Carlton TP #5

Third tutee session with YY and TZ, Friday March 14, 2-4pm

We meet at CIES lounge. TG is early because there is no TOEFL class today. First, I review YY speaking class pronunciation. Her vocalizing of "er", "ed", and hard and soft "th" are problems. I need to provide her a lot of opportunity to repeat sounds and correct. But she is not so shy this week, and is anxious to practice. Then we moved to a classroom to work as a group today.

TZ did the pollution worksheet I handed out last week, YY did not, so we did not review this topic. The new topic I had sent via message for them to think about was family pictures. Share and describe. We took turns viewing pictures of spouses and children and commenting on the settings. This is a familiar subject of a beginning CIES lesson and we refined vocabulary and some grammar in use.

The next topic I had already asked for was QQ tips. This is a native Chinese chat program that is only partially translated into an international version. TZ has the Windows version and YY has the Android version. I have the iOS and Mac international version. We compared the user interfaces and TG helped me understand how to download emoji on computer. We realized this was not supported the same on the Mac after some trial and error. This was a good opportunity for them to show and tell me how to navigate software they knew better than I and they were encouraged to try to assist me. Coincidently, some of our conversation, "left", "right", etc. was similar to our last topic.

CIES class lesson today was giving directions. The worksheet map included the area nearby. We reviewed this lesson when TG made a request to go to TCC sometime to inquire about extra ESL classes. I agreed to go today and we could work on authentic direction situation, and I would drop them off at home afterwards.  We drive to TCC but it is completely closed for break. On the way back, I stop at the Korean grocery and we compare prices on tofu (half price of Publix), some vegetables, and buy rice. Then I drop YY at home, after she gives directions. Then TZ does the same.

This session was very productive, I think, because we engaged in a lot of conversation that supported the current CIES lessons. The students were much less nervous and maybe moving around a lot helped: changing location, walking and driving.