Allyce-TP5

                As I had promised Hussam, I made sure to choose our next reading activity carefully and make sure it pertained to what he was studying. I had to comb through a bunch of psychology articles before I found one that seemed challenging but fun at the same time and so...I decided we would read about Facebook addiction! The article was an awesome conversation starter and included a bunch of key vocabulary words which Hussam could later use in his psychology essays. The top three words we focused on were Addiction, Dependence, and Social Media.  I took some advice from the Snow textbook and made sure to stop every other paragraph or so and make sure he got the main point of the article, I wanted this activity to be more of an extensive exercise versus and intensive exercise. I think it worked, he really only had a few questions about some vocabulary but was able to point out the crucial themes each time I asked him. Although we were practicing reading out loud, I would give him time to skim the article, I remembered reading from Snow (and from personal experience) how difficult it is to actually retain information as you read in a second language, I knew that at times Hussam was too focused on the pronunciation of a word instead of its definition. 

                However, that was not the most interesting part of the lesson! After we finished reading and going over vocabulary, I could tell he was puzzling over something. When I asked him if everything was okay a whole mess of questions came pouring out about American culture and why we can be so unfriendly and most of all, why we misconstrue any physical touch as something inappropriate! I had my hands full, I answered his questions patiently as he asked various questions such as what the difference between a boyfriend and husband was,  what dating meant, why girls and boys hang out together all the time. It was all very interesting and he gave me some great insight into his own culture...I just hope I was able to clear up any confusion he may have had. 

             I've attached the article we read to the blog, Hussam and I took the "Are You Addicted to Facebook?" Test and turns out we are...are you? 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/facebook-addiction-test-women_n_1500656.html