FSU TEFL Certificate Course Fall 2 2018

For my final tutoring session I met with Mohammad on the night of Tuesday, December 11, 2018. We met a Nefetari's cafe for the only poetry night still running regularly in Tallahassee "Black on Black Rhyme." Mohammad and I got a table close to the stage and shared a carafe of tea. Many different poets took the stage throughout the night; most of them speaking very quickly and rhythmically. I had Mohammad take notes on what he heard from each poet, and made notes of my own which we compared at the conclusion of each act. Mohammad had trouble deciphering the gist of many of the poems due to the speed and intonation, but quickly picked up the missing pieces as I explained afterwards. He seemed to get better as the night progressed, and told me at the end he was very happy he attended.

For my 15th tutoring session I held a forum of sorts with Mauricio, Santiago, Paula, Natalia, and Andrea. They all wanted assistance preparing for the speaking section of the ITEP exam, and I decided it would be beneficial for them to see, hear, and critique each other. To start the session, I had each of them take 2 minutes to give a brief introduction of themselves. The ITEP website suggested 2 minutes for this, so I set a timer for them each time to help give them an idea of how much time they would need. We then practiced answering short answer questions with 1 minute on the clock, followed by the task of describing a random picture; also with 1 minute on the clock. To finish I asked them opinion questions, and had them spend 2 minutes answering. After one answered, I put 2 minutes back on the clock and had the next person talk about whether they agreed or disagreed. They all had a decent amount of fun with this, and said they felt it helped them a lot in preparing for the exam.

For my 14th Tutoring Session I met with Andrea on Wednesday, December 12th, 2018. Like Natalia, Andrea was referred to me by Paula for the session. Andrea wanted to work on both reading and listening. I started off having Andrea read me a few advanced-level passages and walking me through her rationale for the answers. She was spot on when she had the text to refer to. I then read her a few upper-intermediate and advanced level passages. She did fine answering the comprehension questions, but expressed concern on whether my pace and accent would be dissimilar to that on the exam. To remedy this, we finished the session listening to passages recorded on a different website and she did a wonderful job comprehending and answering those as well.

For my 13th Tutoring Session I met with Natalia on Wednesday, December 12th, 2018. Natalia was referred to me by Paula and was also interested in working on listening. Mauricio, Santiago, and Paula gave me positive feedback about the strategy I'd been using for practicing listening so I continued as such. Natalia asked me to start slowly so I began with a mid-intermediate level passage, continued with a few upper-intermediate passages, and eventually worked into advanced passages. I think this was a good strategy as she did not seem confident at first, but easily worked her way up to comprehending the advanced passages. Through the entire 75 minutes she was only mistaken on 3 questions, and each were ones that were worded poorly in my opinion. We focused on the questions that were well done, and her logic on each. Twice she got the correct answer, but misunderstood the information leading her to the answer. The beautiful mistakes were explained and she left the session feeling that...

For my 12th tutoring session, I met with Paula on Tuesday, December 11th, 2018. Paula stopped in on the tail end of my tutoring session with Santiago, and asked if I could help her work on listening for ITEP prep as well. I agreed, and proceeded to work with her once I finished with Santiago. Using the same website but different passages, I read Paula several upper-intermediate and advanced level passages once through before asking her the attached comprehension questions. She did an excellent job with all of them except for one about a lake drying up in Africa. The article was similar to the one that gave Santiago trouble in that it followed several different people and provided quotes from each within a very short article. For that article I went back and reread the section of the article containing the key information for each question; explaining the difference between the wording in the passage and the wording in the question answers.

For my 11th Tutoring Session, I met with Santiago on December 11, 2018. Santiago was preparing for the ITEP examination, and asked if I could tutor him after speaking with Mauricio about our session. Santiago was also having the most difficulty with the listening section preparation, so I approached with a similar structure. I visited the same website I'd used with Mauricio. I first read Santiago two upper-intermediate level passages, once each, before asking him to explain his answers for the reading comprehension section. He easily deciphered the passages and selected the correct responses. I then read him two advanced level passages. The first section he answered all questions correctly, though he did need one paragraph repeated. The second passage gave him a bit of trouble, but to be fair it was confusing to me too. It was a passage styled in the form of a news report containing several names, and the questions were worded poorly. I explained to Santiago that this should not di...

For my 10th tutoring session I met with Mauricio at his apartment complex on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. Mauricio and a few of the other Colombian students asked for assistance with listening in preparation for the ITEP examination. I returned to the same website I visited in our previous session; though this time I read the passages aloud to Mauricio. I read the passage at a steady pace slightly slower than my normal speech pattern. I read the passages only once, and then asked Mauricio to answer the comprehension questions and explain his rationale. This time around he had no problems, aside from a few words he didn't hear well. He exhibited ambiguity tolerance in still deciphering the information of the passages despite this.

For my 9th tutoring session I met Mauricio on Saturday, December 8th, 2018. Mauricio was beginning preparation for the ITEP exam and wanted to focus on practicing his reading skills. I pulled up a few passages with reading comprehension questions on a TEFL practice website. I had Mauricio read the passages aloud to me, which he performed excellently and nearly free from error (only a few pronunciation mistakes to be corrected). After each passage, I had Mauricio read the questions and answers to me, and then have him walk me through his rationale for what he thought the correct answer was. He was correct on all questions except for one that was poorly written, which even confused me.

