FSU TEFL 120 Fall 1 2021

 For my final session with Masoud, we met again outside of Strozier Library. As in the past, our conversation drifted to Saudi Arabia (particularly in contrast to North Florida). This time, we talked about food. I was surprised (and maybe a little disturbed) to learn that they eat camels in Saudi Arabia. Masoud went on and on about how delicious camel meat is. I wonder if he was pulling my leg - it certainly didn't seem like it.  I asked him whether he had traveled at all within Florida since arriving here and he said that he had not (He's only been here for 4 or 5 months, all during COVID). He doesn't have a US Driver's license, but says that he would like to acquire one and do some traveling within a few hours of Tallahassee. I told him about a number of destinations he might consider (Atlanta, Orlando, Jacksonville, PCB, etc. )

 For this session with Masoud, we were unable to meet in person, so we met on Zoom instead. We had quite a few connectivity and audio issues, unfortunately. However, we were eventually able to remedy this, and also partly via the text chat function on Zoom. It ended up being a nice opportunity for Masoud to get some reading/writing practice in as well.  Our main topic of discussion was "Neom City", which is being built, according to Masoud, by the King of Saudi Arabia. It is a Saudi Arabia/Egypt cross-border city that is supposed to implement a great range of futuristic smart technologies and serve as something of an industrial tech giant and tourist destination. The idea is that it's supposed to be the most technologically advanced city on Earth, and the first phase is set to be completed by 2025. 

 When I met with Masoud for our fourth session, we again met in front of Strozier library. This day, however, was during Homecoming and there were a number of interesting festivities going on beside us on Landis Green. We mused about going over and trying some of them (like the bouncy house) but we were both joking (I think). As for our conversation, we talked a lot about the differences involving plant and animal life, and climate, that exist between North Florida and Saudi Arabia.  Particularly, we spoke at some length about trees. We ended googling facts about the tallest and oldest species of trees in the world, both of which are species that are native to US (California, mainly). Afterwards, I showed him some of my skateboarding videos and he said that he wanted to learn how as well. I asked him if there was much skateboarding in Saudi Arabia and he said no, as I had expected.

 In my third session with Masoud, we met again in front of Strozier library. We talked about a number of topics familiar to Masoud, particularly anything to do with Saudi Arabia, which I asked him many questions about. I learned about his home city, about the king of Saudi Arabia, and a bit about his history before coming to the US and CIES. We also talked about his life in Tallahassee outside of CIES, and I asked him whether most of his friends are Arabic speakers or not. He said that, yes, most are, but his three roommates are all native english speakers who don't speak arabic at all. I was pleasantly surprised to learn this. 

 In this final tutoring session with Zheping, we followed up on the same project that he had requested help for last time: a 5-minute speech about one of his passions. Zheping chose soccer. This time, his outline was more detailed than last time and he was prepared to rehearse his speech a number of times. As usual, his speech was a bit too fast, so we worked on padding out the timing a little bit (he repeated the speech three times during the session). By slowing down his speech, he was also able to make himself more comprehensible. I made sure to point out which words he was pronouncing in a way that made them difficult to understand, and by the end, I was able to understand his whole speech with minimal extra effort.

      Since Dojun lives in South Korea, I met him via zoom. We first started talking about how he learned English and what he does for a living. He told me that in Korea, when he was a kid, that learning English is mandatory and that he took six years of it during middle and high school, as well as taking a business English class at university. Apparently nowadays kids begin learning English in elementary school, for a total of 12 years including middle and high school. He majored in Aviation and works as an air traffic controller. He says he that in school, he learned how to read and write well but that his conversation and listening skills need improving, which is why he wants to have conversations.       We spent a lot of time talking about the Covid-19 situation and how differently it's viewed and handled between Korea and the U.S. In Korea, everyone wears masks - it's required, but hardly anyone complains - whereas over here, masks are optional in...

    We met at Moe's this time and he brought Masoud along as well. We first talked about an awkward experience Masoud had last weekend. He and some of his friends had been invited to a birthday party, but his friends didn't show up, so it was just him, the guy whose birthday it was, his mom, and his mom's friends. He asked me if this was a normal birthday party experience and I told him that no, it was not. We all had a laugh about it though. Aziz and I then talked about some uncomfortable experiences that we've had in terms of our second languages. I told him about how I was so lost in the first Spanish conversation course I ever took, and how I felt like I was never going to get better at Spanish, and then flash-forward two years and I have a Bachelor's in Spanish. Aziz's experience with English has been quite similar. He's very proficient now, but when he first arrived in Tallahassee he felt very lost and confused. He mentioned in particular a conference ...

