TEFL 2021 - Madison Elford

Date : 07/23/21 Time : 11:30am - 1:30pm Location : San Miguel  Topic Discussed : Ordering Food, Card Games Cultural topic : Trying ethnically diverse food for the first time, and learning American card games like Uno and Sushi Go. Personal Thoughts : We actually had a lot of fun. I think my tutee and I have gotten to be good friends now. He invited his brother to come, and I invited my boyfriend to come to make sure we had enough people to play cards with. We started with ordering the food. I explained some of the dfferent kinds of Mexican food. I think he and his brother enjoyed the food. Next, we explained the rules of the games we chose, and played them. Once the rules were understood by everyone, it moved a lot smoother. 

9:00am - 10:00am Paper Fox Coffee Cafe We reviwed more writing skills today. His usual issues with "the" and pluralities were much less prominent this time. It seems that the extra review in his writing and speaking abilities has greatly improved his skills. I am really glad that I can see his progress actively as time goes on. I was really worried that I wouldn't really be able to help him through my tutoring because of how advanced he already was. We also went over a lot of slang phrases and cultural references in movies and shows. A lot of the cultural references were from religion and African American culture. It was strange because what seemed normal, or easy to understand to me was very strange and hard to grasp for him. I hope to keep teaching him slang and cultural references that pretain to America. 

9:00am-10:00am Zoom Meeting Today, we reviewed some of his homework. He is still having issues with when to pluralize certain words and when not to. I did my best to point out why each individual word would or wouldn't need to be pluralized. Each situation is a little bit different so its impossible to have one overall rule. Another issue he still struggles with in writing is when to use "the" in a sentence. Once I point out that there is a problem with the sentence, he usually gets it though. The "the" he struggles with is the one to show specificness of a noun in a sentence. After that, we reviewed idioms such as "On the ball", "to give someone props", "every cloud has a silver lining", and "to get ahead of oneself". They were a little tough to explain, but he understood most of them after a bit. Issues mostly came from vocabulary misundersstandings (because some words mean different things in idioms). 

Date : 07/16/21 Time : 11:30am - 1:00pm Location : LongHorn Steakhouse Topic Discussed : Ordering Food, Travel Plans Cultural topic : Differences in the way steak is ordered in the U.S., and the different sauces used for steak and fries.  Personal Thoughts : This was a really cool experience. This was my first conversation partner meeting with my tutee (since I had to get a new conversation partner). A few weeks ago, my tutee had asked me to teach him about ways to order steak. I then got to see this lesson put to pratical use as he ordered steak without needing any help. I am really glad I got to see that I am actually helping to improve his English skills. 

9:00am - 10:00am Paper Fox Coffee Cafe Today, we worked on essay and paragraph structures. I explained a lot about how and when to separate paragraphs based on content. He was confused by the idea that when bringing in a new topic, you need to create a new paragraph unless it can be connected to the previous paragraph's main idea. I also was able to explain how an apostrophe shows possession. It was an interesting way to explain it because I used Chinese to explain it (since my second language is Chinese, and his first language is Chinese). Chinese has a possessive word that is used in conjection with other words to say things like "my friend's...", and I was able to explain it with my second language. I am starting to see the benefits of teaching myself the host language in order to communicate clearer with my tutee. We also reviewed listening drills for words he didn't understand or know. Words like "Adverse" and "overly" were confusing becau...

 9:00am - 10:00am Paper Fox Coffee Cafe Today, we focused a lot of slang used in phrases, or slang phrases. Things such as "you are in good hands" was especially confusing for him. We also worked on his homework for a discussion class. His topic was whether or not the internet was making people more stupid or not. A recurring problem in his writing seems to be knowing when to use the present tense or the past tense. It happens specifically when he writes cause and effect sentences, or effect and cause sentences. I explained that when writing this type of sentence, isolate the cause and the effect from each other. Then make the cause past tense, and the effect present tense because the effect is ongoing while the cause has already ended. I think he understood a little better at the end of the sentence. I think his main issue is identifying the cause/effect in those types of sentences. I have noticed that his English has gotten more fluent and he understands more when I talk la...

Date : 07/10/21 Time : 2:00 - 3:00  Location : Strozier Library, Florida State Campus Topic Discussed : Favorite English Books, TV shows, and Movies Cultural topic : The books, tv shows, and movies were all American based, and very popular in American culture.  Personal Thoughts : Most of the conversation still took place over google translate, or by searching up images of the thing we were talking about. I'm pretty sure his reading and writing skills are very good in English. The listening and speaking skills are what he struggles with most, which makes it very hard to communicate in English.