For my 8th Tutoring session I met Mohammad at the clubhouse of his apartment complex on Friday, December 7th, 2018. Mohammad truly enjoyed our previous session's focus on using poetry to expand his vocabulary. He said he had been including music in his studies, and asked me if I was familiar with Kelly Clarkson. We exchanged our favorite Kelly Clarkson music videos, and I had him listen for the words and attempt to decipher the meanings. This lead to discussion of vocabulary depth, and he informed me that Arabic has an insane number of words and even greater depth than in English. He provided the example of the word eye; which means eyeball, someone who sees (a spy?), and "eye of the water" meaning a lake. He asked me for an example of an English word with more than 2 separate depth definitions, and I walked him through all the different meanings for the word "record". Discussion of further terms of depth lead to discussions about Arabic slow cooking in a fire p...

For my 7th tutoring session I met with Mauricio at Strozier Library on Tuesday, December 4th, 2018. Mauricio was working on a composition for his composition class. The assignment was based on a short research paper he had been assigned reading about efforts to clean up Florida's beaches. Mauricio was then tasked with writing a paper about his opinion of the article. I proof-read Mauricio's draft and helped him with a few grammatical and syntax errors. I also assisted Mauricio with the structure and planning of his final draft. Mauricio's paper was at that point 4 pages long, and he needed five. We finished the session by brainstorming topics for a final page.

For my sixth tutoring session I met Mohommad on Monday, November 26th, 2018. He said he was having difficulty reading and expanding his vocabulary. I had suggested reading poetry in our previous meeting and sent him a few simple poems to read over in the days following. We started the session with him reading me the poems I had sent him (one by Shel Silverstein; one by Lord Byron). I stopped to work on his pronunciation of a few words, and asked him if he could point out differences in the syntax and rhyme structure of each. He did a good job noticing that the intonation and rhyme structure of one poem was "AABB", while the other was "ABAB". We then worked on using a thesaurus to expand the breadth of his vocabulary to write poems of his own. The lesson ended looking over his vocabulary quiz from the previous week and coming up with example sentences for the words that gave him trouble.

For my Final Conversation Partner meeting I met Jaemu at the Public Library on December 23rd, 2018. Jaemu started the conversation by telling me about his date! He said he had a lot of fun. He picked his date up and took her to a party which was a policeman's ball. He said it was not ballroom dancing, but his date danced with him and taught him how to get funky on the dance floor. Afterwards he said he took her to level 8, where they had coffee, before dropping her back at home. He said he was surprised that the woman had an adult daughter, and though she looked much younger; he also wondered why she was divorced. I explained to Jaemu that it is not uncommon for people to have children at a young age and/or out of wedlock in America. Jaemu told me about how it is still common in Korea to expect a woman to be a virgin until she is married. This led to more in depth discussion about love and relationships in the modern world, as well as religion and church functions. The meeting ende...

For my fifth Conversation Partner Meeting, I met with Jaemu at Dirac Library on December 20th, 2018. We started the conversation with him congratulating me on finishing the classroom sessions of the TEFL program. I told him I would have much more free time and asked him if he'd been able to find anywhere for Table Tennis or Ballroom Dancing. He responded by telling me he had been having a wonderful time ballroom dancing, and had even had a woman give him her phone number! He told me that she'd invited him to a party on Friday night, and we spend the rest of the conversation discussing common do's and don't's of dating. I helped Jaemu compose messages getting the information for the party and setting up a time to pick his date up. I also helped him reassure confidence that the woman would not have invited him if she didn't want to spend time with him, and that even if the music at the party was not ballroom dancing - as long as he was having fun and moving around...

For my fifth Tutoring meeting, I met Jaemu at Dirac Library on Wednesday, December 5th, 2018. Jaemu wanted to practice practical English that he would be using for presentations related to his studies in Education and Technology. He asked me to give him a lot of feedback, which began with correcting his pronunciation of feedback, as he was pronouncing the word with a "p" instead of an "f" sound. We practiced a few minimal pairs to help ingrain the differences between the sounds. Jaemu then gave me a mock presentation on the Direct Instructional Model developed at Oregon State. His syntax and tenses were good for the most part. Words we worked on pronunciation with were "Evaluation", "Language", "Wrong", "Physical", "Salvage", "Asian", and "Question."

I had my fourth Conversation Partner meeting with Jaemu on Monday, November 26, 2018. Jaemu told me about the Thanksgiving party he attended at one of the CIES instuctor's homes. We discussed the concept of Thanksgiving and its origins. Jaemu showed me a video of the toast the professor gave before the meal, and asked a few questions about what was said. Examples of what I deciphered and explained were "Prepare for round one", "We'll have a mountain of desserts later" and "Every man for himself." After this discussion Jaemu and I participated in an activity where we asked each other a few questions about one another's culture. Jaemu asked why people took home leftovers from the Thanksgiving dinner, and I explained that it would be too much food for the hosts to eat before it spoiled. Jaemu also asked who typically pays for dinner on a typical date in the US. I explained to him that traditionally the man paid, but that it was very common for a c...

My fourth Tutoring Session was with Mohammad on Wednesday, November 21, 2018. I met him at the club house of his apartment complex where he provided me with Arabic coffee, dates, and a cake his wife had made. He informed me that he had a grammar test upcoming, which conveniently enough was on gerunds/infinitives and verb tenses; things we discussed in class recently. I found a website with numerous example questions on the topics, and helped walk Mohammad through them. At the end of the session Mohammad asked me for ways to expand his vocabulary. I suggested poetry to him, as I had for Yahyia, and he told me he was a big fan of poetry in Arabic. We ended the session with a discussion on the words Poem, Poet, Poetry, and how they are all used and interact.

