Alanna Felton TS #6

Melody and I met over Zoom on Monday, May 22nd because I was out of town for my younger brother’s high school graduation. In preparation for class, I had looked up speaking prompts for Melody’s English exam. I asked Melody the questions and she answered them. I corrected her speaking mistakes as she talked and suggested strategies for approaching the questions. I thought that the speaking questions were surprisingly esoteric and required a lot of consideration for people who are learning English as a second language. The first series of prompts I found related to jobs and work-life balance, beginning with a question that asked if you would rather make more money but have to work more or make less money but have more free time. I personally believe many native English speakers would have trouble answering that question as it requires a bit of soul-searching. I was surprised that the exam would ask such abstract questions that don’t come up in everyday conservation. Practicing these prompts with Melody gave me a better appreciation for the difficulty of English-speaking exams and the pressure many of my tutees seem to feel.

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