FSU TEFL 120 Summer 2 2019

I spoke with Dakhil for our last conversation partner meeting on August 7 th at Starbucks, where we actually first met at the beginning of the TEFL course. We did not have much time to talk, as he was getting ready to begin travelling that Friday and was going to be celebrating his birthday on the 8 th . For the most part, we spoke of how he enjoyed his time in Tallahassee so far and how he enjoyed the CIES program. Like the other CIES students I had spoken to, he really enjoyed his classes and the friends he had made, but because he did not have a car, he actually wasn’t able to see a lot of the city during his time here. We also spoke about what he plans to do when he returns from his travels and begins his studies at FSU. I recommended that he go to as many FSU sports events as he can to really get a sense of the Nole spirit. I told him that I really enjoyed talking to him during the conversation partner program and wished him luck with his academic goals.

Date/Time: 07/24/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Final Review Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: When I met up with Andres, we jumped straight into our final review of what he learned, with example sentences on different vocabulary words he learned, as well as idioms and how to understand different homographs depending on context clues. It was a long list of over 50 homographs, as well as a lot of context clues to puzzle piece, which Andres was able to do almost flawlessly. I also noticed grammatical improvements in Andres's speech, to which I respectfully congratulated him. After covering everything, I provided Andres with the list of vocabulary and homographs before wishing him the best of luck on his English studies and saying goodbye.

Date/Time: 07/26/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Final Review Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Seungjae and I met for our second and final tutoring session, in which I set up a review with example sentences and worksheets to allow him to practice grammar tenses he did not understand. This tutoring session took over an hour, as with many of the questions on the practice he had concerns, to which I helped him clarify with detailed explanations and reasons to grammar. He luckily showed much more understanding at the end of the tutoring session, to which I encouraged him to continue his studies and provided him additional information that would help explain these grammar tenses he struggled with. 

Date/Time: 07/23/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Getting to Know One Another Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I met Seungjae for the first time. Seungjae (Or his preferred American name "Chris") is a Korean ESL student at CIES, who lost his tutor because of her early departure from the TEFL program. Because of this, Seungjae had neither a tutor nor a conversation partner, although very eager to have both. Since I heard of this situation from my fellow conversation partner, I decided to speak with Seungjae and volunteer to tutor him for at least two sessions and help him in some way in his English studies. We got to know each other briefly before getting into his main concerns, which were present perfect (+ present perfect continuous) tenses, which I explained thoroughly and gave explanations as he took notes and practiced with sentences.

Date/Time: 07/22/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Homograph Practice Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Andres and I met and discussed homographs, a simple word to describe words that can be used in multiple contexts, a word I was not aware of which would have made tutoring sessions easier for him when it came down to activities, We practiced with example sentences using words like "milk" and "can" to find meanings to their definitions through context clues to find out the meaning of the sentences. Luckily, I had been tutoring Andres on how to find these context clues using cultural knowledge, to which he successfully showed understanding in how to use the clues. We decided to host a final review of everything the next and final tutoring session, covering both context clue usage and homographs, as well as all prior vocabulary we had learned together throughout our sessions.

Date/Time: 07/17/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Review Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Marcia came in after I met with Andres and we hosted a review of all of the concerns she previously had during her first two tutoring sessions, both of which were answered and clarified. Marcia was able to successfully show understanding of the material during our review on present perfect and present perfect continuous tenses, as well as prepositions, all of which were her only real concerns. With this, Marcia and I concluded our third and final tutoring session, after which I provided her with additional links in the case she doesn't understand or remember grammar we covered in the future before wishing her the best of luck in her future English studies.

Date/Time: 07/17/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: George Lopez and Other American Sitcoms Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Andres and I decided to watch part of an episode of the George Lopez sitcom during our tutoring session, in which Andres was asked to pick up vocabulary or idioms he's never heard before, in which the list was extensive due to the fact that the show is in native English and uses everyday phrases heard in America. Andres also lacked some cultural knowledge on idioms and phrases that were explained to him, to which he enjoyed learning about. At the end of the session, he was given a list of vocabulary words and phrases to cover on his own.

