FSU TEFL 120

For my fifth and final class observation, I attended Professor Ryan Flemming's advanced level speaking class on Thursday, May 26th. The class began with a student-led, socratic-style discussion on the topic: should adults in America be allowed to carry a concealed weapon? A student introduced the topic with background information, then everyone took turns speaking. I was very impressed by the tenor of the conversation and the way students consistently treated each other with respect. I do not believe a class of American college students could have an equally open and civil conversation about guns. After the conversation wrapped up, Professor Flemming asked students to work on an ongoing project where they chose a topic to survey FSU students on. 

For my fourth class observation, I attended Professor Olivia James' advanced level speaking class on Wednesday, May 18th. This was my time observing an advanced class, and I noticed that, like our textbook suggested, the lesson appeared to focus more on the content of conversations than other speaking classes, which placed more emphasis on learning grammar and sentence structure. Professor James began the class by showing students a TED Talk on the topic of loneliness. She used the video as an introduction to a class conversation about loneliness and the difficulty of making real connections in the digital era. Professor James for the most part let students guide the conversation, pausing to correct their mistakes or answer questions students had about vocabulary. The topic of loneliness also had specific relevance for the students, who may be homesick or struggling to form new connections in the US. It created a strengthened sense of community in the classroom. 

For my third class observation, I attended Dr. Angel Rios's speaking class on May 16th. Dr. Rios began the class with a causal conversation, asking students what they did over the weekend. I thought the conversation was a clever warm-up activity because it helped ease students into have conversations in English and gave them a chance to practice speaking about everyday topics. The students were practicing using sentences with gerunds that day and Dr. Rios prefaced the main lesson with a quick grammar lesson to ensure students had the necessary baseline knowledge. Dr. Rios kept the main lesson interactive by regularly asking students for examples of "trigger verbs" that may signal the appearance of a gerund. After the lesson students were divided into pairs and asked to create their own conversations including trigger verbs and gerunds. Dr. Rios walked around the classroom and checked-in with students to see if they needed help. Then the pairs presented their conversations...

 Date: June 22 Time: 4:40pm-5:40pm Location: Bubbly Tea  For our last session Melody met at a boba shop and finished up with the last part of the IELTS sample speaking test. She had rewritten her answers from last session, and I helped her correct for grammar mistakes as well as offering new vocabulary that was more contextually appropriate. For instance, she used the phrase “go into society” at one point, and I offered “go into the workforce” as a replacement that more accurately related to the question topic, which was the view on higher education in Taiwan. Additionally, at one point she asked me the difference between “except” and “instead” which at first was a bit challenging to explain, so I first gave her some example sentences off the top of my head before thinking of the explicit, conceptual difference myself. I then explained that we normally use except when something is the ONLY thing that is different, whereas instead is usually used when suggesting a replacement f...

 Date: June 21 Time: 3pm-4pm Location: Hecht House For our last session Sangji and I talked about his recent trip to New Orleans, in which we were able to continue practicing with past tense use. I noticed this time he had a significantly better fluency to his speaking and made less mistakes with present continuous, using past simple instead. We took some time to look at the different places he went to on google maps as he told me about what they did at each location. We also talked about the Southern culture of New Orleans and he mentioned that he tried gumbo and loved it. This led us to further conversation about food, which is when he showed me a common activity in South Korea where people go to restaurants in nature areas like a mountain valley, and the tables are partially submerged in water so you can put your feet in. We talked about the differences in food culture between our countries and how in Korea it is common to order the same things for the whole table family-style. ...

 Date: June 15 Time: 4:40pm-5:40pm Location: Black Dog Cafe For this session Melody and I met at the Black Dog café to work on the first section of part three of the IELTS speaking test. The questions were about her opinion on the education system in Taiwan. This ended up being a very vocabulary-heavy session as we decided to take a step back when I realized that some of the questions had a little too challenging of vocabulary which affected her comprehension of the question. For instance, Melody struggled with understanding “extracurricular”. I took some time to explain it as an activity that is usually done after school and made sure to make the distinction that it something which helps students improve a skill, find an interest or a community. For instance, it is not something like doing homework which is directly related to school. To test her understanding I had her give me examples of extracurricular activities in Taiwan, and she listed soccer, chess and learning different in...

 Date: June 11 Time: 1pm-2pm Location: FSU College of Music For this session I took Melody to the college of music because she had mentioned that she really wanted to go but didn’t know her way around. She wants to get into a master’s program for music therapy, so we went to the music therapy department and walked around the different facilities in the COM. Along the way, I helped introduce a lot of vocabulary/phrases related to her degree that we came across in bulletin boards or signs, such as “concert hall”, “auditorium”, “practice room”, “rehearsal rooms”, “soundproof”, and “checking out” a book. We went into the music library, and she told me about how she is working on improving her academic vocabulary, so this was very helpful to her. We also conversed about the different norms for professor-student relationships in Taiwan vs. America, which is when I explained that in America, email is the most common form of correspondence for a student and professor and having a professor...