Julia TS #17 and #18 (Wei)

Julia TS #17 and #18(Wei) 

Date/Time: Sunday, July 26, 3-5 pm


Location: Virtual (Zoom)


Topic/Skill: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical range and accuracy, pronunciation, ability to comprehend main ideas, extract factual details, understand speaker opinions and attitudes, follow the development of arguments, Speaking/Listening


Feedback Provided to the Tutee: Feedback provided (Speaking), focused on reducing filler words and unnatural pauses, use of coordinating conjunctions (in listen and repeat exercise), and reducing excessive self-correction in the middle of the sentence. Wei mentioned she struggles with the "TH" and "S" sounds, not necessarily in making that sound but differentiating when listening to conversational speech. We practiced words that have the "S" sound and the correct pronunciation, "using" instead of "uthing". I also noticed she was struggling with dollar amounts and times, and we practiced differentiating between the "teen" and "ty" sounds at the ends of numbers like 50 or 15. With times, we reviewed phrases that the IELTS exam uses to trip you up, like "half past ___", "quarter past ____, or 1 dollar 80 (as opposed to one dollar and 80 cents).


Lesson(s) About Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned:

In this session, Wei and I started practicing TOEFL listening and repeat questions, part of the TOEFL speaking section. When I realized Wei was getting frustrated with the Listen and Repeat sections, and seemed uninterested in the Shadowing exercises that are recommended practice for this type of exercise. Thus, we decided to switch gears and, given her career aspirations and strengths, decided that the IELTS exam would be better suited for her than the TOEFL exam. A couple of months ago, this pivot would have thrown me off completely, but in my experience as a tutor, I have learned that you always have to adapt your lessons to your students and their learning needs. After reviewing the structure of the IELTS exam and exploring how it differs from the TOEFL exam, Wei and I agreed that the IELTS was better suited to her, as it feels more conversational and communication-driven, whereas she felt the TOEFL exam prioritized form over communication. I immediately noticed how quickly our studying methods were having negative effects on Wei's motivation, as she felt that when studying for the TOEFL exam, she wasn't staying true to her motivation for learning English, which is communication. This reminds me of positive and negative washback, and I saw her motivation return once she felt her studying aligned with her purpose for learning English.

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