Tutee session with TZ only, Wednesday March 26, 3:30-5:00pm
We meet at CIES lounge. YY has had to leave to take exams, but is expected to return next week.
This is our first individual tutoring since our first meeting. We review TG progress, direction, and perception of our lessons. I learn from his comments that tutoring small groups has some disadvantages. Expectations are for personal attention to specific problems, but the other tutee can redirect that attention or the instructor cannot always balance the time. In a classroom, the individual expectation is usually lower and instructor is not as direct a participant in an exercise. With two or three, the instructor must compromise to make sure each tutee gains from the lesson. Today we practiced pronunciation.
TG was at first skeptical of attempting to converse without learning proper grammatical forms first and spoke very slowly and deliberately. After a few weeks of encouraging him to risk speaking, and taking him away from the classroom environment to talk without the translator, he is much more confident. He negotiated the questioning about ESOL classes with strangers very well last week. I had very little to say.
Today he stated that he has changed his mind about his focus on preparing for the TOEFL, and recognizes that he must have more than one learning strategy. By keeping our topics focused on his present needs and current interests, I am reviewing and repeating our conversation topics to reinforce his use of productive new words, rather than constantly adding more.
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