David-tp4

Alena and I met in the library on the 21st for one of our first meetings that was to be a tutoring meeting instead of a conversation meeting.  Until this point we had only had conversation meetings mostly over dinner.  So I thought that I had an idea of where she was speaking/listening wise but I had no base line for writing and other skills.  She had asked to meet as tutoring partners because she was really struggling in some of her classes and really needed practice as she put it.  

We we met on the first floor of the library which is very nice now that it is not under construction.  I tell you that FSU was one of the most beautiful college campuses that I had ever seen and maintained status for the entire first year I was here.  Unfortunately after that first year it has undergone perpetual construction projects so it was nice to see something that was complete in it's new found glory. It was also nice to see that the Starbucks is even bigger than before, go coffee and tea addicts!  

Anyway as we sat down together I asked her what she had the most trouble with and I also asked to see her courses so that I could at least see where CIES thought she was in terms of her English ability.  Her weakest two subjects were listening and writing with listening being by far the worst.  It was something that hit me pretty hard because numerous conversations we had had came flooding back and I was really wondering if she had understood them.   Luckily I also remembered that she would commonly ask me questions when she did not understand something so perhaps I was safe.  But this does bring up a good point, that we as tutors and conversation partners should always make sure that we are understood.

When she had said that she was having trouble with her listening skills I pulled up VOA Special English so that we could do some listening comprehension practice.  As it turned out the VOA site was even a little two difficult for her to do.  With that said we were able to go through two articles together one that was more extensive and one that was a little more intensive.  What was really cool about these is that especially with the intensive one she was able to learn a boat load of new vocabulary.  

After about an hour of listening and comprehension questions we were both tired and called it a night.  I encouraged her to continue to visit this site to be able to read and listen to English news.  I also told her that I would try and find some overall easier selections as well.  I really learned a lot from this meeting and believe that I need to find even more resources for beginning English listeners.  If you have some please leave a URL comment on the blog.

Thanks

Dave