Date/Time: 07/15/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: This American Life  podcast on crime Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I met with Andres this week, and we went through the typical routine of reading a text and trying to use various context clues from the text to puzzle piece together the meaning of not only the sentence or the entire text but also vocabulary words within the text. This time, I requested of Andres to create even more sentences, using old words previously used along with new ones. 

On Monday, August 5 th , Futa and I had our sixth conversation partner meeting. This time, we went to the Starbucks on West Tennessee Street near Whataburger. While there, Futa brought up how Starbucks can also be easily found in Japan and our popular with people our age. However, he talked about how they serve different drinks that fit the different tastes that our found in our cultures. We also talked about the places we are from. I told him about how I am from a town in Madison County named Pinetta, which is so small it can not even legally be considered a town. This is quite different from Tokyo, which is where he is from. He told me he lives in an area in Tokyo called Hachioji and that it is not as nice and pretty as some of the other areas in Tokyo. However, I joked about maybe teaching there if I get accepted into the JET Program.

On Wednesday, July 31 st , Futa and I had our fifth conversation partner meeting at my place of work, Tally Cat Café. When we got there, he was surprised at how the place worked. He said that even though they have cat cafes in Japan, they do not work the same way. The cat cafes in Japan do not have a separate café area and cat room like ours does, instead focusing primarily on the cats over the café part. They also have cats that live there permanently, while Tally Cat Café works with the Leon County Humane Society to get the cats adopted and the cats only live there until they get adopted. He ultimately liked the idea of American cat cafes better, since people still get to visit the cats and the cats are given a better chance of finding a home they can go to instead of living on the streets.

On Tuesday, July 30 th , Futa and I went to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse for our fourth conversation partner meeting. He was wanting to celebrate the last week of his current CIES session and go somewhere a bit nice that he had never been to before. He was amazed that there was a lot more to Tallahassee than he had thought when we were on our way to the restaurant, which prompted the topic of driving and the streets here versus Japan. He talked about how he had. He talked about he had a driver’s license in Japan, but only for his motor scooter since a lot of people in Japan do not drive cars. He also talked about his confusion with the streets here when he first came to America since they drive on the left side of the road in Japan. I found this to be an extremely fascinating aspect of their culture that was quite different than what I am used to.

On Monday, July 29 th , Futa and I had or third conversation partner meeting at the Hecht House. During the conversation partner meeting, we talked about the job I currently have and the one he had before moving to America. It was particularly interesting because we both worked in food service and could share a few stories. Another thing we talked about was how big Tallahassee is, not in terms of population but in terms of how spread out it is. Futa explained that Japan, particularly in Tokyo where he lived, almost every kind of place you would want to go to was within walking distance, and if it was further away then he could easily get there by bus or the subway. In Tallahassee, because of everything being so spread out, he has a more limited range of places to go. I had realized this a little bit before, but I was still amazed at the difference.

On Thursday, August 1 st , I met with YJ from 3 to 4 for our eighth tutoring session together and my sixteenth tutoring session overall. As usual, we started by talking about our weekends. After that, I then asked him how his CIES session went and how he thought he did on his exams. He said that he felt like he had learned a lot and that he did well on his exams. He also thanked me for the tutoring I had given him, saying that it helped him feel more confident about talking to native English speakers, especially since he now understood some common slang and idioms. When he said that, I brought out my vocabulary list with a few more idioms on it, such as “two peas in a pod” and “clear the air,” and explained them to him. I then told him he could text me any time he wanted help with English and he thanked me again before we wrapped up the tutoring session.

On Wednesday, July 24 th , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our eighth tutoring session together and my fifteenth tutoring session overall. During this session we mostly went over grammar. Futa was struggling with first conditionals and wanted more help with them. He did not fully understand why the first verb was used in the simple present form and the second verb was used in simple future form. He then wanted to know the difference between “if” and “when” when used in these situations. I explained that “if” conveys a more uncertain tone, as if the outcome is not certain, whereas “when” sounds more like something is definitely going to happen or that the user is confident about the outcome. We then briefly went over how first conditionals are used for more particular situations, zero conditionals are used for general situations, and second conditionals are used when something is unlikely to happen. Afterwards, we finished by talking about cursive and how it is mostly used for people’...

