Alexander Miguel TS#8

This past Friday I met with Maryna to review how to construct conditional "if/then" phrases with various tenses. This is one of the most difficult grammatical constructions in the English language, which we spent the last two meetings covering before this one. Maryna's overall writing and reading skills are very high, as well as her knowledge of grammar. What she struggles with however are productive skills like speaking. She showed me a page of one of her practice problems from class, which was the first time in which I had difficulty explaining a grammar topic. There were five different types of conditional phrases given in the handout, one of which I did recognize at all. The handout gave rules for their use, which I did not think reflected the way native English-speakers use verb tense forms in normal speech. Maryna expressed to me that doing practice problems on a sheet of paper like I had been doing the past couple of sessions did not help her as much, since it does not improve speaking. Maryna told me that she does not receive enough speaking practice outside of class, and how she may lose some of her abilities after an upcoming trip to Ukraine. For future sessions, I need to design more speaking-focused activities. 

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