Yesterday, I met with one of my tutees, Marco Galvez. We introduced ourselves in the lobby of the Strozier library, which I thought would be an convenient spot. Plus, I wanted Starbucks.
Marco is 29 years old and from a city north of Lima, Peru. He spent the past decade studying physics across various Central and South American universities. His fiancee brought him to America, as she is a PhD student at Florida State. He is not currently enrolled, so his time is dedicated to improving his English at CIES.
When questioned, he admitted that his writing and reading skills were more refined than his ability to speak and listen. In demonstration, I found this to be true. Fortunately, he is an eager student.
For the tutoring session, Marco read a passage aloud from an article in the FSView. This accomplished multiple goals by allowing me to gauge both his reading and speaking abilities, in addition to word comprehension. I also asked him to underline any words that he struggled with.
From the start, we ran into difficulties. I mean the literal beginning, as he had minimal knowledge of how to pronounce the first word, "juggling", or even what the word meant. My trusty iPhone saved the day, for a quick Google image search enlightened him. This began the practice of me writing the phonetic spelling of words in his notebook, accompanied with definitions. By the hour's end, the paper was filled with words like "complicated", "frugal", and "shelter". These terms became his homework to practice the pronunciation of each. Yeah, I'm the kind of tutor who gives homework... don't knock it until you've tried it with your tutee.
With close attention to his speech, I noticed major problems with sounds comprised of the letters "t", "l", or "u". I believe that it stems from his thick accent, so I plan to work on breaking through those barriers in future sessions.
Good diagnostics, Mark! Spanish speakers usually know a lot of English vocabulary since thousands of English words were derived from Latin. However, they seem to struggle with pronunciation and grammar, so try to focus on those skills.
ReplyDeleteGood idea, Mark, asking Marco to read FSView to gauge his reading and speaking skills, and to get a sense of his level of comprehension.
ReplyDeleteMark I like the way you assessed his reading and English right from the begining. It appears that right from the beginning you were fovused on coming up with a plan to help him reach his goals. I would have never thought to have him read the FSView. Great real life teaching skills Mark.
ReplyDeleteGiving homework isn't such a bad thing! It allows ample opportunity for practice, and practice will allow for improvement. Subsequently, I also assigned my tutee homework! Good job!
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