Today, Somaia and I met in the computer lab at CIES, where we got to play some online grammar games for EFL students. There are lots of resources available online and it was a fun way to practice grammar concepts with which Somaia had been struggling. We practiced the perfect tense and irregular past participles, which was really helpful for Somaia. These really are concepts that learners just have to memorize and practice, but Somaia is really trying to learn these forms instead of just skipping them and using any old form, which I know can be common amongst EFL students. Her troubles are also common for native Arabic speakers, like the pronunciation difference between certain voiced and voiceless consonants in English such as /b/ and /p/. I also mentioned some times when I frequently used the words, putting things in context to take the strictly academic sense out of what often comes with these online quizzes.
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 qu...
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