My foundations level student met with me today. We walked from CIES to a nearby restaurant. His friend, or possibly cousin, came along. He is also a foundations level student. I had a hard time getting them to use English on the way to the restaurant. They were depending too much on each other for language help. I was too cold to care, quite honestly. It was freezing today. I decided to fight that battle once we got out of the wind.
In the restaurant, they did follow my request to speak in English. The problem then became that my student was having a "beautifully bad English day," so to speak. He could not even understand the words "old" and "new." He pulled out what I imagine to have been his homework - putting a list of vocabulary words into complete sentences. I think he wanted me to give him sentences that he could copy dictation style. I wasn't going there. I kept making him dig. I tried to act things out, give clues, use our surroundings for prompts, and simplify my choice and speed of communication. He constantly confused "I" and "me" and forgot to use a verb in sentences. Subject verb agreement was wrong, almost without exception. I finally got him through constructing sentences for 5 words on his list (bargain, boot, clothing, and two others that slip my mind). I would have to say that the assignment was over his head. It had no scaffolding, just the vocabulary word. I think he is at the point where he needed sentences with blanks for which he could choose from his list of words to complete the sentence.
He and his "cousin" have already made plans to transfer to somewhere in California in January. Last week I gathered from our conversation that they think Americans in Florida don't speak English with them enough. I tried to help them understand what our book taught us about helping them take responsibility for their language practice. I don't think California is going to solve their problem. The problem isn't that this state won't speak English to them. It's that they don't use every opportunity to state their words in English.
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