James CP#1

Just had lunch at Maple Street with my conversation partner Marco. I learned more about Latin culture and maybe even more important, what to expect from the local work force.  I also bounced some business ideas off him and was given positive feedback.  I was assured my transition would not be as difficult as previously thought.

James CO#1

6/23/15

Observed a foundations level speaking class and came away with a better understanding of the importance of speaking slowly, clearly and precisely.  Encourage interaction and participation and most importantly, be patient.

Jordan CO#1

Today I observed Leslie Wagner's Grammar class for level 2 students. They seem to be at the stage where there are a ton of rules floating around in their heads, and they are learning to balance them out into grammatically correct English sentences. It was interesting to watch them and remember my own experiences at that stage in learning a foreign language.
Leslie started out with a review of the simple past tense and had the students conjugate a list of verbs into past tense. Then we watched a video and wrote down what was happening using those verbs in simple past tense and shared them with the class. Next she reviewed "used to" and had the students partner up to ask questions about what they used to do or didn't use to do. All the while she was walking around and offering corrections or assisting with misunderstandings. We moved on to a new topic next: Past Continuous. After using a newspaper cartoon to demonstrate Leslie explained the rules of use, and we spent the rest of class practicing with a few exercises.
I really enjoyed how we kept mixing things up with different types of exercises. We did a video, pair work, group work, and writing sentences at various times. It felt like it kept things fresh and seemed focused on putting the grammar into practice which is so important for learning a language.

Chris TS#2

Yesterday after my CO, I met again with my adult tutee, Simge.

This time I had a good understanding of her strengths and weaknesses, so I came prepared. We began by reviewing some vocabulary and she knew it all. I gave her a verb tense worksheet. We started with simple perfect. She was able to complete it was ease, although she was unsure of when she would use this tense. I explained to her how and when to use it and then we moved on to present continuous.

She was very engaged with our present continuous tense activity. I think she must have been reviewing it in class because she understood this one very well. Anticipating this, I had another worksheet with some irregular verbs on it. I asked her to make sentences using the words in the present continuous. She did really well. When we got to "die," she wrote "dieing" at first. After reminding her that it was irregular, she corrected it to "dying." The sentence she came up with was really absurd, but in a funny way, so I chuckled when she finished writing it. I don't think she realized what it meant at first, but when she read it, she started laughing too. This was a great opportunity to explain how die can also be used in the idiom "I died laughing." A good laugh was a great way to end such a productive tutoring session!

I gave her a writing activity to do for homework and then we parted ways.

Chris CO#2

Yesterday after lunch I had my second classroom observation. I sat in on Isaiah's Level 2 Speaking class.

This was a fairly large class, about 12 students. Everyone was talkative and making jokes before class, I could tell this would be a lively bunch. Isaiah began the class a bit stern because many people had missed last Thursday's class and not e-mailed him about it. This was important because it was presentation day, so they missed their classmate's project. He seemed genuinely disappointed in those who missed class. After the talking-to, he moved on by playing a recording of one student's presentation. The dictation was typed out on the board so they could listen and read. He called on students to point out and correct any mistakes in grammar.

Next, he called on people to come up and continue the presentations. Their project was to interview someone in this class and then speak about them to the class. The 3 who ended up getting called to present did a good job even though they seemed nervous to speak in front of the class. These took up most of the class time, so before I knew it, we were finished.

I really enjoyed the Speaking class. It was nice to spend a whole class period speaking and listening without the use of a textbook. I also was impressed at how much the students would self-correct themselves and each other.

Dianna CO #1

I had originally signed up to observe a speaking class this past Thursday; however, when I arrived to the class that day, I found out that the class was taking part in a research. There was a large group of students that met in the lounge. It was CIES students as well as students from our class who chose to participate in the research. We broke up into small groups of 4-5 people and discussed several worksheets. The first worksheet had six bubbles each person was supposed to fill in with six words they identified with; for example: religion, major, family, hobbies, etc. We discussed these in our small groups. It was very interesting to see what each person held most important to them and how each of the cultures influenced them. There were many similarities and many differences. In my group, there was a girl from Brazil, a boy from Saudi Arabia, a boy from Kuwait, and two other students from our class. There was a second worksheet, where we paired up with different people and discussed different aspects of our cultures. For instance, the first question asked how people greeted each other in your country. Overall, I had a really good experience and I learned a lot from all of the people I talked to. I really enjoyed taking part in the research.

Dianna TS #1

Yesterday, I met with my first Tutee, Luna. Luna is from Colombia and does not speak a lot of English. She is at the beginner level. For our session, we focused on reading. She brought some material from class that she needed help with. There were several pages to read and questions on reading comprehension. We looked at the questions first and then she read the passages out loud. She stopped when she had a question about the meaning of certain words; however, she did a good job overall of reading the text. After each section, she would go back and answer the questions that we did not find while reading. Though she had a little trouble, she was able to find all of the answers. I was surprised at the text that she had to read for class. I thought it was a little bit difficult for her level.

Dianna CP #1

Yesterday, I met with my conversation partner for the first time. We went to Newk's together for lunch. Her name is Tarsila and she is from Natal, Brazil. She is a meteorology major and just got to the states a week ago. She spoke and understood English very well. She had an accent, but she was easy to understand. Tarsila told me that she had visited the United States once before to go to Disney World and Universal Studios. Back home, she practices English with her sister who also speaks a little bit. They both learned in school. She said their were many other Brazilians in the program. They sometimes speak Portuguese amongst each other, but they try to speak English to practice. We discussed a lot of different things over lunch including hobbies, music, books. Since she is new to Tallahassee, I would like to show her around the area. She said it is very different here than in Brazil.

