FSU TEFL Summer 1

Dojun and I discussed an NPR article and accompanying sound clip (3 minutes) regarding the North Korea Summit held earlier this summer. First, we listened to the sound clip, and then I read the article aloud for Dojun. I think this article was not great for our session. It included too many low frequency vocabulary words, and the sound clip did not exactly match the article, so Dojun could not follow along as I read it aloud or as we listened to the clip. Overall the story was interesting but I think it was difficult to relate it to Dojun.

Dojun and I had been using news articles for  many of our sessions, so I decided to change it up a bit and show a 5 minute clip of the show Friends. The clip is about a discussion between Phoebe, Joey and Rachel (titled “Joey doesn’t share food”). The speech was a bit fast, but Dojun mentioned that the subtitles helped, although we did have to pause the video often to ensure he was understanding the video. Each time I paused, I asked him to summarize what the scene showed and then asked if he had questions about vocabulary used. It was difficult to explain what clams are until I realized I could google a picture and send it to him.

With the qualifying World Cup games going on I decided to discuss an NPR article about an “alternate” World Cup. Dojun and I had previously talked about sports and sports culture in our home countries, so I felt this would be an interesting topic to learn more about. The confederation of independent football associations World Cup is made up of teams that are not a part of FIFA. The articles goes in depth about a team from Tibet but also touches on the team from the United Koreans of Japan which Dojun commented was quite interesting. I had Dojun read this article to me so I could evaluate his speaking as well as comprehension.

Mohammad was given a homework assignment about Hawaii’s “ethnic rainbow.” The article discussed Hawaii’s history and the cultural diversity found across the state. The objective of the homework assignment was to employ both skimming and scanning skills to easily find key information. We discussed ways to quickly scan reading passages for specific  information. For instance, one of the questions asked about comments made by a precious governor about Hawaii’s diversity. We scanned the article got the word “governor” or the abbreviation “Gov.” and quickly found the piece of information necessary to answer the reading questions. We continued this until we answered all of the questions.

Mohammad received his essay back from the instructor about the different modes of transportation he had worked on previously. Although he did not get the highest score possible, he still did well. However, the instructor made a few of the same comments throughout his paper - basically that he was not fully supporting his statements with appropriate background information. We discussed the importance of creating an outline so that it’s easier to organize ideas and then easier to write the assignment. I’m not sure that he will employ the use of outlines every time, but we did discuss the different types of outlines he can use, and then created one for the paper he had worked on. It seems his instructors also incorporate outlines for writing assignments, but he is not doing this for himself when working on homework.

Mohammad and I worked on another class assignment during this session. He was given an article about the history and construction of the Alaska pipeline which had corresponding comprehension questions he had to answer. It was difficult to relate this topic to something I’m familiar with because I had little knowledge of the pipeline or it’s history. The questions were very specific, so it required that Mohammad fully read and understood key parts of the article. Together we read the questions first so we knew what to look out for. I then read the article aloud in sections and asked him to take notes while listening. Afterwards, we read through the article again to answer the questions.

During one of our earlier sessions Dojun mentioned that movies in English are often too fast for him to follow along to easily. When preparing for our session, I found a couple of interesting podcasts by NPR, and also stumbled upon this segment they have called Story Corps. Story Corps produces videos ranging from 5 minutes to over 15 minutes long with stories told by the subjects themselves. These are a bit more helpful compared to podcasts because instead of solely relying on your listening skills, these video clips show context clues (non verbal cues) and offer a richer learning experience. We watched one with individuals interviewing family members about their history of drug abuse and jail time; another about adult children speaking with their immigrant parents about the difficulties they faced in the U.S.; and a third video about facing discrimination in the workplace. We watched each video together and then I had Dojun provide me with a brief overview of each video.

I was sad to say goodbye to Dojun on our last meeting but he had mentioned during our last session that he had begun tutoring with a new student, so I knew he would be able to continue his practice.  For this session I wanted to continue working on his listening skills. Again, I had Dojun watch the short two and a half minute video clip that accompanied  a news article I found. The article discussed the 12 Thai students and their coach currently stuck in a cave for nearly a week now. I instructed Dojun to watch the video and write down unfamiliar vocabulary. “Fissures,” “torrent,” and “abandoned” were a few words he had questions about. We discussed the ways torrent can be used (torrential rain/torrenting music online) and how the original meaning of the word (a fast and heavy stream of water) can help him understand the second usage (when downloading/“torrenting”  music, think about how you are trying to obtain it quickly). I also clarified when we use the word abandoned...

