Yesterday at noon I met with MG for an impromptu tutoring session. I was sitting in the lounge when the students started filtering in for their lunch break. Soufiane sat next to me to watch the Olympics. MG came in and approached Soufiane for help with his speaking knowing that Soufiane is more proficient than he is. I offered my assistance, "perhaps I can help you," and he immediately recognized me as a native speaker, "ahhh you are a nateev," he said ecstatically in a strong Arabic accent.
MG explained to us that he had his final speaking exam at 1 o'clock and he needed to cram for it. He held out a paper with health topics on it that he had filled out the night before, but he didn't know how to pronounce anything on the sheet.
The first section showed a series of pictures depicting people with ailments and asked, "what would you do for these people?" With an understanding that most people have an idea of what do for a person when they are sick or in an emergency situation by the time they reach college, I asked MG what he would do in these situations. MG knew well what he would do, or what assistance he could offer, but he didn't know how to say it in English. I that if he didn't know what to say, model, and I will let him know what he is modeling. For example, the image showed a picture of someone who is choking. MG modeled chest compressions, and I told him CPR (I also told him it was called cardio pulmonary resuscitation, but he just needed to say CPR!). He wrote that down and said it a few times. We went through the pictures one by one this way. There were a few images he knew or had an idea of how to explain, it was just a matter of clarifying pronunciation.
Next we went did a section on "who would you see for..." In this section they give you an ailment and ask what kind of facility or doctor you would see for the disease. The real issue here was that most of the doctors names were long complicated latin words and he didn't know how to sound it out. I showed him how to break each section down by syllable "sy*chi*a*trist (he knew the 'p' was silent and I explained to him that he should pronounce 'chi', 'ki' with a long 'i'). He did well with this. He said that no one had ever shown him how to sound out words. I explained that this was one of the first techniques we learn as children when we are learning to read.
I covered a few more questions that he needed assistance with, and then it was time for him to go take his test. Hopefully this session helped : )
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