Andrew TS #6

Date/Time: 06/12/21 9:15 a.m.

Location: Conversation over Line

Topic/Skill: Review of written samples, TOEFL speaking questions

Feedback provided to tutee: Similar to last time, Yanzhou and I practiced his speaking ability in relation to preparing for the TOEFL test. However, before we started working on that we briefly reviewed his written work. At the end of our previous session I had tasked him with keeping a journal of his daily life in English. This was to keep him practicing and help him work on his writing since it is an area he feels he is lacking in. I was very happy to see that he has kept up with it throughout the whole week and even convinced his girlfriend to start keeping one too! While it is hard to say that he has made major improvements over a single week, the journal has definitely begun to have an effect. Even while we were going over his work together he was getting better at noticing his own mistakes and correcting them before I even had the chance. While his work may not be error free I am happy to see that he not only has the confidence to get words on the page in a timely manner, but also self correct when he feels it is necessary. After we finished going over his written work we recommenced with the TOEFL independent speaking questions. Now that he was more familiar with the style of questions that would be asked on the test he performed much better. Grading by the TOEFL independent speaking rubric he consistently scored threes, as opposed to the twos he was scoring last week. He achieved this by changing the manner in which he answers the questions. Previously he would rush through and use relatively limited vocabulary. This time however, Yanzhou exerted much more effort in giving a well paced response with a broader vocabulary. This is not to say that his responses were perfect though. He still has serious problems with thinking of arguments in English and expanding upon them. While he may be able to think of multiple reasons for his answers in Mandarin, he doesn't always know how to translate those thoughts into English. This compounded with the knowledge that he has to reply within a time limit that seriously limits his ability to fully explore his arguments. To help this I am working on making him a persuasive writing assignment. I know that this will not help his ability to respond to such questions in a short span of time, but I feel that practicing argumentation in the target language in general will help his overall ability to explain his reasoning. I have also recommended that he start listening to debates in English that he can find on YouTube to hear how native speakers will phrase their arguments and assertions in a professional setting. Starting with our next meeting I also plan on having him work on either integrated speaking questions or writing questions. Lest he only become good at this single portion of the test.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: This lesson further expanded my understanding of how to effectively explain information about English in a way in which the tutee will understand. In which I mean, I have found that it is much easier for me to explain topics to Yanzhou than it is to Aziz. This is most likely in large part thanks to me having known Yanzhou for much longer than Aziz, but more so because the language barrier between us is so much smaller. Not only is Yanzhou's English more advanced, we are able to use Chinese when there is a misunderstanding or we are unable to fully translate our thoughts. I had never thought about it before but this kind of tutoring, while convenient for us and beneficial in that we both get to practice our target language, has almost become a crutch to me. It has limited my ability to simplify my English and think of alternative ways to explain topics while not knowing the mother language of my tutee. This is an area that I plan on improving upon in the future.