     For this lesson, we started by reviewing how to use in, at, and on in relation to time. This is something he had struggled with before but he's now starting to get the hang of it. I gave him a little quiz on this and he answered most of them correctly. We reviewed the wrong answer, which was a fill in the blank question in which for part of it he gave the answer "at the evening." He had confused this with "at night." We then talked a little about the (minimal) differences between "evening" and "night" and he seemed to understand them: evening and night are more or less synonymous, but to greet someone at night you say "good evening" and to bid someone goodbye you say "good night." The other difference is that you say "at night" but "in the evening," otherwise they are synonymous. We then went over how to use in, at, and on in relation to place. His biggest source of confusion was the use of "a...

      For this session, I decided to give him a pop quiz on the 4 verb tenses of the past that we had gone over previously. I decided to do this because we hadn't talked about verb tenses for a while and I was curious to see if he had retained this knowledge. I had only intended for the pop quiz to take maybe 10 minutes at most but he spent a while on it. This was because my instructions on the quiz itself apparently weren't self-explanatory enough and he kept answering the questions, not with incorrect grammar, but not with what was being asked of him. For example, the second question asked him to pick one regular and one irregular verb, and then conjugate them in the 4 past tenses. He instead wrote four sentences for one verb. After explaining the directions to him more thoroughly, he was able to give me relevant answers that were also grammatically correct.       After the quiz, we talked about the tenses a little more in depth. Through this convers...

For this session, Hang-ah again requested that we work on her writing skills. As with the previous session (chronologically) I came up with a set of prompts and asked her to write a very brief argumentative essay (200-300 words) on one of the topics.  Here is a link to the document we used, including the prompts and the essay: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jjlZmjTIxTLKl80hv78SUI-tsvyAe3TGcZ7yrBFlrkU/edit?usp=sharing The prompts and essay that she wrote for this particular session are the second set on this document (where she wrote about looting and BLM) After she finished writing, we went through the essay together, and I provided her detailed feedback on grammar, form, style, and so on. Especially problematic sections of the writing were highlighted in yellow and corrected.

 During this session with Hang-ah (which actually came chronologically before TS#13, I just got them mixed up), she chose to read together, and discuss, some news articles. Each of us chose and read one article before the session. Hang-ah's article: https://knowablemagazine.org/article/mind/2021/using-virtual-reality-help-counter-domestic-abuse My article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/04/ten-million-job-openings-labor-shortage/ Hang-ah's article was about the use of VR technology to counter domestic abuse; convicted abusers are placed in experimental programs in which they become the "victims" of domestic abuse by means of a VR simulations. My article was about the recent phenomenon of people refusing to return to bad jobs after having had their mindsets changed by the conditions of the pandemic. Part of the issue seems to be that, while various companies are complaining of worker shortage, many of them are either reluctant to hire those who had bee...

 The tutoring sessions with Hang-ah have been much more variable than those with Zheping, as Zheping's main goal is to pin down his pronunciation. With Hang-ah (whose English level is very high), she is interested in working on many different areas.  For this session, she requested that we work on her writing skills. So, I came up with a set of prompts and asked her to write a very brief argumentative essay (200-300 words) on one of the topics. This was a fairly freeform activity, with no linguistic support, as her English level is very advanced.  Here is a link to the document we used, including the prompts and the essay: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jjlZmjTIxTLKl80hv78SUI-tsvyAe3TGcZ7yrBFlrkU/edit?usp=sharing Note that this link also has the prompts and essay for the next session with Hang-ah, during which we worked on the same skill. After she finished writing, we went through the essay together, and I provided her detailed feedback on grammar, form, style, and ...

For this tutoring session with Zheping, he requested help on another upcoming presentation. This time, he wanted to work on more than just pronunciation, but also on the grammar and construction on his outline material. Next time we meet and he has a more complete outline, I assume he will want to work on the pronunciation. His presentation prompt is for him to expound upon something that he's passionate about. He chose soccer. He came to the session with an outline of his talk, but it seemed to be in its early stages. So, we talked together about the best way of organizing his ideas to make the talk flow well, and I also asked him questions to help him further fill out the details of the outline. Finally, I walked him through a number of grammatical mistakes on the outline, correcting them and making sure he understood why they were wrong. 

 For this tutoring session, I met once again with Zheping, and we switched back to CIES (last time, we met at Bubbly Tea Bar and it was a bit too loud).  We simply resumed our usual routine: using a reading that Zheping procured, he read through each section out loud, while I would listen and mark the phrases/words that he had pronounced unclearly. Then, we would focus specifically on those words and phrases, individually, until he could pronounce them correctly. Next, I have him re-read and really focus on trying to slow down, especially when he comes across those words and phrases that were difficult in the past. I think that we made an important discovery this time: if he considerably slows down his speech, it becomes much more comprehensible. It isn't necessary for him to go so slow and unnaturally that it becomes difficult to listen to. His (out loud) reading speed (uncorrected) was about the same as mine, reading the same passages, so we really focused on bringing that s...

