David_TP#12

As I said with my previous post, I kind of turned this lesson over to the students. I want them to feel free to ask anything they want, and considering this could be the last lesson I have with these guys, I want to do what would help them the most. I was surprised (I guess I should not have been) to see that they wanted to ask questions about very similar things that the other group did. They had questions about ordering food at fast food places. Many of these guys had trouble understanding what was being said to them by the workers. I explained that many of the people that worked in that kind of profession were told to go fast. I was able to relate to them in this case. With my time in Russia, I was all too familiar with this problem. I told them a story when I went to a Carl JR’s in Russia. I tried to order a #1 with a Coke, and by the time it was said and done, I had three orders of chilly cheese fry’s and a beer. We talked about common vocabulary that is used in those settings, and various things (like contextual clues) that might help. They responded well to this, and we talked about this for most of our time together. This was still a tutoring session, so I was sure to keep a log of grammar mistakes made. When we had about 20 minutes left, I went over the common errors that were made, and like I always do, use modeling and comprehension checks to reinforce it. It was a good lesion, and I think some of them might feel more comfortable trying English in the food ordering process.