Logan+Mickel+-+Tutoring+Responses

11/20- I worked with Mohammed today on the worksheets provided by Dr. Conrad (covering verb tense usage, introductions, etc.) and some of the papers he will be using for his portfolio. Mohammed is capable and comfortable with English and he filled out the verb tense sheet with very little help from me. His papers were well written, though there were occasional word usage issues and other typos.

I've found that many ELLs at Mohammed's level have syntax and basic grammar down, but struggle with figures of speech and other quirks of the language. For instance, one student was wanting to say that a certain TV show had "crossed the line." She wrote that it had "passed the moral bottom line," confusing the business term of "bottom line" with "crossing the line" or stepping "over the line."

I'll admit, English is weird.

11/13- Today we were paired up with one or two of the ELLs and did the usual small talk/get to know you discussion. Afterwards, we discussed issues with grammar, including independent clauses, dependent clauses, the proper punctuation to use at certain points, conjunctions, etc. Dr. Conrad shared his BOAT model, which is an interesting approach. Once more, I'm surprised by the response of the foreign students regarding grammar instruction. Typically with American students the moment you mention grammar is the moment twenty four heads drop onto the desk. However, grammar instruction clicks with the ELLs and I've found they are more knowledgeable and comfortable with terms like "independent clause" than their American peers. 11/6- Today we met for a moment with the entire class, then broke up into pairs and did some exercises. I've placed that journal entry in the chapter summary portion of the wiki. 10/30- Corn maze day. I found it a little ironic that this activity was built around showing ELL students a side of American culture, yet I myself had never been to a corn maze until this day. It was both educational and entertaining, however. Spending time with the other students in a non-classroom environment has a way of opening up my perception of those students in ways that couldn't happen in the classroom. Watching Taher and Mohammed ride around in the kiddie train gives me a better understanding of them as people. I think as teachers it is easy to stop thinking of students in that regard--they become a face on a class roll, a column on a grading sheet.

10/23- Today we broke up the class and had the grad students teach. The subject matter was broken up into Cause and Effect, showing degrees, and academic vocabulary. Larry and I taught Cause and Effect. It was interesting to watch the reaction of the students. One of my main concerns was whether or not the basic definition of the two words (and, in turn, the concept in general) would be understood by the majority of the class. With the ELLs in my 1010 class, definitions like this will frequently be misunderstood or not understood at all. The difficult thing is that many student do not want to admit they don't know a definition (especially in front of the class) and will therefore remain silent.

I realized a few things:
 * The students, for the most part, understood the concept.
 * Having the 3000-level students there was a great help. Any confusion could quickly be addressed.
 * Everyone loves a good slapstick comedy.

10/16- Today we worked only briefly with the other students before meeting in the conference room to plan next week's lesson. I worked with Dennis from Turkey. Our task was to discuss the different activities we could do together as a class in two weeks (the day before Halloween) and decide which we would most like to do. The idea is to provide the international students with an opportunity to experience American culture in the form of popular Halloween activities.

Dennis didn't really have a preference. We discussed the different activities and talked about why we did the different things. Corn mazes appear to be an American invention. As he likes sports, we eventually decided on volleyball.

10/9- Today I worked with Taher. Together we reviewed the two 1010 papers, looking at specific items mentioned by Dr. Conrad. I was surprised by the level of insight and understanding displayed by Taher. I have known him outside of class for about a year now and had assumed his English was at a lower level than he showed today. I can see this misconception arises from assuming writing and reading ability is the same as conversational ability. Although Taher always seemed to understand what I was saying when we talked, he never spoke much and I took this as an indication of low English ability. However, his reading and writing is far higher than I had imagine. His (and by extension, all ESL students) reluctance to speak may not be a result of low ability, but something else. I need to remember this as a teacher.

10/2- No class today. Cancelled.

9/25- Today we worked in small groups and further discussed the different aspects of culture. I found it more difficult today, as the two students I had been paired with were far more hesitant to talk than any others I have been with. We would ask questions and attempt to start discussions, but the answers the students gave were terse and made it difficult to have a meaningful discussion. It seemed that these two were far more reluctant to take a chance and make mistakes with the language than others I had worked with.

