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Ashley TS #8

My next tutoring session was with Turki. We met at the Starbucks on Tennessee Street, the usual spot, and started the session with a causal conversation about life and his short term English goals. Turki decided he didn't want to continue with the second session of CIES classes, and that he wanted to rather focus solely on passing the IELTS exam. He said he found the CIES classes to be helpful, but also distracting. He said he thinks he's gotten the most out of his classes and that it would be more productive for him to study on his own. Where I don't completely agree with his logic, it is his life and I trust his decision making. For this session he brought his own material that he wanted to focus on. This time it was a reading passage that I even found to be quite difficult, and I was once again impressed by his far reach in practice and ability. The reading passage was accompanied by a set of numerous comprehension questions that we reviewed and answered together. The questions tested vocabulary, main ideas, comprehension, and summary skills. After working with Turki, I do believe he has a good grip on vocabulary, but is still struggling with comprehension and being able to define words based off of their changing context. He still creates the meanings of every word he reads by the single definition that he knows, and struggles to use top down processing in understanding the word in its specific context. I critiqued him on this and said the best way to practice this skill is by reading as much as possible. It was one of my most productive tutoring sessions and I think he got a lot out of it as well.

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