Monday, September 9, 2013
CP #1 Madison
I LOVE MY CONVERSATION PARTNERS. My conversation partners names' are Jessica and Douglass. On Friday, I picked them both up at Colony Club and we went to Mr. Roboto's for dinner. It was their first time at Mr. Roboto's so they both decided to order exactly what I ordered. We talked while we were waiting for our food and I found out that they, as well as all of the other Brazilian students, are engineering majors that are apart of the program Science Without Boarders. (Erico- my tutee- is in this program as well). Anyways, they told me that they had been in America for about three weeks and they were loving it so far. We talked about our families, friends, pets, interests, hobbies, and music. Douglass wants me to show him more American music because right now the only American song he knows is 'We are the world' :). They also told me that Erico, who I had tutored earlier that day, called them and told them that he had met their conversation partner (me) and said that I was super nice and happy. It made me happy to know I was making a good impression on all of my new foreign friends and I was radiating positive vibes. I look forward to hanging out with Jessica and Douglass again. We made a lot of plans together and I told them if they are unable to meet with me at the same time then I can always hangout with them individually. They are planning to cook me a traditional Brazilian meal soon which I am looking forward to....yum! I also invited them over to my house to play Mario kart with me sometime and to meet my pets since they both like animals. I am planning to take them and Erico, my tutee, to their first FSU game in a few weeks and I can't wait!!! :))
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I can't tell whether it is an advantage or a disadvantage that your conversation partners and your tutee all speak Portuguese. It can ease the vocabulary burden for a beginning student, while it can be a disruptive crutch for a more advanced student. If a student shares the same pronunciation errors as the people around them, it may be more difficult to hear the differences from the pronunciation you are trying to teach. I mention this because I know people who have spoken English for many years, and whose pronunciation is probably little better than when they came here from their home countries. This includes people who work on English-language helplines eight hours a day, five days a week. The people I am thinking of spend much of their free time with people who speak their native language. I believe that they generally do not 'hear' the errors they make.
ReplyDeleteTom, you made a very good point! I often wondered the same thing. I live near the English Learning Institute at VSU and across the street from a plethora of Saudi Arabian students. I play soccer sometimes with them, and I have noticed that when they speak English to me, they tend to make the same mistakes in pronunciation as well, but they do not notice these mistakes.
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