M Teach 1 Group Respond Here

First posting: Tuesday, 26 March 2002 4:45:25 PM

Ken Cruickshank

OK group, place your reports on this thread if you are in the M.Teach year 1. Once you have entered your report on this noticeboard 1.wait a day or so and 2.then read the reports of others and make reflective comment. Finally it is Ok to ask questions, give advice and seek clarification. regards Ken

RESPONSES

Emily Huang | (129.78.224.27) | Tuesday, 26 March 2002 5:13:47 PM
Sample report: At the last minute, Joan Macquart offered to let me coach two people, instead of one, as originally planned. Inspired(?) by Allan (Birimac)'s example (getting his four(!) students to help each other to enhance the learning process) I somewhat impulsively agreed. So now I'm coaching Muhamad (Lebanese) as well as Jenna (Mainland Chinese) on Wednesday mornings at Here's what I've been able to glean about them as yet:- According to Joan, both have very little English. They are both very recent migrants to Australia (arrived 2-3 months ago) and they have only started having English language classes for the past few weeks. (I'm not sure if they learned English before they emigrated.) I estimate them to be in their mid to late teens. Their language strengths seem to be diametrically opposed - Jenna seems to show relative confidence in the reading/writing side of things - she seems quite happy to work independently (and well) and ask me questions (in Chinese unfortunately) only when she's not sure of the written instructions. Muhamad, on the other hand, relies more on interacting with me in order to complete the task at hand - a very friendly, co-operative fellow - perhaps too co-operative, as unfortunately I'm not sure how much he really understands and how much is just "parroting" without comprehension. I've been trying to get them to "work off" each other - Muhamad's "engagedness" could be a good example for Jenna extend herself more in the oral side of things, whilst Jenna might have a few helpful tips for Muhamad about understanding written English. I figured that since they saw each other more than I saw them, they would be more aware of each others' strengths and weaknesses, and therefore in a good position to help each other... Perhaps these are not realistic expectations? Ideally we would all be collaborating together to learn how to use English to communicate...at the moment it seems more like a top-down model where I transmit knowledge to the two of them which each absorbs with quite differing degrees of success. Would you have any suggestions as to how to get the best out of this situation?

Emily Huang | (144.137.72.143) | Friday, 29 March 2002 6:27:22 PM
I'm guessing that no-one amongst my esteemed TESOL teacher-trainees has read this page...or else has any sage advice to give? Perhaps the question was too broad...? It's true that this question was originally addressed to Ken, who has since given some suggestions and insights: Muhamad and Jenna use language - learning strategies that are relatively typical for their background, and this is a relatively challenging scenario to work with (hope I reported you correctly, Ken?) Anyway, the big question now is, for the most progress to be made, I'm going to have to get them to interact with each other more. Ice breakers, perhaps? Does anyone have any suggestions for things we could do with English language beginners (i.e. people that have very little English?)

Mark Theakstone | (203.213.34.248) | Sunday, 31 March 2002 2:38:23 PM
Try using Communicative activities / information-gap activities that require the students to work together to achieve a given task (can be devised for any level of language learner). Base these activities around a teaching point or topic that you have been looking at, or would like to explore in greater depth, which accomodates both the "communicative" learner and the more "studious" learner. Despite the initial difficulties of such diverse learning styles, you correctly assume that the students have greater potential to learn from each other's strengths.