I've had similar encounters in other areas. Usually the hesitancy can be overcome by moving the conversation to more casual topics such as hobbies or a discussion on where the student is from, but this strategy didn't really work either.

How much should a teacher prod a student to get out of his or her comfort zone and speak the second language? Earlier in my life I learned Japanese and was actually held back quite a bit by my fear of making a mistake. It wasn't until I was able to get over it and stumble through the unfamiliar terms that I made progress. How much should a teacher try to force this process?

9/18- Today we discussed the various aspects of culture as we watched the video from the Sundance Film Festival. It was interesting to discuss the many different faces of culture with the two ELLs in my group, both of whom came from Saudi Arabia. It took a while to explain the concept at first--I'm not quite sure they realized that culture can include such as wide swath of things as language, food, weather, education, entertainment, etc. As we paused the video each time, however, we seemed to reach new understanding.

Before the Palestinian mother and son reach America, we talked about the language, the food, and the relationships. For instance, the grandmother living at home and the meal she had needed the tomatoes to make. It was also interesting to note the woman driving the car after the opening scene. For an American there is nothing strange about it. For the Saudis, however, women are not allowed to drive a car or even sit in one of the front seats. Although the Palestinians speak Arabic like the Saudis, there are countless details that separate the cultures.

9/11- I thought today was an interesting illustration of the power of relaxation in language learning. I use "relaxation" for want of a better term. What I mean by it is that the ice-breaking game we played knocked down some of the barriers that may have inhibited not only language learning on the part of the ELLs but language teaching by the English speaking students. It is easy to feel intimidated and reclusive as an ELL when surrounded by English speakers. Meeting new people is hard enough--if you throw a language barrier in there, it becomes even more difficult. As for the English speakers, it may be easy to feel a cultural gulf with the other students. We may not feel comfortable talking with them about even normal stuff (unsure they will understand, feel we have nothing in common, etc.).

The activity today greatly reduced inhibitions on both sides. Talking with someone from a different country and with a different language and sharing something as simple as hobbies tends to humanize that person and break down barriers. I may not know what it's like to grow up in Saudi Arabia, but I like soccer and I can relate to Hussein through that. Not only that, but now we have a starting point to get to know each other and feel comfortable around one another. Watching the class laugh and talk to one another really showed the power of just getting to know one another.

TC (9-25): Every class has its unique cast of characters and it's so often naturally kind of scary for awhile as the group feels one another out and tries to figure out the expectations of the teacher and classmates. Thank you for your friendly presence among the international students, encouraging their confidence and as you put it "relaxation."

9/4- I worked with Mansour today. He hails from Saudi Arabia, close to the border with Bahrain. We went over the pre-test he had filled out last week. I was surprised to see there were some questions I didn't know the answer to. For instance, one question asked about the difference between an essay and project. What's the project? How long is the essay? It was hard to give him an answer without knowing where the questions had come from.

Going over the essay brought up an interesting tutoring dilemma. When the language learner is still developing, what is the best aspect of writing to spend time on? If, for instance, there are punctuation errors, syntax problems, verb conjugation issues, pronoun confusion, and basic sentence-level errors, where do you start? What's the heirarchy? It's a waste of time to discuss comma splices when basic structure-level elements are missing.

I think it's best to start there. Structure. Rather than pointing out minor spelling and punctuation issues (which can be addressed later), start with the basic subject-verb-complete idea progression.

Though I'm hoping we cover this later in the course. Because, honestly, I'm just assuming this is the best place to start.

TC: 9-18-2012: I think in the beginning "novice" ACTFL levels, structure is often the only thing you can focus on because new language learners still need to know basic vocabulary, phrases, and simple sentences. At Mansour's level, I've found that many students need to be taught how to work with a tutor. Some have problems just coming up with meaningful topics and styles of writing for papers and a tutor can help them with brainstorming ideas. Then, they need to use their developing language skills to free-write, draft and get some content on paper from which they themselves can do a lot of editing from their own knowledge, books, technology, google translate, whatever works. Finally they need to be taught the importance of working with a tutor, friend, or teacher to make sure they finish the editing process to create a final draft, rather than handing in work that is still filled with too many errors to be understandable or for which they will be judged often too harshly by their professors or bosses at work. They need to really be taught how to process their writing from beginning to end.