My third tutoring session was with Yahyia on Friday, November 16, 2018. Yahyia and I first introduced ourselves and had a brief discussion of our backgrounds. Yahyia told me he is from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and was attending the CIES so that he may attend and English speaking university to study geology. For the meat of our session, Yahyia was working on a composition about his interest in geology. I helped him proofread it, and showed him strategies for looking up terms when we ran into words I didn't understand. At the end of our session, Yahyia asked me about ways to learn more vocabulary. I showed him a website with daily dictocomp activities and also introduced him to the online thesaurus. I suggested poetry as a good way to learn new words.

For my second tutoring session, I met with Mohammad on Thursday, November 15th, 2018. Mohammad and I met at Olive Garden, where we ordered a few appetizers. Mohammad told me he also had a speaking presentation coming up, and wanted to practice speaking. Similar to my first meeting with Mauricio, I had Mohammad tell me about his background. I learned that Mohammad is from the mountains of northeast Saudia Arabia in Taif. He told me that he is an English professor there and elaborated on how he instructs different classes for boys and girls. He told me he teaches the boys in person, but for girls classes he instructs from a separate room where a camera feed shows him the class and hides him from view. After speaking for a while and correcting a few beautiful mistakes I helped him review his vocabulary quiz. Specific words he asked about were Imposter, Swirl, Studious and the phrase "that works for me." We also discussed hurricanes and what terms he would use to describe sandsto...

My first Tutoring session was with Mauricio on Tuesday, November 13, 2018. We met at Strozier library and discussed what Mauricio felt he needed to work on the most. He mentioned he had a speaking presentation upcoming, so we decided to practice that. I had Mauricio tell me about his background and learned that he is from Bawlanquilla, Colombia. He told me Bawlanquilla has the second largest Carnival festival in the world. He also told me he enjoys kite surfing on the beach, motorcycle riding, and snorkeling. I asked him how he was enjoying America so far and he said that he was enjoying the scenery of Tallahassee and campus, and that people were friendly. He also told me that he thought American food was gross and expensive, which was explained by him eating Aramark fare at Southgate. Mauricio told me he was planning on becoming an English teacher in Colombia. Mauricio's speech was very clear and I did not have many beautiful mistakes to correct; mostly pronunciation. I looked ove...

Jaemu and I met for the third time on Wednesday, November 14, 2018. We exchanged brief pleasantries about our weekends, and then quickly delved into the article I'd sent him to read over the weekend. The topic of the article was the election recount for the Georgia state governor race. I had Jaemu read the article to me; stopping him occasionally to discuss words and phrases he was unfamiliar with or had trouble pronouncing. One particular paragraph he inquired about was related to the election being "in limbo" because the election machines did not have a "paper trail" to follow. He also asked about "Threshold and "Run-off". After explaining those words to him Jaemu told me "I am feeling embracement about pronunciation." We had a brief discussion about how to pronounce and conjugate the term "Embarrass", and also that he shouldn't be embarrassed as he was learning! We concluded the meeting by discussing different things Jae...

I met Jaemu for the second time on Monday, November 12, 2018. I started the conversation by asking Jaemu about his weekend. He said that he had a nice time playing golf, but otherwise relaxed. He asked me about my weekend, and I told him that I had been on two different dates with two different girls. Jaemu found this very entertaining and called me a "playboy." From this point Jaemu was very interested in hearing about the culture of romance and dating in the US. We talked about the typical relationship formats and types of gender/gender roles in both Korea and the US, and about how they are changing in the modern world. Jaemu shared a few acronyms with me that he knew related to relationships. The first was ABCDE, relating to what one should analyze in a potential partner: A) Age  B) Background C) Character D) Degree E) Economy Jaemu also shared an acronym for a typical date schedule, EDPS: E - Eat D - Drink P - Play S - Sleep I was very amused by both of these...

I had my first Conversation Partner meeting with Jaemu on 11/5/2018. We met near the fountains on Landis Green, and had an introductory discussion about our backgrounds. I learned that Jaemu is from Pusan, the second largest city in South Korea, where he is a professor of education technology. He informed me that he is on a 1 year sabbatical, and will be in the United States until next September. We discussed our families and he told me that he has 3 sisters, one of whom lives in New Jersey. I understood Jaemu fairly well, but did interject a few times to help him with his syntax and pronunciation.

For my final classroom observation I watched Dr. Kennel teach an ITEP test preparation class. I was very interested to see how classes preparing for standardized testing compare to the more open format of CIES classes. Dr. Kennel began the class by asking everyone how their weekend was and giving an overview of the week's schedule for the class. He caught their attention by mentioning the day's activities for after the prep class. He then gave a brief overview of the ITEP test schedule and travel arrangements. He took time to explain a colloquialism he used, "play it by ear", and asked the class if there was an equivalent phrase in Spanish. Afterwards, he started the test preparation by asking the class what sections were on the test and to explain the concept of each (to see if students remembered and understood). He then passed out a handout with a breakdown of each section of the test, and began an online practice test. Dr. Kennel had the students answer each quest...

For my second Classroom Observation I observed Rebecca Turk's Group 3A Speaking class on November 12th, 2018. Rebecca started the class by asking students to share about their weekends. Rebecca assisted the students with some of their vocabulary while they spoke (telling one student it is more common to say "went to the movies" as opposed to "went to the cinema", for example). Rebecca then reminded the class that they had an upcoming presentation and reminded them of the criteria for grading with the rubric. She then went over the basics of giving a presentation - what to wear, where to look (eye contact, etc), body language; giving examples from her experiences with public speaking for each. To illustrate the concepts Rebecca then showed the class a Ted Talk presentation on the subject of procrastination. After the video, Rebecca engaged the class in a discussion about whether the presentation was good, and how the visual aids the presenter used assisted in get...

