FSU TEFL 120 Summer 2 2019

I spoke with Dojun via Skype for our second conversation partner session on July 30 th and 9:00 AM. For the most part, we spoke about the current political spate going on between the South Korean government and the Japanese government over the treatment of Korean laborers in Japan. Dojun told me of how many South Koreans are hoping that America will step in to help ease tensions between the two countries, as they are the most powerful ally for both nations. From there we transitioned into talking about Donald Trump and the current American election. I found it surprising to hear from Dojun that many South Koreans view Trumps ‘America first’ decision making as a good thing for America. He said that he was not sure why some Americans disapprove of what Trump is doing and speak out against it so openly. I explained how criticizing those in power is a fundamentally American ideal and has been a founding principle of the country. Not wanting to keep him up, (as it was 10 PM in Korea when...

I met with Hyeon-Seop at CIES on July 24 th from 3:00-4:00 PM. For this session we continued to focus on Hyeon’s reading and speaking skills. As always, I started our session with a new article for Hyeon to read and had him answer some true/false questions about it afterward. The article was about someone talking about a wedding they attended in Sardinia and comparing it to the weddings they had previously experienced in the UK. I also had Hyeon underline any words that he did not understand. With this article, Hyeon seemed to only have trouble with a few very low frequency words like exuberance and delicacies. He also had no trouble answering the questions about the article. For the second half of our session we turned to speaking practice. Since Hyeon will be returning to Korea at the end of the month, we mostly stayed on the topic of what he would like to do or see in Tallahassee before he leaves. I recommended a few of my favorite local restaurants to him (Jim and Milts, Olean’s...

On Wednesday, July 24th, I met with Hyo Sang in the computer lab of the Hecht House from 3:00 to 4:30. This was our final meeting, so we kept things relatively simple. During many of our sessions, Hyo Sang and I went over slang and idioms from a list compiled by an English-learning website. For this meeting though, Hyo Sang wanted to me to cover a hand-picked list of terms that were decidedly more esoteric than those we had previously covered. A standout pair of terms from this session was high-key and low-key. While these terms most accurately relate to subtlety or modesty, they have exhibited a colloquial shift in social media discourse to simply describe quantity. To address this discrepancy, I covered every mode that these terms could be used in, employing the inductive role-play style of instruction that characterized the majority of our sessions. This lesson branched off into a detailed vocabulary lesson focused on the word 'subtle' and many of its synonyms. And that wrap...

The third CIES class I observed was Mr. Ryan Flemming’s Speaking class for Group 3A on Wednesday, June 26 th . He started off the class with a schedule of what they were going to cover that day. The first activity was one where the students partnered up and briefly read their timed speaking responses to each other for reviewing. Mr. Flemming then went over the mistakes he heard amongst the discussions and went over pronunciation and where to look them up online. He then brought up a new topic and asked the students to quickly write down two main supporting details to answer the topic. The students after that had to partner up again, this time with new partners, and talked about what they wrote down. During this, Mr. Flemming walked around the room and took notes, again helping out students. The students then partnered up again for the third and final time with a new topic. At the end, Mr. Flemming discussed making questions for student-led discussions and went over a topic list that ...

The second CIES class that I observed was the Group 4A Reading class taught by Dr. Rios on Wednesday, June 26th. The class started with a discussion of what had previously been read in the past class sessions. The article was about genes and whether or not they can determine if someone is more likely to be a murderer. There were a few important details not mentioned, so Dr. Rios asked some comprehension questions so they would remember them. Afterwards, the students took turns reading paragraphs out loud. Meanwhile, the article was projected onto the board and Dr. Rios would circle any words that the students struggled with. After each paragraph, he would go over them, providing definitions and example sentences. A big focus was on the “nature vs. nurture” argument common in psychology and sociology, but he also briefly went over the “subjective/qualitative vs. objective/quantitative” research styles and methods. At the end of the class, he asked a couple comprehension questions and ...

For our last session, Jang-Yeol wanted to see more “traditional American” things. He had never been to Dunkin Donuts before so we went there. I taught him about iced coffee. We discussed popular advertising competitions in America (Dunkin vs Starbucks, Coke vs Pepsi, Chipotle vs Moe’s). We also discussed his family’s transition to America. He expressed that he was worried about his son starting middle school because the education system is so different here. I gave him suggestions on how to help his son assimilate. Throughout our sessions, Jang-Yeol has gotten better at expressing his emotions in English. Then, I took him to Goodwill. He wanted to buy second hand furniture for his house but didn’t know where to look. As always, I corrected his grammar and pronunciation.

I met with Jang-Yeol for a second time on July 24 th after a short break between sessions. I took him to Five Guys to get authentic American burgers. He loved it! We talked about his upcoming public administration classes. We discussed how different college is in America and Korea. I gave him tips to succeed in college. As always, I corrected his grammar and pronunciation.