On Thursday, I met with my second tutoring partner for the first time. Her name is Yasuko and she is from Tokyo, Japan. She is very committed to her English studies and wants me to give her some difficult material so that way she can improve her ability more quickly. I'm not quite sure that idea will work, but we'll figure it out as we go along. She wants to improve pretty much all areas of her language ability. However, from what I gathered in our first meeting, she wants to focus on improving her pronunciation and grammar most of all.
Her purpose for taking these CIES courses is to get into a graduate program here at FSU for Art Therapy. I want to try and incorporate art somehow into our tutoring sessions to help motivate her, but I am not quite sure how I will do that just yet. She also enjoys soccer and basketball.
Yasuko has been in the United States now for about five months, having moved here with her husband and daughter back in December. I know that each student is different so I shouldn't compare tutoring partners but I was surprised that Yasuko has been here longer than XinWen yet XinWen has much better conversation ability. I learned from Yasuko that the Japanese language doesn't really use the "l" or "w" letter sounds her in native tongue so those sounds are much more difficult for her to pronounce. She also has some issues with her "r"s. Overall, I understood most of what she was saying (except her trying to differentiate between the words clean and green).
In addition to pronunciation, Yasuko also wants to work on vocabulary that she could use in her everyday life as well as a few specific grammatical ideas.
It is funny that you mention the rs because I have always noticed that with people of Asian immigration and wondered why. Thanks for clearing that up!
ReplyDeleteGiving her difficult material really should be looked at as providing material that is just above her ability to comprehend it easily. She should be able to still comprehend roughly 75% of the material, but need guidance as she struggles a bit, especially with more subtle, implied and indirect meaning.
ReplyDeleteYou may want to look at the "Pronunication Packet" under the Speaking folder on Blackboard. This can get you started on how to approach pronunciation instruction.
Good to know. I hope to look through what she is currently doing first to make sure she understands what she is doing in class before introducing her to a more advanced level. Also, I'm hoping to find out more specifics in that department as far as determining whether she wants more advanced grammar, speaking, etc.
ReplyDeleteThat's perfect. Thanks!