I attended my first classroom observation on Monday, November 12th, 2018. I attended Ryan Fleming's Group 3A reading section. Ryan began the class by asking students about their weekends and taking a few minutes to discuss Wakulla Springs, which the students had recently visited. He pulled up a few pictures on the projector as well as a few facts about the springs for the class. Shortly after he gave a review of the class schedule for the day and returned the quizzes the class had taken the previous Friday. The class quickly went over the quiz, and Ryan informed the students that a few of the words from the quiz would be used again on the next quiz to encourage them to continue studying - positive backwash :) Ryan then introduced the term and concept of paraphrasing, then broke the class into pairs and asked them to discuss why they should learn how to do so. Through the discussion, Ryan emphasized that paraphrasing is supposed to convey the same meaning. To drive home the concept,...

For this class observation I went to a Grammar class taught by Olivia at CIES.  Olivia used a very interesting small group activity to teach her class grammar for the day.  Students were sent onto FSU campus in teams to observe students and write sentences about what was going on.  The goal was to write more sentences than the other teams, and there were bonus points given for the complexity of the sentence.  The group of students I went with included Muhammad and Khalid, who I happened to have met previously and were both very friendly.  We sat in front of the Strozier Library and the students worked on sentence, and I occasionally gave them assistance as Mrs. Olivia directed.  After they wrote a number of sentences, we returned to the classroom and reviewed what the groups had written. Even though my group lost, I think they learned quite a bit from the activity. Week 11/19 - 11/20

For my second class observation, I observed a reading class with Ryan Fleming.  To begin the class, Fleming reviewed a vocabulary list by going over the words, their part of speech, and some example sentences.  The class then read Mr. Fantastic Fox silently while keeping along with Mr. Fleming’s reading. After this, Fleming reviewed any vocabulary words or phrases the students had trouble with.  This was a great example of how to use beautiful mistakes in order to further one’s knowledge of a language. The students then watched the Mr.Fantastic Fox Movie as they filled out a worksheet including some questions about parts of the movie. Mr Fleming gave me a copy of the worksheet as well so I could see how he used scaffolding theory to teach the class. Week: 11/13 - 11/16

During this meeting with Dongjin met at Starbucks and talked about a number of subjects.  We began by talking about the differences between universities in both America and South Korea.  Afterwards we talked about our families. I learned that Dongjin’s brother was a huge inspiration for him in choosing his career.  I also told him about my younger brother and sister and my parents. Dongjin and I have very different families, so it was very interesting to compare and contrast the two.  We finally talked about South Korean seafood restaurants, which often have fish tanks in order to contain fresh fish. One interesting pronunciation mistake we worked on over this period was the difference between the I and EE sounds in words like ship and sheep. December 18 2018

For this conversation partner meeting, I met with Stefano and talked about political differences between America and Colombia.  We began by talking about racism, which Stefano told me is a less touchy subject in his country than in America. We next talked about government corruption, which is very subtle in America but very apparent in Colombia.  We finally talked about differences between driving in both countries. Stefano told me that on his way to school, the road is filled with large holes that he has to navigate around. Furthermore, he has navigated these holes so many times that he knows the routes by heart.  In comparison, it seemed to him like driving in the USA is much easier. Although this would be my last meeting with Stefano in Tallahassee, I hope to visit both Stefano and Maria in Colombia eventually. November 27 2018

For this conversation partner meeting I had Maria and her friend Jojo over to eat a traditional American southern meal.  I made shrimp and grits for all of us, and they were a big hit. Maria and Jojo had never tried grits before, so I was glad they enjoyed them.  While we ate, we talked about words that were untranslatable from Spanish to English. Additionally, we talked about the popular Netflix show Narcos, which is all about the life of Pablo Escobar.  I was very interested to hear that Colombia had its own show about Escobar called El Patron which Maria claims is much better. After our meal, I wished Maria and Jojo a goodbye. It was a bittersweet moment, as I knew I wouldn’t see them anytime soon due to their upcoming flight back to their home. December 11 2018

For this conversation partner meeting I met up with Dongjin in front of Strozier library.  We began by discussing our plans for the upcoming thanksgiving break. Dongjin was very excited for his upcoming trip to Vegas for the holiday.  I told him about the dinner plans my family set and all of the different food they would have. I also told him about my plans to bring a couple of tutees to celebrate with me.  In addition, we talked about the differences between healthcare in the U.S. and South Korea. Dongjin has a lot of experience with both systems because he lives in Tallahassee with his family.  In his opinion, the South Korean healthcare is greatly superior to the U.S. system. He described to me what a nightmare it has been for him to navigate the U.S. healthcare system to get dental work done for his son.  This was a very interesting conversation, and afterwards I wished Dongjin a happy Thanksgiving as we went our separate ways. Wednesday November 14

For this conversation partner meeting, I brought my tutees Maria and Stefano with me to Jacksonville to celebrate thanksgiving.  They got the opportunity to eat a traditional thanksgiving feast with my family, enjoy seafood by the beaches of Jacksonville, go Black Friday shopping, and walk around the old historic district of St. Augustine.  I made a number of memories with Stefano and Maria that encourage me personally to continue pursuing this career. Being able to exchange culture with these students was like accessing a whole different world. Furthermore, it was a lot of fun to show them my hometown and all the sights that come with it.  I sincerely hope I get the chance to travel to Colombia one day and experience their hometowns the same way they experienced mine. Thanksgiving Break 2018

For this conversation partner meeting I went to an open house at FSU’s CIES.  Each room of CIES was themed after a different region of the globe. I first went to the South American room and ate guava and Colombian candies my tutee Maria gave me.  I then went to the Middle East room where I talked with my tutee Ali and had my name written in Arabic. I next went to the European room where I ate delicious pasta and spoke with the dean of CIES.  I finally went to the TEFL room where I drank tea and talked with previous TEFL students about their experiences. It was very fun to visit the open house and celebrate the cultures of my tutees.

