FSU TEFL 120 2024, Fall 2

  Tutoring session #20: December 13 3pm Location: Student Union Topic: Christmas Culture Feedback provided to the tutee: Since this was the last time we would be meeting for the semester I decided to do simple reading comprehension and discussion. For the reading comprehension I gave a passage about “Novenas” which is a Colombian Christmas tradition. The feedback I gave was correction on the multiple choice and free response answers on the work sheet I provided. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: It was a lot of fun being able to share my culture with Miguel. I could tell he was invested the more I was able to explain my own traditions in my family. It was great to connect with Miguel at this level. 

Tutoring session #19: December 11 3pm Location: Student Union Topic/Skill: Networking in academic spaces Feedback provided to the tutee: First I created a transcript with highlights for the student to read with  two people in a networking situation, discussing their goals and prior experience. The feedback I provided was pointing out why those words highlighted  are important as they were vocabulary words such as position, internship, studied etc. Then I asked comprehension questions. Then we practiced a role play activity where we practiced me being a professor and him asking them to work on research. The feedback I provided him was immediate grammar correction and offering more higher level vocabulary.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: The lesson I learned was the importance of pronunciation focus. As Miguel really wants to start researching at Florida State I was more than happy to ease his concerns about not appearing professional due to his acce...

  Tutoring session #18: December 9 4pm Location: Student Union Topic/skill: Debate Feedback provided to the tutee: In this session we did a speaking exercise focusing on debate. This consisted of open discussion that followed some linguistic support. This included a document where I showed him different transition words and common words to increase credibility such as, “I believe”, “According to” and so forth. The feedback I provided was only when it would improve the clarity of his argument, less grammar and more the structure of his arguments. We debated over politics as well as our different cultures. And I also gave him model sentences he and a structure he should follow when producing responses which is how I was able to correct him.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Lessons about tutoring that I learned was trying to find when was the right time to have a teaching moment and point out any errors especially when the conversation really got going. I f...

  Tutoring session #17: December 8 3pm Location: Student Union Topic/skill: Listening comprehension in casual conversation Feedback provided to the tutee: This session we also conducted a dictionary comp exercise but from casual conversation. I recorded a conversation with my friend ahead of time of us talking about how we are studying for finals week and our plans for winter break. The feedback I provided was first some vocabulary and linguistic support then we went through and made sure he caught all of the words and I asked him a general comprehension question. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Lessons about the tutee that I learned is that the repetition definitely does help as well as the fill in the blank as what he still struggles with is minimal pairs and hearing the differences between certain words. However he still can comprehend a lot through context clues but it’s important he learns to decipher minimal pairs and their meanings.

  Tutoring session #16 : December 6 Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Listening comprehension for academic listening Feedback provided to the tutee: Last session Miguel had expressed to me that despite his improvement with casual speaking he has seen that hsi listening had not improved. Therefore I arranged a dicto comp exercise with “Try something new for 30 days” by Matt Cutts. The feedback provided was after playing the video multiple times he filled out a fill in the blank worksheet. Then I checked he got the right and we went over the meanings of some of the key words. Then afterwards I asked him comprehension questions.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Lessons I learned from this was how important repetition is when it comes to listening comprehension. Moreover he learned important markers to look out for to understand a long passage. I also learned how important it is to review important vocabulary before hand.

  Tutoring session #14 & 15: December 6 Date/Time: Friday December 6 3pm Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Exam review practice and complex prepositions and adverbial phrases Feedback provided to the tutee: Although his exam has passed we still reviewed the second half portion of the exam review that I prepared for him as homework the previous lesson. This included many exercises borrowed front textbooks that included the present continuous, future continuous, ad gerunds and infinitives. The feedback was immediate and then I explained any errors he had and explained why they were wrong. Then we did a through revision of the last things he learned at CIEs which were complex prepositions and adverbial phrases, this was done with a lot of visual support such as pictures and videos.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Feedback I learned from the tutee is he responded very well to the worksheet provided as it allows him to test his comprehension of grammar knowled...

Student: Do-jun Kim Date/Time: December 17, 9:00-10:00 Location: Virtual/Zoom Topic: Homework reading review, Final Speaking lesson Feedback provided to the tutee: We spent the beginning of the class going over his essay from the previous lesson that he did for homework. I made corrections to his writing in his paragraph, and we went in-depth on why those corrections were necessary. He asked me several questions on the use of commas and grammatical errors. It was our last session, so we had a speaking debate for the back half of the class where he organized a side, and as he was speaking, I gave him corrections as we were going because I found it easier for him to correct his mistakes as he continued. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: He learned more about how to speak in a more formal setting like a debate. He definitely is stronger in more casual conversation because as the debate went on and we were arguing sides, it became more of a natural discussion on th...

  Student: Wei Wang  Date: December 9th, 9-11am  Location: Dirac  Topic: Speaking/Writing Practice  Feedback Provided to Tutee: We went over how to write emails and papers. She has a meeting with a professor tomorrow to go over a PhD program, so we talked about how to write a proper email. I gave her an example of emails I write to my professors and the type of language that should be used.  Lessons about tutoring I learned: I realized how practical a lot of the skills we go over are, and how the  speaking and writing skills she has in English can directly correlate to the connections and relationships she's able to foster with her professors and peers. 