allan birimac | (129.78.64.5) | Sunday, 31 March 2002 10:37:06 PM
Hi Emily, Mark & everyone. Yes, I have four students (1 Iraqi & 3 Bangladeshi girls), and I did believe the advantage it would provide was the possibility for me to set up the info-gap communicative activities suggested by Mark. However, of the three such activities I've attempted thus far only one has worked well - the others suffered serious alterations mid-task due to problems that I can't pin down. The communicative activity works on the basis of having to use language to complete a given task in which meanings are shared, while the info-gap principle means that individuals are required to share the knowledge or information at hand in order for the a group to complete that same task. So far I've surmised that the girls 1) don't have a wealth of prior exposure to such learning activities, and this means it is not always clear to them what they have to do or the purpose behind it; 2) don't have much exposure outside the classroom to English language use, and therefore lack social and cultural contexts for the tasks I chose to give to them; 3) have difficulty understanding forms that I predicted they'd have little trouble with (e.g. simple timetables); and 4) have very individual (i.e. different and unpredictable) reactions to the activities I plan for them. I might add that these observations are entirely subjective and untested, and to a degree require varying responses. However, in essence I believe that the "difficulties" I've encountered are typical in "getting-to-know" a group of students for the first time, particularly if they're from backgrounds different to the ones you've experienced. And this, I believe, is how teaching can an obsession: as a teacher you just want to see them succeed because it is in these terms that most teachers measure their own success. More directly to your point, Emily, a classic activity I might suggest is one which can be adapted and used with learners from beginner-advanced. It's called 'dictogloss', and a textbook titled "Grammar Dictation" by a Sydney teacher trainer called Ruth Wajnryb has been published by Cambridge Uni Press on the topic (you might find it in the Curriculum library in the Old Teachers College building). What you do is: 1) script a short coherent text on a topic (e.g. the graded reader the students are reading?). Your text should be short (3-4 sentences) and not too difficult both in terms of grammar and vocabulary. 2) In the lesson introduce the main topic, and elicit students' comments, words, etc. about that topic. If necessary, introduce and check meaning of any key words that your text might contain. 3) Ask the students if they know what dictaion is, & that this is similiar to a dictation but not quite the same thing. Tell them you're going to read the text twice at slightly slower than normal reading aloud speed. Tell them how many sentences the text contains. The first time the students listen, the second they take notes. They'll probably need a third reading. 4) Put the students together, & their task is to reassemble, rewrite, rephrase their notes so that their single common text is as similar in meaning to the original text you read out. For them to do this will require both of them to give input from their notes (often it's better to have 3-5 students working on this, but it should be OK with just two). 5) When they've finished, you can give them feedback on the text in any manner that is accessible to them (e.g. "In sentence 1, there is one misspelt word and one incorrect verb tense. Can you fix it?") 6) Corrections attempted, give them a copy of the original to compare with their own. Probably the set-up & instructions are the most difficult thing with this activity, but its beauty is its utility at all learner levels, learners actively seek cooperation because they feel it aids their own performance (sort of like sanctioned cheating), and it involves listening, speaking, and writing. Underneath it all is the malevolent presence of the teacher who has cleverly used some target structures (i.e. grammar) in the text in order to expose the students to it as a preview to more work on this part of grammar, or to surreptitiously have the students practise a grammar point or two when all they thought they were doing was a funny type of dictation. Also, to compare the students' text with the teacher's can be revealing in itself, and can often help to identify language items that may need further work later on. If you do this, let me know how you get on. Good luck with the rest of your teaching!

Carly Green | (63.34.197.3) | Friday, 5 April 2002 5:01:54 PM
I think I posted in the wrong spot first up...SORRY! Hello everyone, I thought I would give this ago. I went to Beverly Hills on Wednesday and have been doing so for the last three weeks. I have been teaching two Chinese girls Fei & Jessica who have needed help with speaking/conversation type work. I believe they need alot more help though! I asked them to read for me and was surprised to learn they had alot of trouble. I had to show them how to sound out words as they didn't know how to read them and they looked up the words in their computer data dictionary thing that they all carry around with them. When I asked them to write down what they were doing on the weekend, again I was surprised to find their sentence structure was very poor eg. I have breakfast. I finish breakfast.These girls are going into year ten next term. I hope they will be ok. I'm a little worried but I guess they learn quickly. We have done a few listening skills with tapes and they are pretty good at this. Do any of you feel the same way as I do?? I guess if they weren't going into yr 10 next term it wouldn't concern me as much. Since I have been teaching the girls they have improved ( the teacher told me this??) but I don't know. Anyway I hope all your teaching is going well... please respond to me someone!! Thankyou Carly

Sara Infante | (129.78.64.28) | Tuesday, 9 April 2002 1:49:00 PM
Hello Carly and everyone else out there!! It looks like tomorrow is our last visit at the Beverly Hills centre (welcome to Hollywood hehe). I have to say I'm a bit sad that it's finishing up because I really enjoyed teaching my two students. They are both from China, Michelle and Karina and will be starting Yr 1o next term. They mostly had oral needs and the confidence to speak in the classroom when they start school. The class teacher who is in charge of them noticed a few weeks ago how the girls were opening up to talk and are more confident (so she tells me....I don't know!!). But it's been great to see them grow during this time. The first session was spent basically breaking the ice, getting to know them etc etc. The second session I did not have them because they were on school experience and instead helped teach a maths class and some literacy work with another class. The third week I had my 2 students back and was set up as an interview format. I got them to tell me about their school experience. What they liked, what they did'nt like, what was interesting etc etc. It was recorded and the girls noticed how soft their voices are!! It is a little difficult to understand them clearly mostly because of their vocal projection and some pronunciation difficulties. They then did some tongue twisters and had pronunciation difficulty. Listening exercises overtook the rest of the time and seemes to comprehend the first time round. The following week I had presented a topic, the topic was on Italy and prepared a QUIZ for them. They understood the questions and were able to fill in the answers on their own. Tomorrow , being the last week, I will get them to read out or act out (if they feel confident) a Shakespeare part as they are reading it in class. Byeeeee have to go....SARA