Conversation Partner #6 My sixth conversation partner meeting was with Yi on 12/10 at the CIES lounge.  The meeting started off by me noticing her phone background was Sailor Moon, a Japanese manga and anime.  Being a huge fan, I tried to start up a conversation about it; however, Yi explained that she mainly just had the background due to it being one of the “smart” interactive backgrounds.  With that awkward interaction out of the way, we transitioned into talking about horror movies for a little bit.  We then transitioned the conversation onto traveling.  Yi asked me to give suggestions of where in the US she should try to visit in her remaining time here.  I suggested New Orleans, but she said she had already been there.  I did give a few other suggestions such as Miami, Savannah, and Nashville.  As for the remainder of our meeting, we discussed sports culture in America.  With Yi wanting ...

Conversation Partner #5 My fifth conversation partner meeting was with Yi on 12/6 at CIES for the International Dinner.    We mainly used this time to get to know each other better since this was our first-time meeting.    A few facts about Yi are: ·       She is from China, specifically outside of Shanghai. ·       She is a synchronized swimmer. ·       She wants to go to FSU to get a master in sports management. While talking to Yi, I also was introduced to one of her friends Monica.  Monica is another Chinese CIES students.  The three of us had a great talk about movies and video games. We talked a lot about Disney and DreamWorks movies.  I thought it was a lot of fun trying to decipher which movie they were talking about just based on descriptions.  This is due to the fact the Chinese version of the movies have different character ...

Conversation Partner #4 My fourth conversation partner meeting was with Maria on 12/3 at CIES.  It wasn’t really a planned meeting; however, I had a great time discussing culture with her.  We started talking after I had just finished up a tutoring session with Yun-Jung.  I had stuck around CIES after the session and was just chatting with Yun-Jung, and Maria, knowing Yun-Jung, decided to come up to us and join in our conversation.  This was my first-time meeting Maria, and we immediately hit it off. She is an international student from Denmark.  She took the TEFL class last session and is currently doing the TEFL internship.  I mentioned to her that I was learning Norwegian, and that sparked a lot of conversation about Danish vs. Norwegian. We also talked about some cultural differences between Denmark and the States, namely cashier culture.  We ended our conversation with me helping her plan a vacatio...

Conversation Partner #3 My third conversation partner meeting was with Domingos on 11/16 at Mr. Roboto’s.  He let me choose our location, so I ended up choosing Mr. Roboto’s because it is one of my favorite restaurants in Tallahassee.  This turned out to be kind of a bust because Domingos said he doesn’t really like the rice in America.  Regardless, we still had a great conversation.   We talked about the different food in America and Brazil. Specifically, we talked about the lack of ethnic restaurants in Brazil excluding the big cities like Rio de Janeiro. In juxtaposition, most towns in America have at least a Mexican restaurant.  We also decided to talk about some beauty standards in America.  This was due to the fact Domingos made a comment about dressing modest.  I found this quite interesting because a common stereotype of Brazil is the “sexy” Brazilian woman on the beach.  We re...

Conversation Partner #2 My second conversation partner meeting was with MJ on 11/8 at the Stozier Library Starbucks.    Because this was our first time meeting, we mainly just used this chance to get to know each other.    Here are a few things I learned about MJ: ·       He is from Saudi Arabia. ·       He came to the States to improve his English. ·       He holds degrees in business and works for a university back home. ·       He really loves coffee. All in all, it was a good session.  His level of conversational English is good; however, his rate of speech is slow.  I really had to pay attention to make sure I fully understood everything.  There was one part of the conversation where I accidently zoned out and got completely lost. Needless to say, I don’t think I should do any more conversation partner meetings wh...

Tutoring Session #16 My sixteenth tutoring session was with Stefano on 12/7 at the CIES lounge.  For this session, I had sent him six short videos that make up this YouTube series called “Stupid Idiots”.  These videos use high amounts of conversational English.  Not to mention, the amount of dialogue in each episode is relatively small; therefore, it is extremely important to understand as much as you can so you can establish context.  Going into session, I knew this would be a hard series for Stefano to watch, but he blew me out of the water.  He did exceptionally well.  I mainly just had him summarize each video, and then I cleared up any confusion.  At the end of the session, we worked on some TOEFL lesson samples just to help prepare him for the test.

Tutoring Session #15 My fifteenth tutoring session was with Yun-Jung on 12/7 at Panera Bread.  For this session, we practiced her speaking skills while also talking about our respective cultures.  The topic we decided to settle on was the economic states of both Korea and America. The conversation was very interesting. I’m usually not one for politics; however, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I did nit-pick any errors I heard, but for the most part, Yun-Jung self-corrects herself now.  At the end of the session, we said our goodbyes.  Yun-Jung ended up getting me a present which was super sweet of her.  I definitely felt bad for not doing the same. 

Tutoring Session #14 My fourteenth tutoring session was with Yun-Jung on 12/3 at CIES.  At the beginning of the session, Yun-Jung brought to my attention that she feels she struggles with the pronunciation of |j| vs. |z|.  We started off trying to come up with minimal pairs to help isolate the sound; however, we both struggled to come up with some.  I ended up using the names “Jane” and “Zane”.  We then moved onto the pronunciation of different words using those sounds.  At this point, I decided to talk about each letters’ sound production.  I noted that |j| makes your jaw move while |z| does not. This really seemed to help her. After sorting out the problem, we moved onto distinguishing when to use |j| vs. |g|.  This part of the session was more focused on pointing out the patterns in spelling that correspond the how “g” is pronounced.  All in all, the session was quite fun and productive.