Date/Time: October 27, 2021 at 8:00am Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Reading Feedback provided to tutee: I am working with Je-ah on reading the second Magic Tree House book. She is picking up the new vocabulary quickly and though she read slower today, she needed less words pronounced for her.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: When she is tired, she learns less and goes slower and it is hard to keep her attention. So, when I know that she is tired, I try to break up the reading with questions and explanations to keep her engaged and to keep her from zoning out of the session.

Date/Time: October 25, 2021 at 8:00am Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Reading Feedback provided to tutee: I am working with Je-ah on reading a Magic Tree House book. She is remembering words very quickly now. She only needs me to repeat it a couple times before she can get it right on her own. She is doing very well with sounding out the harder, longer words. For instance, "Pteranodon" is a species of dinosaur and is a hard word to pronouce but she picked ut up after only a few times of me saying it first. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: We finished the Magic Treehouse Book today and Je-ah said she would like to keep reading. She is getting better and better at reading faster and occasionally there are pages where she does not need my help at all. She is sounding out words extremely well. I learned that if she is having reoccuring problems with words or there is a word that she clearly does not know, it is helpful for me to stop the reading at the end of th...

  Date/Time: October 20, 2021 at 8:00am Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Reading Feedback provided to tutee: I am working with Je-ah on reading a Magic Tree House book. She does not like the subject very much but she is enjoying the change of pace. She is a little more confident now with reading out loud and is more confident in sounding out words before looking to me for aid.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that when having students practice extensive reading, it is best to give them ample time to sound out a word. Sometimes it takes her as much as 15 seconds to sound something out, but the more time I give her, the more likely that she gets it right on the first try.

      Our next meeting would not be for quite some time, close to three weeks. This was due, mostly, to my poor planning. Around our last meeting I was a little swamped with midterms in my college courses and the final for this class. I was on good track to meet my goal for sessions, so I requested some time to work on schooling, meaning we did not meet for one Monday, and that following Wednesday, I did not find him at the CIES. Still having work to do, I thought nothing of it and continued to focus on classes. That Friday I fall ill, enough to the point where I take a COVID test, thankfully coming up negative. Not wanting to put my tutee at risk (and also not feeling up to snuff) I took the week off from tutoring. After messaging him on the following Sunday, Bruce responds on Tuesday saying he is free that Thursday. Nearly three weeks later, Bruce and I finally meet again to resume our tutoring.       With that massive and likely unnecessary sto...

      Bruce had one more concept left to review for on his quiz, something he claimed were complex connectors, and I am not entirely sure what that was supposed to mean. I searched around and only found one site describing this same idea. It lists " however, therefore, although, unless, subsequently" as the available complex connectors. Similarly, it claims that what differentiates them from "simple" connectors (which I assume to be FANBOYS or coordinating conjunctions) is their location within the sentence, typically at the start. I think, and I cannot be certain as I am no grammarian, but I believe this is actually the concept of conjunctive adverbs, but the teacher (or book) did not want to get too complicated too quickly. Not wanting to confuse Bruce, I worked closely with the material he was given, and we spent time looking over these "connectors", and I described each one's typical function. Due to his experience speaking English, he naturally en...

      Our session started with a bit of a surprise. Bruce informed me on Monday that the coming Wednesday he was going to have a quiz on clauses. Being that grammar was his weakest area he wanted to get a good grade on this quiz, so he could move up following the end of the term. This caused a small amount of panic, as we scheduled to meet Mondays and Wednesdays, meaning we would only meet once before his quiz. I suppose my emotional attachment to his success is inevitable, but still I should be more able to separate and distinguish myself (and my abilities as a tutor) from my students' success. Regardless, we made an impromptu schedule change, and decided to meet again on Tuesday before the quiz to review one final time. We got to work on noun clauses again, hammering out the few issues he had remaining with the material. I set to work on distinguishing the differences between indirect and direct objects, as this seemed to confuse him. The concept of an object is ac...

  Date/Time: Thursday, October 21, 2021, 9:00AM-11:00AM Location: Savannah Technical College (Savannah, GA) Topic/Skill: Vocabulary: At the Doctor, Writing: Using capital letters, Grammar: Should and Shouldn’t  Feedback provided to tutee: For the vocabulary portion of the lesson, we focused on vocabulary that is used throughout a doctor’s appointment (check-in, reception desk, medication, etc.). Since this was a beginner class, much of my feedback centered on pronunciation. We began each new vocabulary section with a choral drill. During speaking activities, I walked around and helped students hone in the pronunciation for certain words that gave them trouble. When we went over the grammar of “should” and “shouldn’t,” I had to use a few extra examples in context to clarify when to use the positive and negative forms.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or tutee: Some of the students were having trouble pronouncing the doctor’s office vocabulary. It proved to be very helpful to writ...