Emily Huang | (203.51.16.61) | Wednesday, 10 April 2002 10:21:25 PM
Hi all, Thanks to Mark and Allan for their advice on information gap stuff. However, I encountered the strangest thing: on the two times I suggested using the information gap method to Joan, she asked me if I wanted to coach only one student, after all? Perhaps she thought it would be too hard with the students I had...? The idea certainly didn't seem hard... H'mmmmm. In the end however I decided to concentrate on one student after all, as had originally been planned. Assessing her language needs and her progress should be easier to track, at least... As for the knowledge-gap and other group-learning techniques, I guess I'll have to save that for practicum!! PS to Carly - hey, girl, you're talking as if you would be responsible if Fei and Jessica didn't cut it in yr 10! Of course they'll be fine!! I mean, teachers always know what they're doing, don't they...? (jking!)

Ken Cruickshank | (129.78.104.203) | Wednesday, 17 April 2002 9:02:23 AM
I am sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. The board is really interesting reading because you have raised ALL the issues. I kept nodding when I was reading. Maybe I can just add comments in no special order. Carly, I agree with you ... it always seems too soon and you wonder HOW they will survive in the high school. It is even worse when students exit for Year 11 and you know that they will nto make it by Year 12. The government funding is limited for them to stay in the IEC. Also, sometimes they reach a plateau and need the greater challenge of the high school. It also depends on which school they go to. Some have really good ESL departments ... and will get lots of suppoprt ... others... Could you swap contacts numbers with them ...When we do work on the high schools later i nthe year, it would be good if we found out how they were coping. Emily, you have uncovered the REAL information gap ... between what you are told at uni and what happens in the schools. I think in most classes (not just ESL) there is little interaction that goes on .. perhaps we are unrealistic at the uni expecting it to? Allan, Iwas interested in your comments on the info gap activity. I DO think that the centres sometimes ignore conversational colloquial English because they think students will 'pick it up'. This is not true because often they do not get much exposure outside the classroom. It was also interesting how they probably had not done such an activity before. We can talk about the possible reasons for this in class. You can also do a variation on the Dictogloss ( I do not know if Ruth would approve) ...it can just be a general listneing activity in which the students must summarise the meaning not the exact wording ... so that you do not show them the original in the end. When each group has discussed it, they put their final copies on the wall and then the class goes around the compare differences. I am looking forward to our starting our classes so that we can try out a lot of your activities. Ken

Kristy Johnston | (129.78.64.105) | Thursday, 18 April 2002 3:21:08 PM
Hi everyone. Well finally I caught up with what the 'chat room' was all about - I was picturing an actual room in the Ed. building - silly me! I've had a bit of difficulty with my visits - my teacher seems stressed to have me there and the Chinese boy assigned to me is always away! I've met with him 3 times, helping him catch up on missed class work mostly, but last week I got fed up, because he was away again, and asked for another student to tutor! This second boy is a lot less shy and seemed to enjoy getting out of class to talk to me. He's Taiwanes and has quite fluent English, but his grammar is pretty anarchic. We did an ID questionnaire last week - I let him ask me all the same questions as I asked him so he wouldn't feel uncomfortable. This worked well - he loved hearing how old I was, especially! I then looked at a picture book with him that I found on the staffroom bookshelf, and got him to explain what was in each picture, asking him silly questions to help him if he was stuck - it was really good - we were looking at 5 different pictures of "school" - one country school, one Ancient Greek school (cartoon!), one city school, one really strict school. This helped me ask natural questions about what his school was like in Taiwan. Advice to everybody, don't send your kids to a school in Taiwan - the students are over-worked! Has anyone got tips on how to make the recording a conversation unintimidating for the student? What sort of stuff did you get them to read? See ya (I wish I could do paragraphs to make this easier to skim - sorry!)