Tutoring Session #13 My thirteenth tutoring session was with Yun-Jung on 11/30 at the CIES lounge.  For this session, we practiced speaking, but more importantly, we had a really good conversation about racism in America.  The session was very insightful. Yun-Jung shared some of her bad experiences since living in America.  To which, I played devil’s advocate.  I personally think that this was a really good session. Even though Yun-Jung barely made any mistakes, she had ample speaking practice.  Not to mention, we both learned a great deal about each other’s culture.

Tutoring Session #1 My twelfth tutoring session was with Stefano on 11/28 at the CIES lounge.    For this session, we focused on academic lecture listening and note taking skills.     I sent two different videos to watch before the session.    The first video was about the zero-waste lifestyle, and the second video was about space debris.   Stefano felt very comfortable with academic listening. I was very impressed with how well he did on the second video due to its obscure vocabulary.  He was able to answer all my comprehension questions with ease. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF72px2R3Hg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS1ibDImAYU

Tutoring Session #11 My eleventh tutoring session was with Jolaine on 11/26 at the CIES lounge.  For this session, we practiced conversational listening skills.  I sent her three videos from my favorite YouTube channel, DamonAndJo.   At first, we went over any confusing parts of the video.   Next, I asked some open-ended questions that corresponded to the videos.    All in all, I felt Jolaine had a good grasp of on the videos.  This session was really fun for me because I was able to share something that I really enjoy watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KApUoxQ6mQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdQSPJ2OGOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI6TapDCWI8

On December 14, 2018, I had my final Skype session with Dojun at 8:10 PM. We had to delay our session due to his family being sick. I gave him some vocabulary words that we used to describe food, like rotten, bruised, moldy, and ripe.  I also gave him onomatopoetic words like squishy.  I gave him the definitions for the words, expanding the depth of the vocabulary by talking about the multiple meanings of some words with example sentences. I then went through the list of speech actions from my notes and asked him if he would like to work on any of them. We worked together on invitations and greetings, and then worked on parting words before I wished him a happy new year. I also gave him the website wordcount.org so he could check to see the frequency of words in the British National corpus. If he found an English word he didn't know, he could check the website to see its ranking and it might assure him that the word is worth remembering. I learned that I should put more effort...

On December 10, 2018, I had another Skype Session with Dojun at 7:30 AM. In this session we worked on organizing thoughts before speaking. For our speaking activity, I asked Dojun to explain the advantages and disadvantages of living in Seoul. I gave him an example by using the city of Orlando. He continued to use phrases like "first of all" but they came off more natural than in previous sessions. In his argument, however, he would refer to the outside air quality as both a negative and positive, and I asked him to clarify his response. He would have to pause several times during each sentence to say words like has or very for the sentence "Seoul has cheap public transportation and is very clean." Neither of those words were vital to the message behind the sentence, so I prepared a fill-in-the-blank script with the same sentence structure like this : "________ has _________ and is very _________." I asked him to use this to guide the conversation, and hi...

On December 5, 2018, I had my last tutoring session with Zhuanling after CIES classes in the lounge. We worked on material for the SPEAK test. I used minimal pairs to help her comprehend the difference some vowels. The most shocking discovery was that Zhuanling pronounced the "short a" in macro and the "long i" in micro the same way. This was because there was no distinction between the sounds in Mandarin Chinese and some dialects can choose one over the other. It really opened up my eye to the help some of these minimal pairs can make even if I could not see the value of them from my perspective. We were visited by one of the professors conducting the SPEAK test, and she gave Zhuanling some reassurance that she would likely do well on the test.

On December 5, 2018, I had a Skype session with Dojun at 7:30 AM. During the session, we worked on the usage for the words would, could, and should . I would ask Dojun for an example and I would explain the mood implied when used in conversation. I explained first the differences in will, can and shall before I moved on to the other words. I asked Dojun to assign a person to the attitude behind each word so he wouldn't forget their meaning. For example, I told Dojun I imagine my mother telling me "You should do this" as a recommendation, while I would say "I could have done that" to express the ability to do something.  I learned that I should prepare materials and lessons for specific grammar points in case they show up in our sessions.

On December 3, 2018, I had a tutoring session with Zhuanling for two hours at the CIES building classes were done for the day. We worked on the SPEAK test again. This time we worked on two questions related to answering questions by providing supporting details. The majority of my involvement was to provide vocabulary. I introduced or reintroduced words like ethical, unethical, sanctuary, ethnic, development, allotted.  We also worked on the pronunciation of these words with regards to their syllabic stress and vowel sounds. for words like ethnic and  ethic, I had to create minimal pairs and highlight the differences in pronunciation multiple times. I realized that learning how to describe techniques for pronouncing sounds in English is vital for teaching how to speak.

On December 3, 2018, I met with Chien-shih at Starbucks for a conversation partner meeting. It was 10:30 AM so I had a breakfast sandwich and Chien-shih had a coffee. We discussed his Thanksgiving break and he revealed to me that he had recieved a fine for running a traffic light in Orlando. We shared our experiences with law enforcement in the United States and I learned how police behave in Taiwan.

On November 26, 2018, I had my eighth Skype session with Dojun. For this session, I asked him to come prepared to speak on Jeju island. He was prepared so I allowed him all the time to present. I only stopped him when there was a error in grammar in use or if the vocabulary he used was too vague or redundant. He used the terms unique and beautiful  to describe Halla Mountain on three separate occasions but he did not describe what was unique or beautiful about the mountain, so I asked him to be more specific with his examples. It was also clear he used rehearsed phrases like "First of all," and "secondly" to indicate when he would change topics in his description or his answers to my questions. I let him know that it sounded unnatural, especially in cases where one of the points supported the other and was related to the first sentence, and asked him to mind the times he relied too heavily on these phrases. His production skills were good and I made sure he understo...