    Following our previous session, Bruce was keen to work on clauses. Our work was cut short so after briefly looking over the relative pronouns we got to work on some example sentences containing noun clauses. So these clauses can take a few forms: a subject, an object (both direct and indirect), an object of a preposition, and finally a subject compliment. What was most difficult about this session was impressing the subtle differences in each type of clause. For example, a subject vs. a subject compliment. While knowing what a subject is, he struggled to realize that a compliment is only restating what the subject is. By the way, try to describe the composition of a thing to an English learner without using the word "is", not fun. He eventually began to understand the function of "is" as a descriptive actor, although I'm sure my flimsy descriptions weren't much help. One of the things that trips me up is how exactly to communicate ideas through English t...

Date/Time: Friday, October 22, 2021 at 8:00AM Location: via Microsoft Teams Topic/Skill: Halloween!  Feedback provided to tutee: For this session, Je-Won and I worked on Halloween vocabulary, read a Halloween story, and did a drawing activity to review vocabulary. While learning the vocabulary, my feedback centered on encouraging Je-Won and helping him sound out words as we were practicing spelling. During the reading activity, I helped him pronounce some of the words that he did not know how to say. During the drawing activity, I encouraged him to be as creative as he wanted in order to lower his affective filter.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or tutee: Both Je-Won and I had a lot of fun with this lesson! Going over key Halloween vocabulary and reading a story that used the vocabulary in context seemed to be a great way to reinforce the new vocabulary and show examples in context. Finally, we ended the lesson with a drawing activity. I showed Je-Won the vocabulary words (bat, wit...

Date/Time: Tuesday, October 19, 2021, 1:00PM Location: via Zoom Topic/Skill: Grammar Assessment Test Feedback provided to tutee: This test provided an opportunity for me to give Abdulrahman a few tips on adverbs, sentence order, and other basics that we had not yet covered in tutoring. Most of our sessions focused on verb tenses or high-intermediate grammar, but it was helpful to see where some gaps needed to be filled with other parts of speech.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: Going through a grammar assessment with Abdulrahman was a great activity for observing his reasoning while taking a test. This allowed me to give him feedback on test-taking skills as well as grammar skills.

Date/Time: Friday, October 15, 2021, 1:00PM Location: via Zoom Topic/Skill: Causative Verbs (make, let, have) and Verb Collocations with Have, Get, and Come Feedback provided to tutee: Since this topic was less grammar dense, a lot of the feedback I provided was about using these verb collocations correctly in context. For example, we talked about “come to a decision” and “come to an agreement,” which are similar but have slightly different contextual uses. I suggested that “come to a decision” happens after doing a lot of research and is often used in the context of making a big purchase, whereas “come to an agreement” is often used regarding mediation and business dealings.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: At the end of the lesson, my tutee said that this was a very helpful topic because it is not necessarily something they would dedicate a whole lesson to in class. I learned that it is helpful to try something new or surprising every few sessions because the tutee may not...

Date/Time: Friday, October 15, 2021, 8:00AM Location: via Microsoft Teams Topic/Skill: Vocabulary Review: Colors, Animals, “Find something that is…” game, Draw your favorite animal from each category Feedback provided to tutee: For Je-Won’s level and age, the bulk of my feedback is encouraging him to continue speaking and trying to use new words that he is learning. He seems nervous to speak up when he’s not sure, for fear of saying the wrong thing, so I try to be as enthusiastic and encouraging as possible.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: Drawing seems to be a great way to end a tutoring session for a child. By the end of the session, Je-Won may be fatigued from trying to speak English, so the drawing activities allows him to focus on word comprehension, without the pressure of having to think of a response.

Date/Time: Friday, October 8, 2021, 8:00AM Location: via Microsoft Teams Topic/Skill: Vocabulary Review & Building on Animal Vocabulary Feedback provided to tutee: Since this session focused on vocabulary building, I focused on helping Je-Won cement new words in his mind. For example, I would show him extra pictures of each animal besides the flash card picture. When we practiced spelling, I would help him sound out the word as he got stuck. He was often able to spell the word on his own if I helped him sound it out.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: I hadn’t been incorporating as much spelling practice in the last few sessions and this session taught me that spelling practice is always a great activity for beginners. It is both confidence-building and helps to pinpoint letters or sounds that are tricky for the ELL to hear.

Date/Time: Sunday, October 3, 2021, 11:00AM Location: via Zoom Topic/Skill: Imperative Verbs & Idioms: Talking About Future Plans Feedback provided to tutee: Since this session focused on imperative verbs, I kept the grammar discussion very short and encouraged Abdulrahman to write his own imperative sentences. This allowed for an opportunity to discuss imperative verbs in context and provide feedback on the correct and incorrect uses of imperative verbs. For “Future Plans” idioms, it was also important to provide many examples in context.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: It was helpful to focus on an easier verb form for this session because it gave Abdulrahman an opportunity for speech and writing production without very much linguistic support. It was also good confidence building after a few sessions of more difficult verb tenses.