Joel TS#2

For this tutoring session, I worked with Yuma on his listening and comprehension skills. Jennifer joined us as well, to observe. Last week, Yuma said that he wanted to work on his listening skills and try to practice for the TOEFL. I found a listening comprehension practice that came with a script and some questions that I felt would be good for his level. This seemed to be very helpful because it would allow him to practice his listening as well as his reading. We started off by just listening to the passage while he underlined words that he didn’t know or was unsure about. We then went through each of the words and I explained, to the best of my ability, each of them. After that we went through some questions about the article which helped improve his understanding and made sure that he knew exactly what the article was saying. I feel like this lesson was helpful and went more smoothly than the last one. He seemed to understand what I was saying a little bit better than last week. Hopefully I will be able to continue to improve the lessons and see improvement in Yuma’s English skills.

Jennifer TS#5

Today, I decided to observe Joel's session with Yuma. We all met up at the Strozier Library at 5:00 pm. Joel found TOEFL practice tests online and decided to focus today's session on Yuma's listening/comprehension skills since Yuma wanted to spend his time preparing for his next TOEFL exam.

On Joel's tablet, we all listened to a passage about Sylvia Plath. He had printed out the passage as well, for Yuma to read through and find words he was unfamiliar with. After we finished listening, Joel went through each word Yuma was unsure of and did his best to define the words in simpler terms. It was harder than I thought; I had to use my laptop to look up some definitions and examples to help better explain some of the words--poet, obliged, subjugate, sought, etc. There were a few instances when we had to translate the word and show him, but he understood most of what we said. We all shared a few laughs too; it was a fun session, in my opinion.

Then Yuma was handed a number of questions about the passage; Joel took his time explaining the different types of questions and helped him answer each one. Yuma asked a lot of questions and he seemed meticulous when going through the questions. I'm glad I got to watch and even help answer some of Yuma's questions. I'm nervous about meeting my adult tutee again because I wasn't sure what to prepare for our next session, but watching Joel and Yuma eased some of my tensions.

Good job, Joel!

Pam TS # 2 adult

Manal was all business during our second tutoring session.   

She had taken the practice TOEFL exam on Saturday and realized how much she had to learn so was ready to get to work when I walked in the door.  She had homework which she was not sure how to complete and 2 dozen sentences she needed to answer from the in -class reading of “White Fang”. 

Manal had clearly read the material but needed help on each sentence; verb tenses, articles and word placement.  I went through each question from the teacher and then assisted with the answers, helping her make complete sentences.  After about a half hour, I began to question whether I was ‘doing’ her homework or "assisting" with her homework.   

Though I don’t doubt her eagerness to learn I was second guessing myself; “How much should I help?”  We went over each correct response and why the verb needed to be in the past tense or why in English there is an article before the noun.  Was I helping too much?  Or by going over each sentence was I reinforcing what she was learning.  It is a balancing act and I’m sure I’m not the first to question, but I know she will turn in a perfect paper to her teacher.  Now am I cheating her from the help the teacher might be giving her in class?

Bruce CP #1

I met with Joel, an American, and Bo-ram, from South Korea. We had a pleasant conversation that mostly centered on the cultural differences between our two countries—specifically, the relative perceptions of alcohol, drug use, and driving.

Firstly, on alcohol, Bo-ram told me that alcoholic consumption is very prevalent in South Korea. It almost an expected social accessory at any event. This fact caused concern in me, however. If I ever go to South Korea, I might be at a disadvantage socializing, as I don’t drink. To my reassurance, Bo-ram told me that foreigners are not under as much pressure to take part, and I could always excuse myself if necessary.

We then talked on the differences in alcohol here. I commented that there is slight pressure for alcohol consumption, although the bulk of it is centered in college fraternities. It depends on your social group, in other words, and there’s large flexibility in what is considered a socially adequate level of alcohol intake. Driving under the influence of alcohol is strongly taboo, thanks in part to a media campaign in the 80s. Bo-ram replied to the effect that people in South Korea tend to take the adage “Don’t drink and drive” as more of a suggestion, than an admonition. Reckless driving is a problem there, and Bo-ram likes the drivers in Florida much better.

 

Concerning drug usage, Bo-ram informed me that Korea is extremely anti-drug, at virtually every level of the society. In contrast, in the United States, drug use is less frowned upon. In some areas, such as Colorado, the recreational use of marijuana has been legalized, and it is quickly entering the mainstream. We theorized the difference is primarily due to geography and differences in trafficking. The United States is near Mexico and South America, so it is easier to import drugs here than to South Korea. The longer border the United States has, also makes it easier for illegal trafficking.

The long swathes of area, I think, also influenced the differences in driving culture we saw. In the United States, it is more difficult to get by without a car. The wide area means cities were built further apart, and it took longer to get to any particular place. The highway program of Eisenhower, I think, made cars and driving essential parts of American culture. In contrast, as Bo-ram told me, in South Korea one often doesn’t need a car. Public transportation is easily available, and you don’t have to travel quite so long a distance to get to any one particular point in Korea.

Overall, I found our talk productive and enjoyable!