On November 21, 2018, I had my seventh Skype session with Dojun. This session involved questions about tourism and travel in bout South Korea and the United States. I first answered questions about some of my favorite places in the United States as an example of the types of questions I expected from him. He was interested in my fascination with the Western states like Colorado and Wyoming. I asked him to describe Jeju. We worked with new vocabulary and worked on ways to describe concepts that could not translate to English, such as the differences between traditional homes on Jeju  in contrast to those on the Korean peninsula. In one instance, we had to work together to try and describe a park in Jeju that was filled with stone statues. I asked him to prepare a more complete description of Jeju for the next session.

On November 19, 2018, I held another Skype session with Dojun at 7:30 AM. To follow the interview questions from last session I asked very specific questions about last week's topic to be answered concisely. Example questions include: Please describe the type of information you had to give to facilities when you worked part-time at the fire station. Which country does the shipping company you worked for originate from? How long did it take a cargo ship to travel from Busan to South America? What type of information do you give flight crews in your current job? We used these types of questions to build up vocabulary and support existing grammar in use. I wanted to allow Dojun as much time to speak as possible. Dojun wanted to ask me some questions about the American Space Program since my father worked as an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center. I realized I should have provided this opportunity first to serve as both an example of what kinds of questions and answers I wanted...

On November 15 at 4:30 in the afternoon, I met with Kwihun at the CIES Lounge and we answered some of the conversation partner prompt questions together. The first question we asked each other had to involve a stereotype of out respective cultures. My question to Kwihun was: "Do all elderly women in Korea curl their hair?" His question for me was: "Why do Americans love guns so much?" I believe I had to answer a much more difficult question and we both joked about it afterward. We also play a round of Scrabble and it helped him realize how many words in English there are. I allowed him the use of an approved online dictionary and instructed him how to play. He won by two points.

On November 15, 2018, I had my fifth Skype session with Dojun at 7:30 AM. For the session, we practiced interview style questioning and I began with an example topic of the 1960s in U.S. History. I then gave him the option to describe one of three different topics and he decided to describe his work experience.  The questions were open-ended so Dojun would be able to take as much time as possible to describe his work experience. My role was to correct errors, or suggest words to help him describe his experience. His grammar in use was nearly perfect because his background in English derives from an educational development but he would often pause to figure out the right vocabulary. I would suggest vocabulary like part-time, advocate, and  intervention when he paused or asked for help.

On November 14, 2018, I had my second session with Zhuanling at 3 PM at the CIES Building. For this session we practiced for the SPEAK test to be administered next month at CIES. I gave her the option to choose the questions she wanted to work on most. She decided to work on a question that asks the student to describe a six-panel comic. I guided the practice by first allowing her five minutes to speak on one question, and slowly working with her to shorten the time needed for her description to the 60 seconds required for the answer. I gave her advice on grammar in use and suggested what she should be mindful of in this activity. For example, when introducing someone in a story for the first time, the article a/an should be used but any additional mentions should use the definite article the. It helped her greatly improve her fluency and eliminated some of the confusion for her on which words were more appropriate. I learned to be more receptive of my tutee's struggles and goals...

For our last tutoring session, Maria and I met at Starbucks to review her completed essay.  I was a very proud tutor, as Maria scored a 24.5 out of 25 on her final composition. We spent the first portion of our tutoring session going over the errors and corrections indicated by Maria’s professor.  Although there were a few awkward grammar phrases and misspellings in the introduction and conclusion, the essay was very well organized and straightforward. After reviewing this essay, we had a fun discussion of different slang phrases used in America and Colombia.  Additionally I tested her memory to see if she could remember some of the vocabulary she learned with me. I was very sad that this was the last tutoring session I would have with Maria and hope I get the chance to visit her country someday. December 9th 2018 at Starbucks

December 13 th , 2018.  For my final tutoring session with Santiago, we decided to practice reading. I started with a passage from the TOFEL reading practice. It was a passage on the photographer, Robert Capa. Santiago was able to answer the majority of the comprehension questions correctly. With the exception of two somewhat questionable questions, he was able to respond to the questions with ease. After this passage I attempted to share some reading strategies with him. Specifically, I shared the reading strategy that consisted of him reading the questions first, and then the passage. I also told him to try to break apart the passage into different sections, thus it would make it easier for him to return to a specific point in the passage if he needs to. I also tried to explain to him that these strategies should be used only if he felt comfortable and confident in them. I tried to explain to him that he should practice these strategies before using them on assessment. Final...

December 10 th , 2018.  For this tutoring session, I met once more with Santiago Pineda. We agreed to continue to work on speaking skills. This time, I showcased him an example from an external website. This website had sound clips of TOEFL speaking response examples. I had Santiago listen to one example repeatedly. After we heard the speaking example a few times, I asked him why he believes this example is considered “exemplary.” He mentioned that the response was clear, it had a clear message, and provided examples. Also, it was long. All of these were true, yet I also tried to remind him that grammar and vocabulary were still important. After our discussion I showed him the written transcript of the response. I showed him that the “answer” part of the response was only a minimal portion of the response. The majority of the response consisted of transition words/phrases, elaborating sentences, and also examples. I showed him this in attempts to calm his nerves as he could vi...