Date/Time: Sunday, September 26, 2021, 11:00AM Location: via Zoom Topic/Skill: Review the Six Simple Tenses & Their Time Markers and American Symbols Vocabulary Feedback provided to tutee: This session reviewed many of the verb tenses that Abdulrahman and I had gone over in previous sessions. Since my tutee had seen these tenses before, the feedback centered on more nitpicky error-correction. For example, I corrected “I going to the store” to “I am going to the store,” when we were practicing speaking.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: Since I typically work with beginners, I have a hard time correcting more than a few mistakes because I am afraid to overwhelm the ELL. However, Abdulrahman was very appreciative of my more nitpicky error correction, which shows how important error-correction is with intermediate learners especially.

Date/Time: Friday, October 1, 2021, 8:00AM Location: via Microsoft Teams Topic/Skill: Colors, Shapes, “Find something that is…” game Feedback provided to tutee: For this session, Je-Won and I worked on vocabulary for colors and shapes. When we finished the vocabulary flash cards, we both played a game of “Find something that is…” where we ran around our homes and found items that were a specific color and shape. It is important to lower Je-Won’s affective filter for tutoring, so my feedback for him was lots of encouragement and interest in the items he was able to find around his house.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: This was definitely a breakthrough session for me and Je-Won. It is 9PM Seoul Time when we meet, so he often says he is tired. Getting him up and moving definitely helped his focus and lowered his affective filter. By the end of the session, he was smiling and racing back to his chair to show me what he found, which was so rewarding! Also, by joining in the ga...

Date/Time: Friday, September 17, 2021, 8:00AM Location: via Microsoft Teams Topic/Skill: Food, “Draw your favorite...“ Feedback provided to tutee: For this session, we did some food-related flashcards. The feedback mostly centered on lowering Je-Won’s affective filter, encouraging him to take a guess if he didn’t know, and small pronunciation corrections.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: Using a drawing activity was a great way to review food vocabulary. I had Je-Won draw his favorite breakfast, which allowed him to review some of the vocabulary we had learned, but without having to worry about speech production. This was a great way to wrap up the session and give Je-Won a chance to be more creative. This activity also emphasized language-learning as a communicative.

Date/Time: Saturday, September 18, 2021, 10:00AM Location: via Zoom Topic/Skill: Simple Past Tense Feedback provided to tutee: After a short grammar discussion, the bulk of this session was spent reviewing and practicing irregular past tense verbs. I provided my tutee with a list of the most common irregular past tense verbs, and we went through them together. When we finished, we did a lot of practice using these verbs with increasingly less linguistic support. Since irregular past tense is mostly about memorization, my feedback was mainly encouragement and encouraging him to look at the linguistic support handout when he got stuck.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: For an intrinsically motivated adult learner, it is okay to spend a large part of the tutoring session discussing the grammar, its exceptions, and fielding many questions about real-life examples. When Abdulrahman asked about exceptions, it was always very helpful to have him give me a specific example of what he...

Date/Time: Friday, September 24, 2021, 8:00AM Location: via Microsoft Teams Topic/Skill: Animal Vocabulary, Pictionary game Feedback provided to tutee: For vocabulary review, Je-Won and I played a game of pictionary. However, he seemed afraid to speak up while I was in the middle of drawing, which is a key component of the game. Therefore, I enthusiastically encouraged him to speak up when he knew what I was drawing and frequently asked “any guesses?” while I was drawing, so that he knew it was okay to yell out an answer.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: Pictionary was a great way to review vocabulary! This game inspired me to incorporate drawing activities in the rest of my sessions with Je-Won. However, I used an online application for pictionary, and I think this is an activity best done with pen and paper. By drawing on a pen and paper, there is more tactile learning involved and gives Je-Won a break from staring at a screen for the full session.

Date/Time: Saturday, September 11, 2021, 10:00AM Location: via Zoom Topic/Skill: Simple Present Tense & Present Progressive Tense Feedback provided to tutee: Since Abdulrahman had seen and used both of these tenses before, my feedback focused on time-markers for the simple present & present progressive tenses. Furthermore, I clarified some idiosyncrasies of these tenses. For example, the present progressive is often used when referring to the future.  Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: Although Abdulrahman is intermediate and had seen both of these tenses before, reviewing time markers and other small differences proved to be very beneficial. It is important to listen to what the tutee specifically wants to review because they know their language learning journey better than anyone. Plus, since it’s something the tutee requested to review, he came with a lot of questions and specific examples, which made the session very productive.

