Dhugal TP5

 A couple days ago I had a tutoring session with Abdullah. I had a reading comprehension exercise planned which doubled as a speaking exercise. The reading was actually the one I used in my Reading lesson plan, so it was pretty cool to actually test drive the activity on a real person. It was an intensive reading-so a short text-followed by comprehension questions. The questions vary from determining meaning from context to spotting errors in sentences drawn from the text and discussion questions. I got this activity from busyteacher.org, an awesome resource!

I had Abdullah read through the text aloud. His enunciation is still poor: he speaks in monotone and mumbles. This is now the second activity I’ve done focusing in some way on enunciation. I’ve told him again and again to make an effort, but it seems to go in one ear and out the other. I must get it through to him that it’s like learning to throw a football properly (or any other thing you must learn); at first it takes conscious repetition. Anyone have suggestions as to how to improve enunciation?

Abdullah handled the questions very easily; the text was too simple for him. Having finished with it so quickly, we went over prepositions. He has trouble with the prepositions of time (at, in, on). We went over the different situations in which you would use the prepositions of time, and I made him make up sentences.

I’ve surmised that Abdullah’s reception of the language (reading, listening) far outpaces his production (speaking and writing), which is to be expected. I will gear future sessions towards production.