Yesterday evening Mahmoud and I met at the library for our first real tutoring session after his TOEFL class. As I was pulling out my materials to get our lesson started, Mahmoud confessed that he was extremely hungry because he had been in class all day. So, we walked over to Chili's and had a nice meal where we were able to get to know each other better. He loves to talk to practice his English which is awesome! Mahmoud is 29, Muslim, and one of eleven children in his family. When he returns to Palestine in August his mother will arrange a marriage for him. His sister, Bara'ah, is only sixteen and already arranged for a marriage! Mahmoud was very interested in my family as well. After our meal, we got to work. Mahmoud wanted to work on listening comprehension so I printed out practice TOEFL listening exercises which included a short conversation between two people followed by multiple choice questions about the conversation. Mahmoud had some trouble with comprehending the conversations and I felt like he was getting frustrated. So I also brought some articles that had to do with marketing and consumerism, things he is interested in, in order to help him refocus. His reading skills are great and he was also able to summarize the articles very well. Next time we meet he is going to bring his TOEFL practice books so we can do those exercises. Mahmoud even suggested that we meet twice a week! Overall, yesterday was a nice mixture of conversation and TOEFL practice.
Wow-his sister is sixteen and already set up to be married? I find the culture differences concerning marriage still shocking, especially since in America we don't do arranged marriages. I think what's most interesting about arranged marriages in most cases, is how the boys seem to get married when they're older, like closer to 30, rather than girls, who get married off while they're still teens! I wonder if that's like that with all Muslim girls, or that just happens to be the case of his sister? I also thought that was a good idea for you to bring articles and have him read them, then summarize them to you--I think I'll do that with a couple of my other students!
ReplyDeleteBe careful that you are not using materials and exercises that are too advanced. We will discuss in class the concept of i + 1. This means "input" we select (listening, reading, activities) are slightly above the students level. i + 3, 8, 12 will just frustrate and overwhelm.
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