Emily Huang | (144.137.103.40) | Monday, 20 May 2002 11:42:08 PM
Reporting in for my latest instalment. One thing I've noticed at Beverly Hills: change sometimes seems to be the main constant!! A new student has just dropped into my student's class, which I'm guessing happens regularly. (Is this correct, Ken?) Naturally, this affects the class dynamic and the ability range (which is already alarmingly wide). The teachers seem to be taking this all in their stride, though! Because of timetabling issues, I am now also sitting in on my student's maths and science classes. This has meant that I have a different slant on how my student is doing in certain other areas of her curriculum (and it's also giving me some curriculum relevant material to revise with her during my one-on-one session! Survival English! Classroom English! English for maths! English for science! I'm guessing we won't run out of things to do...) One more thing to note: since my student didn't need my help so much to do the tasks set during maths, I was able to help/find out about the new student (relatively confident in spoken English, not confident at algebra, Lebanese) and also try a bit of the now famous ;-) information gap method with both of them! Note: it wasn't easy!I wonder if anyone else is sitting in on other classes?? What's good about this approach is that I can perhaps keep a closer eye on my student's progress. Another change is the fact that my student's class now has a prac teacher (another Sydney Uni MTeach student, but 2nd year). She's cool and from what I can see, she's doing a fine job, but as you may imagine, having 3 teachers(?) at the same time in a class can be a bit of a juggle!! Hey, that's life in the real world of BHIEC, I suppose!! One last thing: I get the feeling that secondary level science in general would be harder to teach than secondary level maths in an IEC. Why? Maths can be taken as a language in itself, which moreover (on the balance of probabilities) is more widely taught around the world than science. Science, on the other hand, is more concept(?) based. Its ideas are more visuo-spatial, and process-oriented. E.G. students had to describe how the solar system is arranged and also the process by which tectonic plates collide to produce faults (at least, I think that was the idea!!) Anyway, my hunch is that because of this, science must require a higher level(?) of language (e.g. prepositions, conjunctions, cohesion, causality....). Which may be why the teacher reckons that the class isn't doing very well! Who knows, though? What does everyone think?

Emily Huang | (144.137.103.40) | Monday, 20 May 2002 11:47:07 PM
Reporting in for my latest instalment. One thing I've noticed at Beverly Hills: change sometimes seems to be the main constant!! A new student has just dropped into my student's class, which I'm guessing happens regularly. (Is this correct, Ken?) Naturally, this affects the class dynamic and the ability range (which is already alarmingly wide). The teachers seem to be taking this all in their stride, though! Because of timetabling issues, I am now also sitting in on my student's maths and science classes. This has meant that I have a different slant on how my student is doing in certain other areas of her curriculum (and it's also giving me some curriculum relevant material to revise with her during my one-on-one session! Survival English! Classroom English! English for maths! English for science! I'm guessing we won't run out of things to do...) One more thing to note: since my student didn't need my help so much to do the tasks set during maths, I was able to help/find out about the new student (relatively confident in spoken English, not confident at algebra, Lebanese) and also try a bit of the now famous ;-) information gap method with both of them! Note: it wasn't easy!I wonder if anyone else is sitting in on other classes?? What's good about this approach is that I can perhaps keep a closer eye on my student's progress. Another change is the fact that my student's class now has a prac teacher (another Sydney Uni MTeach student, but 2nd year). She's cool and from what I can see, she's doing a fine job, but as you may imagine, having 3 teachers(?) at the same time in a class can be a bit of a juggle!! Hey, that's life in the real world of BHIEC, I suppose!! One last thing: I get the feeling that secondary level science in general would be harder to teach than secondary level maths in an IEC. Why? Maths can be taken as a language in itself, which moreover (on the balance of probabilities) is more widely taught around the world than science. Science, on the other hand, is more concept(?) based. Its ideas are more visuo-spatial, and process-oriented. E.G. students had to describe how the solar system is arranged and also the process by which tectonic plates collide to produce faults (at least, I think that was the idea!!) Anyway, my hunch is that because of this, science must require a higher level(?) of language (e.g. prepositions, conjunctions, cohesion, causality....). Which may be why the teacher reckons that the class isn't doing very well! Who knows, though? What does everyone think?