Dojun and I continued our discussion from our last session about the migrant crisis in the EU. I sent him an article published by the BBC regarding a rescue ship dubbed “Aquarius” that is operated by the NGO, “Doctors without Borders.” Before we began reading the article, I asked Dojun to first watch the accompanying clip that was about 3 minutes long. I thought the clip would help with schema building, but it was also helpful because the video required Dojun to listen to the speaker (with no subtitles) as well as use his reading skills for the video parts that had just text and images, and no spoken words. I then asked him to read the article aloud to me so he could practice his speaking and pronunciation.

On our second meeting, Mohammad requested we work together on a homework assignment. This short writing assignment was for his composition class. Students were given class time to complete a short story about modes of transportation and the benefits/negatives of each. He was instructed to follow the typical five paragraph essay structure. Students were given the chance to take their essay home and continue working on it after class. After discussing the prompt with Mohammad, it seemed he understood the topic and could talk with me about it, but it was more difficult for him to get words on paper. I asked him about his usual process for essay writing and he noted that he does not use outlines unless instructed to by a professor. I have always used outlines for my essays in school and I find them extremely helpful. We did not have time to do a full run through on outlines unfortunately.

For my third session with Dojun, we discussed useage of English in both professional and relaxed contexts. Dojun mentioned that he is sometimes exposed to different English accents in his workplace (variations of American accents, British, Australian) and that he would like to get better at understanding these accents. I was able to gather four different video clips on YouTube with dialogue in American accents (California accent, Boston accent, southern accent, New York accent). Unfortunately since the clips were not related or in a sequence, it was not as helpful as it might’ve been if it were a cohesive video and story, but I do think it helped Dojun to identify and familiarize himself a bit more with different American accents.

For my first tutoring session with Mohammad we discussed his personal language goals. It seemed hard for him to separate what he wanted to achieve in school with what he desired for himself. As I mentioned in a previous conversation partner blog, Mohammad never seemed particularly enthusiastic about learning English. This was completely fine, as it’s just realistic that people sometimes only begin to learn a new language because of familial influences, more job opportunities, or reasons other than “fun.” Mohammad was committed to improving his previous test scores for admittance into an American undergraduate program, so together we decided this would be our top priority for our sessions. I assessed his language level to be quite beginner. Although we could converse relatively easily, there were many times where we could not understand each other and would have to reword our sentences to get our message across.

Since we used the first session to get a feel for one another, we dedicated this second session to talking about the specifics of Dojun’s language goals. Although he is not required by his employer to speak English on a daily basis, he mentioned that it would be to his advantage to have a better grasp of the language. After speaking with Dojun at greater length about his language use, I determined he had to be at least at the mid-intermediate level. We could speak quite fluidly with minimal interruptions for clarifications or misunderstandings. Dojun noted that he would like to focus on speaking and listening skills. Using this information, I began to think about activities I could incorporate into our sessions.

For my first tutoring session I met with Dojun. Dojun lives in Seoul, South Korea, and works in the airline industry. Our first meeting mainly served as a starting point to get to know one another. Dojun mentioned that he went to school for aviation industry and so far he has enjoyed his career. Because of the big time difference in the USA and South Korea we had to work out our schedules and align it with his other tutoring sessions. By the end of this first session we got to know a bit more about each other and had devised a scheduled that worked for us both.

This was our last session as conversation partners, but we knew we would begin tutoring sessions the following week, so no “goodbyes” were necessary. I wanted to take Mohammad to a local park called Lichgate on high road, but unfortunately the weather was terrible. I like this park because although it’s situated on a busy road (High Rd), it’s quite hidden from street view. The land was previously owned by a retired FSU English professor who vowed to make the space available to the public. There’s a beautiful tree in the center that is rumored to be over 300 years old. We met at Moody’s again and discussed parks in Kuwait. Mohammad mentioned that although there were some dedicated areas for “parks” in his country, it was a big dissimilar to what we have in Tallahassee. We talked about my pet dog Rue and I showed Mohammad pictures. He thought it was hilarious that I was taking care of an 80 pound dog as if it were family.

Mohammad and I discussed our plans for when our sessions with CIES were to be completed. I mentioned my trip to Europe (7 weeks, 6 countries)  which he seemed to find interesting. He was definitely skeptical about me going on this 7 week trip by myself. He mentioned that he had traveled to Europe in the past, but with family, and only to a few countries I am happen to be going to on my trip. Although we came to the conclusion that Americans and people from Kuwait celebrate graduation differently, both cultures value education and related accomplishments. His father works for the Kuwait government and has a prominent role. Mohammad mentioned he doesn’t see himself following a similar path, and instead would like to pursue a field within engineering.

