FSU TEFL 120 Certificate Course_Summer, 2023

On Friday, Wonyoung and I had our last session together. Because it was our last session, and he had already completed the program, we mostly discussed his plans for next year. While I did provide correction in conversation, I was more concerned with his questions about student housing in another state. After I gave him some advice on how University students usually find off campus housing, we played a game of Uno, which he had not played before, but we had been discussing throughout the ten sessions we had together. Overall, he has improved greatly throughout the course of the summer, and is on track to becoming a very strong English speaker. 

Yesterday, Wonyoung started our session with a couple of his own questions for me. To start, we filled out a survey for his speaking class, and then we researched some requirements for his FSU transfer application. One of these is a statement addressing why he is transferring so late, which he said he will bring to me for revisions once he has completed it. Then, we worked on passive voice, which he understands very well grammatically, but was not sure how to use in conversation, or when you would use it in conversation. I pulled up some examples on my laptop to discuss when and why we may use passive voice, as well as the difference between passive and active voice.  

 During yesterday's tutoring session, Ye-won and I finished reading "Stellaluna". Similar to our last session, Ye-won's reading speed has gotten faster. Towards the end of the book, I could tell that she was eager to finish the book and started trying to read too quickly, leading her to make mistakes she wouldn't normally make. Since she has shown improvement in reading comprehension and retention of the material, I asked some questions that caused her to refer to or recall the beginning of the book. After we finished reading "Stellaluna", Ye-won showed me the book she has been reading on her own. I asked her to tell me what it was about and introduce me to the characters. 

Today Wonyoung and I discussed a few different things, but the main conversation revolved around the differences between the linkages "as far as" and "as long as." While covering this, we got side tracked after I incorporated a correction of using the preposition "on" vs. the proporition "in." For both of these conversations I relied heavily on real world examples, as well as writing down what errors he was making and running corrections through a google doc. At the end of the session I quizzed him on modal verbs from last week, which he seemed to remember but was very surprised I brought them back.

During today's session, Ye-won began asking more linguistic questions about the book while we were reading. A lot of her questions were based on formatting, for example, she asked why some of the words were italicized so we spent a few minutes talking about why an author might include italicized words. Ye-won would also ask vocabulary questions and would point out synonyms she found in the book. Overall, while we did not read as much today, I was happy to see that she was engaged in what we read and asked questions about the book. Additionally, she seemed very interested in the spelling of certain words. For example, she would look at some words and start talking about other words that could be spelled with the same letters. Since she seems interested in this, I think I will start our next session with a spelling game or activity. 

Yesterday Won-young and I took some time to catch up on what we had been up to the past two weeks while I was gone. He also told me about the podcast that I had him listening to, it seems to have been a bit too hard for him but I figured we could try just so he can have something to practice his listening. We then talked about something he had trouble with in his grammar class, which was the modal verb 'might.' We discussed the difference between might and maybe and how they are used, and he asked me some questions about the word 'be.' For next session, I plan on setting up a lesson on modal verbs, as well as having a discussion about the word 'be' to help him understand why we use it constantly.

On Monday Ye-won and I finished the last Katie Woo book we were working on, and we started reading a new book that is a bit harder than what we have been covering. We started by playing a word game Ye-won had on her phone, as she seemed to be pretty tired and I wanted to get her a bit excited so she could wake up. I tried to have her guess her own words, as she seemed to be randomly assembling letters in hopes that would work, but she did not quite get the idea so I proposed words and had her spell them for me. Whenever she got the spelling wrong, I would write it on the whiteboard, and she would copy what I wrote as well as put it in the game as a means to reinforce the lesson. 

 Today I met with Maryna for our last session. We spent the entire session of two hours in conversation practice. She was a little bit frazzled on her way to the session, because she was trying to find military gear for her upcoming trip to Ukraine. She needed to find thermal-imaging goggles, boots and a helmet. Even though her home city of Zhytomyr is far from the front line, occasional missile strikes require extra protection.  Much of our conversation concerned differences in cultural attitudes between Ukraine and America. One of the big points of difference was the treatment of alcohol and tobacco. I explained to Maryna the American origins of present-day drinking age laws, based in Prohibition and Puritan culture. The concept of a drinking age is very different in Ukraine. While there are laws on the books against underage drinking, Maryna was telling me that a child can walk into a liquor store, buy a bottle of vodka, tell the clerk that "it's for his parents", plac...

Yesterday Ye-won and I started a new Katie Woo book. She is definitely getting better with the level 1 readers, so for our next session I am going to try bringing a level 2 reader for us to try once we finish the book tomorrow. We only get through the first two chapters, with pauses to discuss the book and to go over some vocabulary. We talked about the difference between their and there, as well as how "halls" is pronounced. We also learned some new vocabulary, including haunted, grizzly bear, and cot. 

Yesterday Ye-won and I had a two hour session! We managed to get through two books, the first was Maya Makes a Mess, which was had started before I left, and the second Flower Girl Katie. We also did a lot of conversation, which mostly involved me correcting minor mistakes as far as past tense conjugation, as well as a bit of pronunciation. Ye-won really liked the graphic novel format of Maya Makes a Mess, and while she still likes Katie Woo, I think she may be getting a bit tired of the stories, so I figure I will try to find more comic book or graphic novel style texts for her in the future. Otherwise her reading is really coming along! She is having less trouble with the word "very," and is getting really good at breaking down words and finding their pronunciations herself!