Gaynor Corfield | (198.142.225.3) | Saturday, 1 June 2002 2:13:13 PM
Hello all, I've finally caught up on this process, apologies. I have been meeting with a delightful student from Mexico and less regularly with a young Korean girl. The student from Mexico is in her mid 20's and is so incredibly keen it is refreshing to see someone so enthusiastic about learning. She appears to have a very good grasp on spoken english. However, she assures me that this is not the case! She also reports that her comprehension skills are not as good as she'd like, and I can see this evidenced in her agreeably nodding at me even when she is clearly trying to decode aspects of our conversations. We started off with some ice-breaker exercises involving questioning each other on likes, dislikes, family, school, etc. This worked very well. She always is prepared with what she'd like to concentrate on each time we meet. So far we have been meeting twice a week for about 1.5 or 2 hours a time. Because she is anxious to get some casual work and to rent a flat with friends she has specific lnaguage content she wants to concentrate on. Her reading and writing skills are impressive and I think very advanced for someone who has only studied the language for 8 months. Like most of the other students I have read about in this discussion room I do not think that she is getting the most out of being in Australia in terms of getting immersed in language learning. To resolve this I have concentrated part of the lessons to interactive excerises, so she has the opportunity to speak with a variety of Australian English speakers. This has ranged from the basic -such as approaching people at the library to borrow a pen,paper etc. To slightly more complex interactions with friends we have bumped into during the tutoring sessions. I think this type of activity may assist in her audio comprehension skills. Any other suggested activities? The Korean girl is from a family my husband and I know. Her father is in Australia on a 6 month contract and is working with my partner. The daughter is not attending school here, she is 13 and is very shy. She is also lonely. She does have a basic understanding of English and we have been doing some vocab activities using tv shows she likes to watch. Also going to the local shops and looking at clothes and music proved to be an excellent activity for stimulating vocab, descriptions and like/dislike conversation! Any other suggestions!

Debbie Coleman | (203.194.8.8) | Tuesday, 4 June 2002 3:28:04 PM
Hi all. Just a quick note. Jess and I have been tutoring two students from the CET, an Japanese student (Kumiko) and a Thai student (Sufa). Both students are extremely willing and cooperative with all the activities we have attempted, which have been focused on building vocabulary. For example, we introduced the students to the game pictionary which was a successful lesson - fun and informative. The following week, following on from a written exercise, the girls reformed the game rules to accomodate more vocabulary learning. Instead of drawing the mystery word, they decided that they would have to describe the word and each new word was carefully recorded by each student. We have taken a very casual and initmate approach to the lessons, lucky for us Jess lives across the road from the CET so our lessons have been mainly over a cup of tea in a living room - fantastic. I have found that the relationships we have developed with these students has been the founding blocks for much of the learning. Today we actually met for lunch, Kumiko bought her husband and a friend from her class and we have all agreed to meet in the city for drinks at a later stage (wonder who encouraged that one!!! - it was Kumiko's husband not the uni students!!!). Good luck and see you all in class!

Jess Klein | (203.21.160.33) | Tuesday, 4 June 2002 7:12:14 PM
Hi everyone, I've just found this chatroom as well- it's great to see everyone actually making use of it. I will second everything that Debbie has said about our tutoring sessions with Sufa and Kumiko- we've been having lots of fun! For our students it seemed to work really well to keep the sessions very casual and unstructured as their main aim is to work on their conversational English. One of the things I have found difficult though is all the curly grammar questions they ask! This is where I feel a real gap in my knowledge! Does everyone else feel this way? And can anyone recommend a good basic English grammar text?