Mohammad and I often met at Moody’s, a Mediterranean restaurant in town, because it was within walking distance from the family he is staying with in Tallahassee. We discussed popular food items from his hom country of Kuwait. Camel meat is eaten regularly in Kuwait, both in stews and as burgers. He could not understand why Americans found camel meat to be an odd meat choice which turned into a funny conversation about the culture of food around the world. Mohammad mentioned that he sometimes meets with the fellow Kuwaiti students at CIES and they cook traditional meals together every now and then. We googled pictures of traditional food from the Middle East and it looked pretty delicious. I would love to try it, but maybe not camel meat..

Mohammad and I talked about the exams he must study for so he can apply to American schools. He did not seem very enthusiastic about learning English, but he mentioned that his father also studied abroad when he was a young adult, and that his father put pressure on him to learn the language. Although Mohammad did not appear to very enthusiastic about learning another language, he didn’t seem to dislike it either. It mainly appeared as if he was pushed by his parents to take some time to study English, but since he was enjoying life in Tallahassee, it wasn’t so bad after all. Mohammad stated that reading is probably the most difficult task for him because he finds its boring.

Mohammad and I met and discussed school life in Kuwait at greater length. I was fascinated to hear about how different life is for males and females in his home country. He mentioned that girls and boys are taught in separate facilities from an early age. We discussed marraiage and family life, and touched on the cultural differences that influence our values as individuals. He plans to have an arranged marriage, but not for quite a while (he is 20 years old and said he does not see himself getting married until he is closer to 30). I was suprised by this and thought that maybe there would be more pressure on him to get married sooner, especially because he is the eldest son in his family. I talked about my plans for a family someday as well. We noted how, aside from the arranged marriage aspect of his plans, our plans did not seem as wildly different as one might’ve anticipated.

During my first meeting with my conversation partner (Mohammad Alaffasi) we talked about ourselves and our expectations for our meetings. I learned a lot about life in Kuwait for Mohammad and his family. He is the eldest of nine siblings and says he has a bit more responsibility than his younger brothers and sisters. FSU is a popular choice for Kuwaiti students hoping to practice their English, and we discussed the differences between school in Kuwait and school in the U.S. There were a few other CIES students who went to school with Mohammad in Kuwait, so he mentioned it was nice to have familiar people nearby. Overall it was a great meeting and Mohammad showed me how to write my name in Arabic.

My final class observation was for a beginning reading class on 5/30/18 with Professor Rios. He had to call out that day, so a returning instructor, “Ms. Rebecca,” taught the class. She had previously been an instructor as CIES but had left a year prior to complete her PhD. Ms. Rebecca began class by taking attendance and introducing herself since these students had not yet met her. She had a PowerPoint presentation with pictures and facts about her life. She used the slides as a way to spark conversation with the students. She asked students about any strategies they use to increase their reading skills at home. Skimming as a reading strategy was discussed at length. We also discussed different aspects of life in America (greetings, diet) and went over key words (leisure, pursuit, recreation, to engage). Students were asked to read a passage to themselves after first going over vocabulary, then answering comprehension questions. The questions were discussed as a class and clarificatio...

My second class observation was for a speaking class on 5/16/18 from 1-1:50 pm with another group of 2A students. I did not make note of the professor’s name, but we spoke after class and he mentioned this would be his last semester teaching at CIES because he was beginning a master’s program in France this summer. He began class by taking attendance and writing out the agenda for the session. I noticed how he very much spoke slowly and clearly enunciated his words to help students better understand him. The focus of this class was how to correctly use idioms. The professor used a PowerPoint presentation with illustrations/pictures of each idiom example he provided. I believe this helped students quite a bit as idioms can be difficult to explain with just words. When students still had questions, he was able to give examples in a number of ways (using the idioms in different contexts). He also asked students a lot of questions to be sure they truly understood the main points of his les...

My first class observation was on 5/9/18 from 10-10:50 am for a 2A level grammar class with instructor Ryan Flemming . Professor Flemming began class with introductions and going over the class agenda. He then explained the class activity and repeated the guidelines and rules to ensure students understood what was expected of them during the group activity. The focus of the activity was on using frequency adverbs such as sometimes and always. I noticed that Professor Flemming gave encouragement when students attempted to answer questions and elicited class participation through questions and group discussion. It was helpful to see how Professor Flemming kept students on task (when slouching, or when they were on their phones). Professor Flemming did not focus on small spelling errors during the second activity which involved working on the simple present tense.