C. Smith TP #1

Today at Claude Pepper library I met Radka, a Czech student from the Czech Republic who is studying English here in America. Karen Gotti arranged for the two of us to meet, so we went into one of the conversation rooms and talked about her experiences studying English and her life in the States. It turns out that Radka has studied English for four years, but that was a long time ago and she has not had to call upon her knowledge for some time.

Upon learning that she was looking for a job, I guided the conversation into discussing present perfect, because that is a structure we use to talk about our experience ("I've [worked] for [Company X] for [# years], etc.") We also discussed where we've been around the globe. Her grammar and vocabulary were both not as high as they could be, so I ended up teaching her simple words as we went along like state, country, etc. I also got her to talk about her feelings concerning movies/books so I could teach her the difference between interesting/interested, scary/scared, etc. I wrote down sample sentences for each thing that I did and wrote out vocabulary words for her to use later. Because she likes traveling, I told her how to reserve seats on an airplane or bus.

We also talked about some words that look similar but have different meanings, such as founder and the past tense of find. These words came up as we were discusssing her home and what the Czech Republic is famous for. Radka is able to follow along with what you say provided you speak slowly and clearly. It is easy to teach her because she will ask you if she doesn't understand a word. She also helped me by giving me a topic for our next lesson: to discuss what bus drivers say and how to ride the bus.