Alex Viglienzone | (129.78.64.105) | Wednesday, 5 June 2002 4:15:39 PM
Hi everybody, This is my first posting and I hope that I am posting in the right chatroom site - I got a bit confused when I had a look at the other chatrooms. Anyway, I have found all the comments really interesting but feel a bit of an outsider as I am not tutoring in a high school or in an IEC environment as most of you seem to be. I tutor migrants through the Mission Australia Home Tutor service, which basically means that I tutor migrants who cannot attend ACL classes. Those who are eligible for a home tutor usually have small children they have to look after, or have a disability, or have problems being in a group situation because of some kind of trauma. For some of these migrants having a home tutor gives them their only opportunity to speak English. I am currently tutoring two students - one lady from Indonesia and another lady from Bosnia. Both have small children so when I visit their homes to tutor them their children are usually involved in the process (this can be both fun and frustrating!). My student from Indonesia has been in Australia for a number of years and has an Australian born husband and thus has had an opportunity to speak English on a regular basis and is fairly confident and independent. My student from Bosnia, on the other hand, only arrived in Australia five months ago with her husband, son and father-in-law and as she is the only one in her family to speak any English she generally has the responsibility of looking after the day-to-day needs of the rest of her family. My expectations of the needs of my student from Bosnia (I am going to give her the alias/pseudonym? of 'Sara'(is that ok Ken?)), before I started tutoring her, were mostly off the mark. I started off with concentratiing on 'Sara' accumulating vocabulary, helping her with community access (ie. council information/ces info etc.)and expanding on her grammar. 'Sara' had actually expressed the desire for our tutorial sessions to consist of vocabulary and grammar activities as she felt that this was what she most needed to improve her English. What I have found since I have started tutoring her is that while vocabulary and grammar activities can be useful, the sessions usually ended up being more about Sara talking about life experiences. I feel that her desire to talk about her experiences is a result of her isolation from her friends and family and that while she speaks English in the context of shopping, visits to the doctor, banking and all those other functional and necessary daily activities she has so little opportunity to express how she feels, particularly in the context of her frustrations and successes in a new environment, face-to-face to another woman. As self expression has become such a feature of our tutorial sessions I am now trying to find really valuable learning activities that will allow for self-expression apart from something like just 'write a page about your family', etc. So, any advice that anyone would care to share would be really appreciated. One activity that I think worked really well was when I asked Sara to show me photos of her friends and family and talk about them in detail. As she has such a big extended family back in Bosnia this allowed for an expansion of vocabulary in the context of relationships - this meant that words like 'older, younger, in-law, mother, sister, uncle, friends, second-cousins, etc' and verb tenses were given a contextualised basis to work from. As Sara seemed eager to talk about her friends and family she really worked hard at finding the vocabulary to do so. When she didn't have the vocabulary she explained what she wanted to say in another way until I understood her meaning and provided the specific vocabulary for her. While this type of activity might seem quite simplistic and perhaps not all that viable in a classroom environment it seemed to me that as this required my student to explain who she is and where she comes from that it allowed her to assert and perhaps reinforce notions of self-identity. I think that this is very important particularly as it might help to build confidence in those students who feel isolated in, and overwhelmed by a new and perhaps daunting environment. Anyway, as I previously said I would really appreciate any suggestions for activities that are not dry or straight out of a textbook but that allow for students to incorporate their life experiences whilst learning English at the same time. Thanks.

Matthew Louttit | (203.30.219.5) | Friday, 7 June 2002 2:27:41 AM
I recently began my 10-15 hours' work at Holroyd IEC. Here are some notes about the experience so far. It has left me with many questions, some relating to teaching methods and some to wider issues that teachers face. My student, M, is of Kurdish background and there have apparently been some traumas and separations in his life, including the disappearance of his father, a political activist for the Kurdish cause, who is believed dead. M is about 17 years old (no-one is sure exactly). He lives with an uncle and his younger brother (also at Holroyd HS) in Merrylands. He has attended Holroyd IEC for about two terms. His schooling prior to arrival in Australia was sporadic and interrupted by successive exiles from Kurdish Iraq, to Iran (where Kurdish people are also not welcome) and then to a holding camp in Indonesia. He does not look at home in the classroom although he has achieved some literacy in written Arabic. He speaks Arabic, Kurdish and Farsi.

M's ESL teachers many times referred to his being 'streetwise'. His uncle, the only adult caregiver in the household, works long hours and cannot give much educational guidance to M or his brother. His apparent motivation to learn better written and academic English (or CALP) is low. He struggles to master the left-right scripting conventions and foreign letter shapes of English. The main task as it has been put to me is to help M improve his handwriting.

Our first withdrawal lesson was not a success. I was working from I modelled some standard cursive handwriting for M and he made a dutiful attempt to copy it. I observed his letter formation carefully and noticed that he has made a compromise with the perceptual and motor habits formed by arabic scriptwriting. The words run from left to right but he forms each letter, slowly and awkwardly, from right to left. I realised the task needed to be subdivided and simplified. On the spot I could only think of modelling script-like line patterns but this sort of instruction will need more planning. Because his writing skills probably were not developed far in Arabic, M faces some challenges in developing this aspect of his literacy. It was a great effort for M to form the simplest loops and curves from left to right, and this should not be surprising; he is being asked to unlearn his Arabic writing skills. I would expect to have similar difficulties writing in Arabic.

