TP#5 Alice

       Yesterday after class, I met with Jose for another tutoring session. I initially planned on spending the first twenty minutes going over his vocabulary homework that I had given him the previous meeting as an ongoing assignment. Afterwards, we would work on a lesson plan that I had put together the following day regarding speech acts and role playing. The topic of the speech acts would be learning to complain politely, with the rationale being that sometimes we encounter situations where we have to complain and knowing how to complain in a polite way will alleviate possibilities for misunderstandings or possible confrontations. To be polite in a Western context, an excuse should be believable and specific. I even had a list of courtesy words and phrases that would be used for vocabulary, but sometimes things don’t go according to plan!

       After we finished going over Jose’s vocabulary assignment (which he did very well, and of which, I was very proud of), Jose began to tell me how he went to Subway the previous day to order a sandwich, and after becoming flustered in his attempt to communicate with the sandwich artist, he became embarrassed and walked out. I decided to an impromptu lesson plan revision. On the board, I wrote a mock menu for Subway, which included different types of bread, vegetables, condiments, and seasonings. We went over the pronunciations of the words. I explained what they looked like, and I even tried to explain what they tasted liked (Tried being the key word in this phrase!!). Then, I pretended to be the sandwich artist, while Jose pretended to be the customer. We exchanged dialogue, and the exercise went pretty well! Jose seemed like he was having a great time. He told me that he was surprised that Subway in America doesn’t have cream cheese as an option for their sandwiches, which I thought was a little weird, but tasty. For the next session, I plan on putting together a list of groceries with pictures, and giving it to Jose for future reference. Hopefully, next time, we will be able to work on the lesson plan I initially wanted to use last night. J