Paul TP CIES #1

I met with Badar and Ulisses yesterday in my first group tutoring session! Joelle was supposed to come, but did not show up, and Ulisses came late because of an appointment. However, Badar arrived punctually! He is from Libia and is 17 years old. I spent the first while just conversing with him and making sure he was comfortable with talking with me.

Badar is in Level 1, but he speaks with an accent that is pretty easy for me to understand for the most part. He has been in Florida for 6 weeks, 3 of which in Tallahassee. He does have a lot to learn about English since he is in Level 1, but he knows more than I expected him to. I asked questions about when he started learning English and what he feels are harder aspects for him to grasp. He didn't really have a sure answer, but the time with him allowed me to assess what items we can start working on for next time.

I decided to go over some of the texts we had between each other to teach him how to properly ask some questions. When he had texted me beforehand, he wrote, "What time I will you meet you and where ?"
So I taught him about having to move the "will" to before the subject of the clause. I then went into modal auxiliaries (in both statements and questions) by writing some down and having him come up with a couple examples based off of my modeled examples.

Ulisses came in at about this point. He is in level 2 and has been here from Brazil since August! He and Badar actually have some classes together apparently, so it's fairly easy to teach them together since they are at close levels and they get along. It was a little harder for me to understand Ulisses when he spoke, which surprised me since I'm used to hearing Hispanic accents (and Spanish and Portuguese are so similar!). He is concerned about his speaking for the most part (from what I gathered). He said that he often gets a bit shy and then ends up speaking less.

When going over modal auxiliaries with both of them, it was clear that Ulisses was already familiar with them, as he shot out some examples such as, "must," "can," "should," and "may."
All in all, the first meeting with them went very well. I told them that for next time they can bring any homework that they might need help with understanding.
I look forward to meeting with them next time! Also, Badar just became another one of my conversation partners. So it looks like I'll be seeing a lot of him!