Andrew TS #10

Date/Time: 07/16/2021 10:00 a.m.

Location: Conversation Over Line

Topic/Skill: TOEIC Prep, Articles, Conversation Practice

Feedback provided to tutee: Since I was unable to go over them during our last meeting, I started our session by going over articles. Similar to the verb form activity we tried last time this activity had a number of sentences each with blanks where an article should go. It started relatively simple with more obvious examples such as "A dog or an apple". However; towards the end I tried to use less obvious words, ones that start with vowels that make consonant sounds or vice versa like "A university or an x-ray". Tina conquered the first few with ease but she did get tripped up with the later words. After explaining a bit more about difference between words starting with vowels and starting with vowel sounds she started to improve a little. After that, we practiced some of the TOEIC sample speaking questions. Her pronunciation and sentence construction were both very good. She did show marginal improvement in being able to connect her ideas together to form larger concepts. She also seemed to be less nervous this time. To finish off our session we had a brief chat to practice Tina's conversation skills. Since I was in the middle of traveling when we talked, vacationing was our topic. I got to learn a lot about what camping in Taiwan is like and which beaches I should visit ion my next trip. Interestingly, Tina seemed to have an easier time speaking at greater length and connecting her ideas when we just chat. 

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I think that, in part at least, nerves are still playing a role in her difficulties speaking. I assumed there would be some initial anxiety from meeting a new person and it would fade over time. To a certain extent it has; However, I think she still has a lot of fear over misspeaking, especially when asked about topics or words she is not familiar with. I think this is why she seems to have an easier time when we just chat because we are able to discuss topics she is more familiar with or interested in. I hope that through further practice in chatting that we can lower her affective filter.

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