The second lesson allowed me some time to prepare more formally. I drew up some handwriting exercises, as close to the standard cursive style as I could myself reproduce. (I notice that my own handwriting differs markedly from the sanctioned style taught to primary-age students in NSW!) The aim was not so much to have M achieve perfect handwriting as to provide practice in the left-right scanning/scripting pattern and to master some of the foundational shapes in English cursive script. The extent of M's difficulties was revealed when he attempted the first exercise, which was to reproduce a simple wave-like pattern. His efforts were just as laborious with this basic shape as with more complex letter-like shapes! I also brought along the SBS World Cup soccer guide, a colour magazine attractively presenting information about this year's tournament, its players and the time, place and teams playing each scheduled match. I designed a short activity sheet which asked questions (handwritten in foundation cursive) about the time, place and identity of certain matches to be played in the competition. Answering the questions required a working knowledge of date and time words in English and how to locate and pick relevant information from a table of data. This choice of activity was meant to (a) extend the work on calendars, counting and interpretation of tabular data being presented to M's 'SEF' (Senior English Foundational) class in other lessons; (b) stimulate interest in an age-appropriate subject; (c) reinforce writing skills in foundation cursive.

Progress in lesson 2 was slow and required extensive scaffolding. By this I mean making explicit connections with gestures between printed text and the spoken words. In the case of learning English names for soccer-playing countries, it meant finding illustrations of the national flags and modelling the words while pointing out the flags. However, M's interest in the material was genuine and we were able to converse about the topic of soccer. He had information on this topic that I did not, another plus.

Psychologically these encounters have been complex. I have seen M in 'desengaged' mode, visibly annoyed with what he must see as another teacher's babying, or 'dumbed-down' delivery of lesson material that would bore any intelligent person regardless of its utility. He speaks across the teacher, making sardonic comments in Arabic to other Arabic-speaking students in the room, or the Arabic-speaking adult language aide. In 'withdrawal' classes with me there is really no escape from engagement with the teacher, so I cannot be sure what M thinks of our adventures in fine penmanship. He presents each bit of finished writing to me with a look of expectancy, which is rather off-putting. I have tried to explain that I am not an arbiter of his efforts, but a helper. But this is a subtle concept and may clash with his expectations of 'being taught'. Complicating these uncertainties is the problem of motivation. There may not be much room for hard intellectual work in a mind that has been in 'survival mode' for several years and which has to busy itself with repressing numerous significant traumas and presenting a brave face to others at all times. I think an 'affective filter' is in operation here!

Lesson three will have to be tape-recorded and will include the required 'exit' interview. I don't know yet if it will further extend the work with World Cup soccer programming. The basic problem remains: how and where does one find lesson material that might interest the unmotivated senior high-school student whose English literacy is still rudimentary?

Gaynor | (211.28.104.120) | Sunday, 9 June 2002 10:56:27 AM
Matthew, I found your last comments so touching and so sad. Might I suggest resouces which I am sure you have checked, but recently I have found some fantastic links via dogpile.com. I presume most of these are from the US and UK, but some of them incorporate materials which could motivate learning via age interests (sports, personalities, movies, pop culture) rather than a dumbing down approach which would be insulting for most of us!

Emily Huang | (144.137.102.166) | Thursday, 13 June 2002 12:13:11 AM
Briefly reporting on my last session with my student: as time is short, I won't go into detail, but I'll just sum up my last reflections on observing my student in the context of her class and the IEC... Coming after the gravity of the entries above, this entry may seem a bit frivolous. Matthew, you have my best wishes for tutoring your student. Hopefully learning English will become a joy to him... or neither he nor the teacher will enjoy the experience, among other things. Doubtlessly, he has undergone things none of us could conceive of, but nevertheless, he has to learn to laugh (unless he can already...?) in order to begin to heal, quite frankly. Perhaps less "serious" things like pop culture will help take him "out of himself" (in a manner of speaking)?... Anyway, speaking of my student (forgive my change of "pace", but time is very short) ...One thing I have learned: yes, kids like my student are by no means deficient in knowledge: they know as much as they need to survive as anyone else their age. Actually, in some ways they will soon know more; they will learn how to function in at least two different cultures ...And yet they're still developmentally their age!! Many are inconsiderate, unrealistic, and perhaps too sure of themselves. Sounds familiar! Actually, it's so obvious it's almost not worth writing!! So I'm learning not fall into the trap of "overappreciating" where they're coming from - they can be quite matter-of-fact about it themselves (though of course that can depend on the circumstances) - and not underestimating their resilience and the fact that some seem to have already imbibed a rather disturbing disrespect for authority... and I thought that was solely a Western phenomenon!! Think again!!