On Tuesday, July 23 rd , I met with YJ from 2:50 to 3:30 for our seventh tutoring session together and my fourteenth tutoring session overall. When we were discussing our weekends, I brought up how I had gone to the AMC theater to watch Spider-Man: Far from Home. When I mentioned this, YJ got excited because he had seen it too and wanted to know what I had thought of it. For most of the tutoring session, we discussed our opinions about the movie. We both loved it and thought it was the best Spider-Man movie so far. YJ was particularly interested in the special effects and visual effects used for the character Mysterio, although I had to help him with the technical terms and ways to describe his thoughts on them a little. For the last part of the tutoring session, we talked about our rankings for the actors who have played Spider-Man, and we both agreed that Tom Holland has been the best one for the role.

On Monday, July 22 nd , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our seventh tutoring session together and my thirteenth tutoring session overall. For this tutoring session, Futa said he mostly wanted to focus on talking that day, so I started by asking him how his weekend had been. Once he had told me how his weekend had been, I told him about mine so he could get some extra practice with his listening comprehension. At some point we got on the topic of homonyms, specifically “flour” and “flower.” I had mentioned how I had gotten flour all over my kitchen while baking a dessert, but he thought I was saying I had gotten flowers all over my kitchen. We also talked about stationery, which was a word he was unfamiliar with in English. He also struggled trying to come up with the word “glue”, and I had to help him figure it out. He also had trouble saying it, so for the last few minutes of the session I helped him with his pronunciation of it.

On Tuesday, July 16 th , I met with YJ from 2:50 to 3:30 for our sixth tutoring session together and my twelfth tutoring session overall. We began with asking about each other’s weekends again, and then I brought out the new vocabulary list for the tutoring session. I introduced two more slang terms to him, “stan” and “clapback”, and explained what they meant while giving example sentences. I also had a few more idioms to teach him, such as “all ears” and “change of heart.” There was one expression he already knew, which was “piece of cake”, that I had written down and was a bit surprised that he already knew that one. Afterwards, we talked about his thoughts were on Hulu. He was enjoying it a lot, especially since there were new shows and movies he could watch, and the shows were often updated weekly. He also really liked Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which I was happy to hear about since that was what I had recommended.

On Monday, July 15 th , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our sixth tutoring session together and my eleventh tutoring session overall. For this tutoring session, I had printed out a fill in the blank worksheet that went over the articles “a”, “an”, and “the.” Since he had struggled with articles a lot on both composition essays he had brought to previous tutoring sessions and was having a hard time understanding them, I thought it would be best to start with an easier worksheet. For the first 15 minutes of the session, I had him fill in the blanks to the best of his ability without my help. After he was through, I looked over the ones he had answered and corrected the ones that were wrong and explained why they were not correct. Once I was done with that part, we went over the unanswered problems and I had him try to answer them based on the feedback and explanations I had given him.

On Wednesday, July 10 th , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our fifth tutoring session together and my tenth tutoring session overall. For this tutoring session, Futa had brought in another practice essay for me to look over and correct. The topic for this one was whether or not it is good to have co-ed schools, which Futa argued is good. Just like his previous practice composition essay, he did well with the overall structure of the essay and was able to get his thoughts on the topic across. The supporting paragraphs were well written, and the introductory paragraph was solid. However, he still struggled with the closing paragraph. He was closer than before, but it was still not quite there. He also still made quite a few mistakes with plurals and articles. There were fewer plural mistakes than before and he quite almost all of them when I got to them, but he still did not fully understand the articles. At the end of the session, I told him that he needed to look over articles again,...

On Tuesday, July 9 th , I met with YJ from 2:50 to 3:30 for our fifth tutoring session together and my ninth tutoring session overall. Again, we talked about our weekends first to help with speaking and listening comprehension. After that, I brought out the vocabulary list I had prepared for this tutoring session, which was comprised of almost entirely idioms, such as “flat broke”, “strapped for cash”, and “wet behind the ears.”. I did, however, have one slang phrase, which was “on point.” I gave the definitions of each of them and gave example sentences. Once I had gone over the vocabulary, YJ and I started to talk about any TV shows or movies we had seen recently. He was running out of stuff to watch on Netflix, so I recommended Hulu, which he had not tried yet. I told him that he could get a free one month trial to see if there was anything he was interested in on there, such as my recommendation of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and he said he would check it out.