Sarah- TP2

I met with Shivani again on Monday. This was much less discouraging than the first lesson. This time, because I was able to prepare a lesson that fit her needs, I was able to see her make some real progress. I was also much more prepared for her comprehension level, and used the markers and whiteboard for writing things out and drawing pictures when words weren't enough. I had prepared a lesson on articles similar to the one I turned in for our grammar assignment. First however, she read one of her questions from her driver's ed study book. It contained two words ending in "tion" and she had trouble with each. We went over this and she wrote a phonetic spelling in her book in Hindi, which was really cool to watch her sound out and create. Here is a sample of Hindi courtesy of google translator:  मैं हिंदी में लिख रहा हूँ
I tried to explain that she was talking about an oven when she read the word "conviction" like "convection", and even drew an oven. But until she heard me say "funny", I don't think she got the humor that I was trying to convey. After this small pronounciation lesson, we moved on to articles. It took a lot of repetition for the "it all depends on the first letter of the noun" to sink in, but by the end of the lesson, she was pointing around the room and describing "a door, a waste bin, an ear, a table". So I was happy. I gave her a worksheet to practice at home and told her it is also important to practice with her husband. Towards the end, we were able to start a little bit of the simple present tense lesson that I had planned for next time, but again, there was difficulty conveying the basic directions. For example, here is the beginning of the worksheet I made for her:

Simple Present

VERB  (+ s/es in third person)

Singular                      GO

I	go
You	go
He/ she/ it	goes

Plural                          GO

We	go
You (all)	go
They	go

I explained the concept, making example sentences, and pointing to the boxes as I went. But when it came time to fill out the second set of boxes, (we made up some commonly used verbs together) she didn't know what to do. She kept making it one big sentence like "I go practice, You go practice." Even when we got to the third box. So this table concept that we are used to seeing may not have been as common in her schooling, and it was definitely an impediment to our progress. I think by the end she was getting it a bit better, and filled out the last set by herself well though she did try to add an "s" to the third person plural as well. But hey, that's progress.

We agreed to speak with her husband and ask if two hours would be a better than one for our tutoring sessions. Actually, they both seemed really excited about this. I think that learning English is really important to her!