Student: Do-jun Kim Date/Time: December 9, 9:00-10:00 Location: Virtual/Zoom Topic: Grammar Review, Reading assignment Feedback provided to the tutee: I gave him feedback on his grammar homework, and we reviewed it together. We then did a reading/speaking assignment where I would ask him discussion questions after an article, and we had a conversation. I corrected his grammar use and speaking errors. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: He learned how to use vocabulary in different word forms. He was able to create sentences using them based on the information from the article. He learned about how and when to use gerund and infinitive, but more practice is needed. 

  Student: Wei Wang  Date/Time: December 5th 9am-10am  Location: Dirac Topic: Writing  Feedback provided to tutee: I helped looked over her personal statements for some programs she's applying to. A big thing I gave her feedback on was working on being redundant. In her attempt to be very clear with her ideas, it can be very repetitive so we worked on condensing her thoughts.   Lessons I learned about tutoring: This was also practice for the TOEFL, although also very practical as she's working on applying to master's practice. 

  Student: Wei Wang  Date/Time: December 5th 9am-10am  Location: Dirac Topic: Listening  Feedback provided to tutee: We practiced listening again and this time I played a few songs and had her pick out phrases or words that were unfamiliar and then we went over them. This was also a great exercise in teaching American popular culture so we had interesting conversations about that.  Lessons I learned about tutoring: Since informal English is harder for her to understand this was good practice for things like idioms and metaphors, since this is often used in American songs. 

  Student: Wei Wang  Date/Time: December 4th 9am-10am  Location: Dirac Topic: Listening  Feedback provided to tutee: I played an audio clip from a podcast of two people having a conversation. I asked some schema building questions before hand to make sure she had some context before we started. After listening to a few minutes of the podcast, I asked general, open ended questions about the context of what they were speaking about. We went over how to take notes and how to quickly summarize to find general ideas.  Lessons I learned about tutoring: As far as studying for the TOEFL goes it's imperative that she learns how to quickly and effectively take notes for the listening portion. 

Me and Daniela had conversations in the past tense. She wanted to practice her speaking and normal/everyday talking skills as practice. We spoke about what she did over Thanksgiving and what she has planned for winter break. We also looked at the difference in other and another when using these words in context. Another thing we looked at was the difference between the words look, see and watch.

Student: Do-jun Kim Date/Time: December 4, 9:00-10:25am Location: Virtual/Zoom Topic: Writing review, Essay corrections, Grammar Intro Feedback provided to the tutee: I gave him feedback on his essay and its structure. We went through it sentence by sentence, making corrections. He had a few grammar errors, which led to our grammar lesson, Gerund or Infinitive. He struggled with the first five questions, but by the end of the practice, he had a better understanding; I assigned a different sheet for homework.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: My tutee learned the proper essay structure using an outline before and was able to make it into an entire essay. He knew the difference between a gerund and an infinitive and how to make sentences using both. We also practiced speaking by him reading all the material we went over. 

  Student: Wei Wang  Date/Time: December 3rd 7:30pm-8:30pm  Location: Zoom Topic: Grammar  Feedback provided to tutee: We continued our practice from earlier today on the subjunctive. I started with a tiny lesson on the difference between indicative and subjunctive, and pointing out these differences seemed to really help her grasp the structure and usage of subjunctive. She seemed to have a better grasp on it the more we practiced, and was able to make clear distinctions between indicative and subjunctive.  Lessons I learned about tutoring: Similar to this morning, this session revealed to me that it is not possible to "over-practice" concepts with students when teaching them a foreign language. Practice helps eventually make things automatic for students. 

  Student: Wei Wang  Date/Time: December 3rd 11:30am-12:30pm  Location: Dirac Library  Topic: Grammar  Feedback provided to tutee: I used worksheets that covered topics on the present and past subjunctive, since she struggled with this last time. I had her verbally answer the questions to work on her speaking skills, since she often struggles with speaking. As she spoke the answers, I typed them out so she could see what her answer looked like. This tense in particular is hard for her, so lots of practice is needed. Some feedback I gave her included the correct use of "that". For instance she would use it after a verb when it didn't apply, for example "she speaks that she were in charge" instead of "she speaks as if she were in charge". There was also trouble with adverbial phrases, for example she would say "more kinder" instead of "more kind".  Lessons I learned about tutoring: I think this session revealed to me that it is not po...

Student: Letizia Gerbotto Date/Time: December 2, 3:00-3:45 Location: CIES 318 Topic: Listening Practice Feedback provided to the tutee: We listened to a podcast where we paused and spoke about what was happening. She took notes. I gave her feedback on some grammar in her notes and helped make them more refined. I did my best to let her take the lead on notetaking, but I ultimately did give her feedback on some of the points she didn't fully understand Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Talking through the podcast and pausing to reflect definitely helped more with their understanding of the material. This was our last session, so we did do a recap at the end, and I asked her to reflect on her experience in the course, and she feels confident about her finals.

Me and Daniella went over some more vocab words and irregular forms of verbs. She said she wanted more vocabulary that was/is commonly used in conversations and other enviroments. I composed a list of words that she may not know and we practiced using them in sentences and went over where/how the words are used. We practiced using these in conversations also and thought of ways she can use these words.