Date/Time: Friday, September 10, 2021, 8:00AM Location: via Microsoft Teams Topic/Skill: Vocabulary Building and the verb “to be”  Feedback provided to tutee: For this session, I did some basic school-related vocabulary flashcards and went over the verb “be.” Then I asked Je-Won questions that used the “be” verb.” I provided my own answers on a google doc handout for linguistic support. Most of my feedback centered on encouragement, since this was only our second session together. I also encouraged Je-Won to practice speaking, even when he wasn’t 100% sure of the correct way to say something.   Lesson(s) about tutoring or the tutee: Looking back on this session, I wish I had incorporated more tactile learning, TPR, or something creative. Although Je-Won is extremely bright and focused, I know from later sessions that he was likely tired after school and would have preferred some more active or creative activities.

  CO #3 Date/Time: Thursday, September 9th at 2:00PM  Topic/Skill: Listening, Technology, Art, Robotics Teacher Presentation: Ms. James had students spend the majority of class time working on their own individual listening projects. I was let into the class a few minutes after it had started, but it appeared that she allowed students to go off on their own with their laptops and complete individual listening activities. She also allowed students to choose listening activities based on their interests.  Classroom Management: Because this was an advanced class, the students seemed very intrinsically motivated, which meant that Ms. James could allow them some freedom in choosing individual projects. This also optimized class time for each student to practice as much listening as possible.  Materials: Students needed their own laptops and headphones to complete their individual listening projects. Ms. James also used Google Docs to distribute a class content survey and ...

  CO #2   Date/Time: Tuesday, September 7th at 1:00PM Topic/Skill: Health, Skill Teacher Presentation: Ms. McHarek went over the agenda of the day, which included schema-building reading activities about health and questions about the reading to guide small group discussion. Ms. McHarek also started the class by introducing an idiom of the day and discussed the idiom in context. She encouraged students to try the idiom in their own sentences, and gave feedback based on the sentences that students came up with.  Classroom Management: Ms. McHarek gave very clear instructions and told the students exactly how much time they had for each activity. Throughout speaking activities, Ms. McHarek walked around the room, facilitating and answering questions.  Materials: Students used a textbook for the reading activity and discussion questions. An overhead projector was also used.   Student Participation: Ms. McHarek put the students into small groups, which allo...

  Date/Time: Friday, September 3, 2021 at 10:50AM Topic/Skill: Speaking, Working on Class Presentations Teacher Presentation: Mr. Flemming went over the agenda for the day and asked if students had any questions. He began class with 5 discussion questions and put students in groups of 3 for warm-up conversations. He then provided a sample of the presentation his students will be giving in the upcoming weeks. He gave students a quiz over the order of ideas. Finally, he gave students class time to work on their presentations, ask him questions, and record first drafts of their presentations.  Classroom Management: Because it was a speaking class, Mr. Flemming spent much of the class time facilitating discussion and ensuring that students understood the expectations of their upcoming presentations.  Materials: Access to Zoom, Canvas, and overhead projector. His students brought their laptops to work on their presentations during class.  Student Participation: The class ...

 Aziz and I met at the Starbucks on Tennessee closest to the CIES building. This isn't the first time I've met Aziz, however, as he's been present many times during my tutoring sessions with Masoud. This is the first time that we've officially met as conversation partners. We had a pretty long conversation about nothing in particular. Some of the things we talked about were the differences between Kuwait/Saudi Arabia and the U.S. In particular, we talked about how different wedding ceremonies are. For weddings in the Middle East, they hold separate ceremonies for the men and the women, and these ceremonies take place at the same time. I was telling Aziz how different this was from most western weddings, where everyone celebrates together. We also talked about why he came here and why he wants to learn English. He got a scholarship to study for a Masters in Sports Management and wanted to learn English in order to gain admission to FSU. He was recently accepted and will ...

     We began working on the reading exercise from the last session. He had completed it at home, but left it there, so we decided to just go over the copy I had on my laptop. I noticed that he definitely had trouble with skills such as scanning and using context clues. There were numerous times where the answer was plainly in the text but he had difficulty finding it because it was worded a little differently. I'm not sure how else to teach him these skills other than more practice, so I think that for next time I will give him a similar reading exercise, but maybe give him some more instructions. I could try explaining these reading strategies to him explicitly before he starts reading so that he can be better prepared to answer the questions. At the end of the reading exercise, I included a free response question. His writing skills are still seriously lacking. The question clearly stated that the answer should be "a few sentences"; he wrote two unrelated sentences and...

