For this session, Somaia and I went over an article that she had read in class. There were some parts that just had low-frequency vocabulary words and some grammatical structures with which she was not yet familiar. We were able to read over the article together and she would pause every once in awhile to ask about the pronunciation and/or meaning of a word. Sometimes, she would make a really great guess at the meaning, or attempt at pronouncing the word, and I would help her out if she needed it. Now and then, I would give her an example of usage, saying “I usually hear this word in…” I can see that being helpful in putting things outside of an academic approach and being able to encourage fluency. Overall, Somaia understood most of the essay very well, her only issues were a few misunderstandings that a gentle nudge in the right direction was able to help.
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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