FSU TEFL 120

Hyobin and I met over Zoom on Thursday, August 18 th and completed my lesson on basic English pronunciation. I explained the remaining types of punctuation from my PowerPoint and asked Hyobin to write me sample sentences using each type of punctuation and send them to me in the Zoom chat. These sentence writing activities also gave me an opportunity to correct any minor mistakes Hyobin made while checking her grasp of the lesson. I was pleased to see that she used most of the punctuation correctly. The only areas where she struggled were with using semicolons, dashes, and hyphens. However, I am not worried because many native English speakers her age (and older) still find these punctuation marks challenging and Hyobin clearly knows when and how to correctly use everyday punctuation (like periods, question marks, explanation marks, commas, and colons). I ended the lesson by assigning Hyobin a worksheet for homework to practice punctuation.  

I met with Hyobin over Zoom on Monday, August 15 th . I began our tutoring session by briefly going over her writing diagnostic assignment. I pointed out and explained some reoccurring errors I noticed, but I also praised moments where I thought her writing was strong. I didn’t want to discourage her by only giving negative feedback. At our previous meeting Hyobin told me that she wanted to learn more about punctuation, so I prepared a presentation on the main types of English punctuation for today’s lesson. After presenting and explaining each type of punctuation, I asked Hyobin to write a sample sentence using it and send me the sentence in Zoom chat. This creative and participatory element seemed to help keep her engaged by the topic. We got about halfway through my presentation and will finish it up next time.

I met with my new tutee Hyobin for the first time on Thursday, August 11 th over Zoom. To start with I talked briefly with Hyobin’s mother, Soojin, who then left Hyobin and I alone on the Zoom. This tutoring session was primarily devoted to getting to know Hyobin better and learning about her goals. Our conversation was somewhat awkward at first; this was my first time only meeting a tutee over Zoom and my first time working with a younger student. I could tell Hyobin became the most enthusiastic when talking about her interests and friends, I think I will try incorporating autobiographical writing into her lessons and assignments to keep her engaged. I ended the meeting by assigning a diagnostic writing assignment for Hyobin to complete and submit to me before our next session so that I can better understand her writing abilities.

Woon and I met again over Zoom on Sunday, June 6th. He asked me about the difference between the words “would,” “could,” and “should.” This led into me trying to give brief explanation of the subjunctive in the English language. I tried to provide helpful context while being honest when I wasn’t certain of something and promising to get back to Woon with more information about grammar. I encouraged him to think of “would” as having a familiar function to “were,” “could,” as having a similar function to “can,” “should as having a similar function to “need.” One aspect of working with Woon that I appreciate is his clarity about what he wants to get out of tutoring sessions. He always takes the initiative in telling me what he wants to learn and does not hesitate to give honest feedback on my tutoring.

Woon and I met over Zoom on Saturday, June 4th.   Unfortunately, we could not meet in person because I was recovering from COVID, and although I was well enough to teach, I did want to take any chance of exposing him to the virus. I shared my screen over Zoom and typed notes in a word document. We continued practicing pronunciation today. One of the sentences I wrote to help Woon practice with minimal pairs led to discussion about how to pronounce “would” versus “wood.” I admit that I struggled to articulate the subtle pronunciation difference between the two words. (The reduced audio quality of Zoom didn’t help.) I hoped to remedy this by telling Woon to look for the context surrounding the use of the words “would” and “wood,” making sure that he could define the meaning of each word.

Woon and I met at Hecht House on Friday, June 27. Today, Woon asked to practice pronunciation, so I created a list of minimal pair words, drawing from our lesson in minimal pairs from the TEFL class. Woon told me that he particularly struggled with mixing up the pronunciations for “l/”r” and “b”/“f” so I created a series of minimal pairs to help him practice those specific syllables: “class”/”crass” and “flying”/“frying” for “l”/“r” and “bee”/“fee” for “b”/“f”. I repeated spoke the pairs of words out loud, speaking slowly and enunciating each syllable to emphasize the differences in pronunciation. I then asked Woon to practice saying the words out loud until he could pronounce them correctly. In class, we emphasized the importance of practice for mastering pronunciation, so I asked Woon to continue practicing saying the minimal pairs aloud for homework, giving him some additional words to use.

Melody and I met over Zoom on Monday, May 22 nd 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 pr...