Date/Time: October 13, 2021 at 8:00am Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Reading Feedback provided to tutee: I am working with Je-ah on reading a Magic Tree House book. We have not worked on reading at all and through reading this book, I have already realized that she is a good reader. When she got stuck on a word she would usually sound it out and if she didn't know where to start she would look and me and then I would pronounce the word for her. If a word was reoccuring, then I would pronounce the first few times and then by then she would be able to pronounce it herself. I also noticed that she picked up on similar words that sounded the same. However, I also noticed that somtimes she stresses the "ed" in a word and sometimes she pronouces it correctly, so I had to stop her and have her repeat it correctly even though she understands the word itself. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that Je-ah loves to read. So, I think this will be a good reo...

Date/Time: October 6, 2021 at 8:00am Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Writing Routine Feedback provided to tutee: We talked about Je-ah's routine and wrote down what she does ona typical day. She typed and though she took a while to start typing, her mistakes were very few and far between. She corrects herself very well and I think she continues to be more advanced than she lets on.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that a typical day for a Korean student is much like a day for an American student of the same age. Although the class schedule is different, the day is generally the same. Through Je-ah and my Conversation Partner, I am learning that there are lots of similarities between Korean culture and American culture.

    So as most of America knows, Squid Game was cool. I watched it in about three days. Not only am I habitual binge watcher, I will often watch shows I like while doing other things, going to class, riding the bus, waiting for class. I had the unique opportunity of discussing Squid Game with Jihye as I was finishing the series. Being from South Korea I naturally had a thousand questions for her, and I felt in some way rude, but my curiosity was too great so I continued my questions. I felt rude mostly because I was treating another culture as just a source of entertainment and also self gratification. I suppose I am being somewhat harsh on myself, as learning about other cultures is fine, yet I still felt like I was intruding in some regard. What I found most striking about the show was the villains, they are American. Jihye informed me that American villains are common in K-dramas, and this did not really surprise me, it actually made me really happy. I love the British...

 This second meeting Jihye and I continued to have nice conversations. I wanted to get her acquainted with a lot of American small talk questions. Typical ones like, "How was your day/week?" or  "What are your plans for the weekend?". Little things like that often branch into larger conversations, though not always. Initially it was a bit awkward, but we got through it. She had attended a baby shower recently and my sister is currently expecting. I began to tell her about our trip out to Arizona to attend her wedding, how we had driven some 5000 miles in about two weeks, which blew her mind. I told her this was called a road trip and she instantly took to the idea, like she already had thought about it, but just did not know the words to say so. Right now, I am planning one such trip with my friends later next year, driving around the northeast. She seemed really excited. This naturally turned into a conversation about the U.S attitude of space and things of that na...

      This would be the last time I would meet with Aziz, he had some problems at home and we ran into communication errors. Additionally, meeting with him had become a bit of a toss up, he would not show up to our sessions, and I needed the time in my schedule. My one regret in this regard, I should have formally contacted him in respect to my withdrawal as his tutor. For lack of a better term, I ghosted him. Though in all transparency, he did not contact me any further regarding our tutoring, and still has not.  Regardless, I was equally unprepared for this lesson. Aziz is very goal oriented in his learning of English, he wants to communicate and participate in classes here at FSU. That being said, he was keen on knowing how he could best do this, what things he needs to do, or if his professors can understand him. I told him that a majority of engaging in a classroom is actively listening, not speaking, and that a good portion of interaction with professors i...

 So, this time around, I had not done my due diligence as a tutor. I did not come prepared for this session and I had actual goals for my student, Bruce. I cobbled together a short passage from a book I had been reading to act as an impromptu listening assignment, but I did not prepare questions beforehand, nor did I help him understand the material I was reading from. It, as can likely be anticipated, did not go over well, at all. Not only did Bruce naturally not understand the material, it had no context in which to be understood, making it even more bizarre for a learner. Luckily it was at this point, Bruce realized I was going to continue working on listening with him, however he was fairly confident in that respect, and it showed. When I had a good plan for him, something to work with, he took to the material quickly. He also has no problems understanding me, outside of when I do a poor job communicating. Bruce told me that he would rather work on grammar, citing that as his m...

     For this session, I had prepared a couple of exercises. The first was reading exercise. The reading exercise consisted of an article about alligators I had found on the St. Mark's Wildlife Refuge website with some questions on the reading at the end. For the reading, I created a vocab sheet that defined every word that I felt would give him some trouble. I created this exercise specifically because I know that Masoud tends to struggle with reading and writing. The last couple of tutoring sessions were largely dedicated to writing, so I figured I'd give him a bit of a break.      The other exercise I had prepared for this session was a 2 part listening exercise. This one focused on minimal pairs involving the sounds /f/ and /v/ as well as /p/ and /b/. I've noticed during the last couple of sessions that he still mixes them up quite a lot (usually only when spelling - he tends to pronounce these words correctly). I created a worksheet for him where for e...