December 7 th , 2018.             For this tutoring session, I was once more asked to repeat my previous tutoring lesson. Once more, I was asked by Santiago if I could repeat the speaking lesson for Paula. Again, I had no problems with this. I showcased Paula the speaking examples as well as the rubric. While I thought it was insightful for her to see the ranges of speaking clips, I knew that what would be most useful for her would be the level 3 and level 4 speaking clips. Paula was an advanced level speaking student, and she had little to no problems expressing her thoughts in English. However, conversation is not the same as assessment. Thus, I attempted to explain to her the subtle differences between a level 3 and a level 4 answer. I tried to explain that, while a level 3 might have excellent pronunciation and vocabulary, neglect for proper grammar may prevent them from progressing. Also, I tried to explain to her the...

December 7 th , 2018.              For this tutoring session with Santiago, we worked on speaking. To begin, I showed him the speaking examples that were available to us (TEFL students). These examples included individuals who scored from a range of 1 – 4. Before I showed Santiago these examples I gave him the same TOEFL speaking rubric that was giving to us as well. This way he could understand exactly why these students received the scores they ultimately received. Santiago mentioned that Speaking was not something that was necessary difficult for him, but rather that the time restriction and expected quick reactions were what truly make the speaking portion of assessment difficult. He said it is difficult to speak naturally in an environment designed for assessment. I understood his reasoning, but also tried to assure him that when he would speak with me, he would always sound sounded natural and more tha...

December 6 th , 2018.  For my final tutoring session with Byeongsoo Kim, we had a somewhat casual discussion. He spoke about his experience at CIES. I reassured him about his speaking skills. I told him that throughout our sessions, he always managed to convey whatever it was he was trying to say with minimal problems. However, he mentioned that he still had some concerns over his listening skills. So, before our meeting concluded, I gave Byeongsoo a list of podcasts and videos that he might be able to use to improve his listening skills on his own time. What I recommended to him was: a YouTube channel called “Asian Boss,” which provides culture insight between Asian and Western countries; a link to the TOEFL listen practice website; a podcast called “The English We Speak, which focuses on English words, phrases, and expression; and also, a podcasts called “Ear Biscuits,” which is a casual discussion podcast intended for native English speakers.   https://www.yout...

December 5 th , 2018.              While this tutoring session was considered my first with Paula Truyol Ortiz, Santiago asked me if I could give Paula the same tutoring session that I had given him. I had no objections and was glad to help wherever I could. Thus, I carried on once more with showing her the ITEP listening questions. She seemed adept in her listening skills. She had an unquestionably quick understanding of the listening questions. She did not hesitate in her responses and in turn, she was rewarded with the correct responses alongside a quick time. She later asked me if there were any strategies that I would recommend. I told her that, while I understand that some teachers recommend writing down as much notes as possible, I would recommend that she attempt to listen as much as possible. I recommended that she listen as much as possible, and to only write down keywords and dates. Also, when she would wri...

December 5 th , 2018.  For my following Tutoring session, I met with a new tutoring partner, Santiago Pineda. Santiago was a Colombian student, thus he was a native Spanish speaker. However, his English-speaking skills were highly advanced, and they seemed nearly native level. Santiago mentioned that he wanted to practice listening skills for this session. So, for this session, I prepared a series of listening practice for him. First, I used the ITEP listening practice questions. I started with the “advanced” questions, as he seemed like he was at an advanced level. My assumptions were correct as he was able to answer all the questions perfectly. The only slight concern was that he asked to listen to a question for a second time. However, I truly believe that he could have answered the question correctly regardless of whether he heard the question for a second time or not. I believe that he simply wanted to be sure of himself.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2QyFafeA...

December 4 th , 2018.  For my seventh tutoring session with Byeongsoo Kim, we spoke a bit about our cultures. He wanted to know what it was like to live in Tallahassee, and what it was like to attend classes at FSU. I explained to him that a lot of life in Tallahassee seems to revolve around FSU, and so Tallahassee acts differently than a big city. He explained to me that he had been waiting for a few documents to be signed. He was waiting for documents that would finalize his transfer from CIES to the FSU master’s program for Public Administration. These documents that he was waiting for needed to be signed by FSU administration. Everything was ready on his end, he was simply waiting for FSU. He said he was feeling frustrated as this slow response was unlike anything that he had experienced in South Korea. He mentioned that in South Korea, these processes are done quickly. He kept searching for a specific word and I asked him if he believed that South Koreans acted  effi...

November 29 th , 2018.              For the sixth tutoring session with Byeongsoo Kim, we met and discussed a recent occurrence that happened to him and his family. He mentioned that his wife had gotten into a car accident. Thankfully, it was not a big deal, the damage was very minimal. I was surprised when I heard him use the expression, “traffic jam.” I encouraged him to continue to use that causal expression. Alongside this story, he also mentioned that he felt concerned at the moment because he would now have to speak English with those who might not have much patience. Most of all, he was concerned with speaking to insurance agents. He mentioned that he was most concerned with understanding numbers. While it was not the easiest thing for him to speak the specific number, it was even trickier for him to understand spoken numbers. I mentioned to him that numbers were always difficult when learning a new language. I...

November 27 th , 2018.              The following tutoring session with Byeongsoo Kim occurred after the Thanksgiving holiday. Thus, it seemed natural that we would discuss what we had done for the holiday break. I mentioned that I went home to Miami. Meanwhile, he mentioned that he took his family to Orlando for a few days. This meeting was far more casual than any other meeting that I had previously had with Byeongsoo. I believe that this was simply because of the fatigue from last few days. It was difficult to return back to taking classes after the long break. However, we continued our discussion. Byeongsoo mentioned that while he was in Disneyworld with his family, they saw the movie  Frozen . He mentioned that he used the translating device at times, but he would also attempt to listen to the film in English. This lead to a discussion on Films. I recommended him the film “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” I told him that...