigious university in his home country. I have heard that many Universities in Africa as well as around the world teach their classes in English, so this made sense to me. Paterne has a sister here in town who has passed the TOEFL, but prefers to speak French with Paterne. He still studies with her on occasion and I believe he has recently moved to a new apartment so he can be close by her.

What was supposed to be a conversation partner session ended up being more of a unstructured tutoring session. Since Paterne is new to Tallahassee as well as America I considered driving him to Lake Ella and other landmarks he may be interested in while I explain the scenery. However, he had just moved in and was waiting on a sofa delivery so I stayed in the Apartment this time. I think next time we meet I will show him to other places like the store and museum to define the fixtures and scenarios in simple English while trying not to annoy the other people in our vicinity.

After our initial introductions, Paterne began asking me questions like "Is it very good to think in French while speak in English." It was very challenging, but I tried to explain the theory in simple terms, like how spoken English and Written English are processed in different parts of the brain in different ways. He asked me for ways he could practice pronunciation of, listening to, and speaking English. I I tried to direct him in writing to different terms to use in a search engine and methods like
monologue narration of life and watching English language shows with French subtitles. I tried to direct him to picture dictionaries with spoken pronunciation like the Merriam-Webster visual dictionary online as well as the IPA's anatomy of pronunciation. When he asked me for other ways to practice speaking, I suggested he search for ways to trade language lessons over Skype (with English Speakers learning French.)

It was challenging to hold clear conversation with a Foundations student but once we met in person I was able to define many terms with kinesthetic motions and the objects in my possession. For example, to explain pronunciation in English I used one word he provided "Bear," and introduced to others "Bare" and "Beer." I explained how these words may sound simple but when they are used in a sentence they are defined by the context of the verbs. So to distinguish: "I saw a bear." "My arm is bare." "I like to drink beer."; you have to listen to or speak the full sentence in context. Another example was when he asked me for the meaning of "maybe," I took out a coin to flip for "maybe heads" or "maybe tails." At the end of our session, he expressed his gratitude for me showing up to help him practice and I was grateful to try out some teaching strategies as well. I told him that I am only learning to be a teacher, but he says that I already make a good teacher, my first clear compliment on the subject from an ELL in this program which was much appreciated.