 During this session with Hang-Ah, we worked on phrasal verbs and slang/idioms. In preparation for the session, I found a number of resources online for each topic. First, for phrasal verbs, I found a PDF of a very comprehensive list along with some fill-in-the-blank exercises. First, we went through some of the more common phrasal verbs from the list and discussed their meanings, situations when they would be used, how common they are, and so on. Next, we went through the phrasal verb exercises together. After this, we focused on slang/idioms. As with phrasal verbs, I found a few useful websites that had (particularly newer) slang terms listed, along with definitions. I wasn't able to find exercises with these, but we were able to have a productive discussion about them, their meanings, situations in which they would be used, frequency of use, which sub-cultures use them, and so on.

 During my second session with Masoud, we met online via Zoom rather than in-person. Masoud was at CIES while I was at home. Mostly, we talked about food and food service. I asked Masoud about his favorite American food that wasn't as readily available back home. He mentioned Popeye's and Donut Kingdom as particular examples. He also told me about a bad service experience that he'd had at Donut Kingdom earlier that same day, where someone was allowed to cut in front of him in the line. He also told me another time when he had trouble being understood while ordering at Popeye's, and how the server had been very rude because of his accent. Besides food, we discussed the four language skills, and I asked Masoud which he finds easiest and hardest. He said that speaking is the easiest for him, while reading is the hardest because of the sheer volume of unknown vocabulary.

 During this session with Zheping, we continued as in previous weeks, with his pronunciation. I asked him his presentation went, and he told that it had been so-so; his teacher had suggested, similarly to me, that he try to slow down when speaking so as to focus more on correct pronunciation. To work on that particular skill, we used the same reading (about energy infrastructure; see earlier post) that we have used several times in the past. I would read it loud at a normal native pace, while we timed and recorded it. Then, Zheping would repeat, with the aim to take about 1.5x as long as I had taken at a normal native pace. At first, he was pretty much matching my speed, but this made much of his pronunciation unintelligible. After going through the passages a few time, he had managed to slow his time down and thereby become more comprehensible.

      My class observation (with Ms McHarek) began with my late arrival as due to a scheduling error, I had to leave one of my own classes early to make this one. Nonetheless I entered, took my seat and quickly began to scribble down everything I could see and/or hear. The first thing I noticed (and knew before entering) was the fact that this was a listening class. Second I noticed the instructor had separated the board into sections as well as written down objectives on the board. She had vocabulary on the board that she would constantly add to, but also wanted the class to define from context. Finally she walked the room and made sure students paid full attention as well as took notes. Once done listening, she asked some comprehension questions and then split the class into groups to have a short discussion followed by a few more questions. She had the groups define the vocab words on the board as well. After reconvening the class, she went over the answers and de...

      Seeing as my first meeting with Aziz had been my first tutoring session ever, it took me awhile to get comfortable and accurately assess him. Despite us working on phrasal verbs throughout the previous session, Aziz came back to me still confused on the subject. At the time, I had been reading, and came across a startling number of phrasal verbs and decided to write down when I either used or came across a new phrasal verb. I soon had a list of about 10 different phrases, some with multiple meanings depending on the object of the verb. I gave him my list and showed him some common occurrences as well as working to get him some examples of uses. He is quite keen on examples, and I think I know why. he demonstrates the need for linguistic support in teaching languages. We can give students all the theoretical knowledge they could ever need, yet none of that is practical if they have no words with which to use that knowledge. I spent much of our session reviewing ...

      Bruce and I met again not two days after our first meeting. It was this week where our reading lesson plan was due. I had selected an article from NPR that was transcribed. It was a dialog that could be read for lower level students, but the site included the recording as well. Knowing that Bruce wanted to practice his listening, I shifted my plans slightly and simply recycled the material and questions but for a listening exercise. The process went well, surprisingly. The questions were fitting and the dialog was not too quick for the listener. Additionally, the transcript was right in front of my face, making it really easy to point to facts in the dialog. I think I got lucky this time, but truly I had no way of knowing how appropriate this was for my student. he seemed to understand the material, but there is no way to know how many of those questions he would have got had I not helped him through them. What should have been a red flag for myself, is that he...

    My first time meeting Jihye went quite well. Though there was a minor hiccup immediately prior to our meeting. I had no clue what she looked like nor did I have any inclination as to what type of person I should have been looking for. All this culminated in a slight;y embarrassing moment of us briefly standing directly next to each other, neither aware we had found each other, more or less. Despite initial obstacles, our meeting progress with us getting to know each other. I quickly learned she left South Korea and followed her husband to Milwaukee, where they   spent a few years only to move to Tallahassee. She took up classes at the CIES so that she could return to school and pursue her master's degree. For the time being, she is only studying English. Obviously, I told her why I was in Tallahassee in kind, and therefore briefly discussed my classes, including my ethics class pertaining to Karl Marx. This quickly became common ground as her husband and she met ...