Simon Seung Hui Kim | (203.134.35.73) | Friday, 14 June 2002 1:35:18 AM
During the visit to the Holroyd Intensive English Centre, I was surprised in many ways. Firstly, I did not know that the students in the IEC learned the different curriculum areas such as English, maths, science, etc. I had the pleasure of working with a student by the name of Fatma, who is 17 years old and had come from Lebanon. From the information that I have gathered, from the teachers, she was in the IEC for three years and she still was very limited, in terms of her fluency in the English literacy. I could see that she could not express her thoughts to me when she repeated uhms, which meant that she could not think of the words to tell me in English, of what she had in her mind, which led me to think that her vocabulary was also limited. I also found out that she was engaged and that after she finishes the IEC course, she will not be continuing her education. During her first lesson, she was in a maths class. The maths teacher tried to explain the concept of polygons with angles and sides as the main topic of the lesson whereby she explained that a hexagon contained six sides and six angles, heptagon with seven sides and seven angles, and so on. From where I was sitting, if the students knew what the word side and angle meant, the problems were easy to be solved but she was constantly mentioning the word polygon and triangle to me, when I tried to explain to her about the number of angles and the sides. From a teacher�s perspective, most of the other students, such as Ben-2 months, Fatima-6 months, Elvisa- 8 months and Dee Wha who has been in Australia for 5 months, were keen in trying to learn English, but Fatma did not seem to be interested. I could feel the tension, which existed between the teacher�s effort of teaching students, and the student�s not paying attention. The second class, which was a science class, seemed to lack in many things. During the class, the teacher handed out a book to all the students called �Plants and seeds�. It contained questions such as �What is this seed?� �What will this seed be?� �What plant will it be?� type of questions with pictures of different seeds. The follow up exercise ended up being filling in the missing words of the questions mentioned above, with the books made available to them. I think it is a fair criticism to make when I say that there was not much use in the whole exercise. They would have learned more by the teacher making a conversation with the students on what they did during their weekends, instead of telling them to look at the book, fill in the words, which were missing, that were written up on the blackboard word for word from the book. The third lesson was maths. During the lesson, students were given a �find a word puzzle�, where they had to find relevant words in the box with the alphabets. Fatma seemed to focus better on the exercise. When she finished, she was given an exercise to do, which involved putting herself in the past and the future, calculating the year in which she was in. For example: If current year is 1995, what year was it 4 years ago? Although the answer was 1991, she would constantly say 1998. I realised that she could not understand me due to her insufficient vocabulary, since I spent about 15 minutes trying to explain to her, just on this question. Fourth lesson was English. She did not have very much problem in understanding the concept of understanding when to use was/were, go/goes, give/gives, etc. She did not happen to have very much problem in paying attention. During the fifth lesson, she seemed very active. When she was attending the lesson on food technology, she seemed very keen to do the actual cooking. The class made Choc-anana muffins, which was a muffin containing banana and choc chips, where the movements of the procedures such as whisking the egg, breaking the egg, stirring the mix, etc were used and explained, including the tools that were used during the cooking procedure such as spoon, water, flour, bowl, etc. This was the only class in which there were two translators who spoke the language in which the majority of the students spoke in. the teacher also asked students what the words such as beating, stirring, bowl, fork, etc were in their own languages. E.g. in Chinese, Lebanon, etc. Although most of the lessons were very well sequenced, some needed some improvements, especially science. Students seemed to lack in motivation, unless it involved something practical such as cooking and find a word puzzle. Students seemed to like talking to each other, which could have been used as an advantage by providing them with jigsaw puzzle type of exercises where they would have to find information which a particular student hold with them, to finish off a story or an exercise. Students should have been allowed to explore and find out information, instead of just feeding them texts from books over and over again.

Simon Seung Hui Kim | (203.134.35.73) | Friday, 14 June 2002 1:36:53 AM
During the visit to the Holroyd Intensive English Centre, I was surprised in many ways. Firstly, I did not know that the students in the IEC learned the different curriculum areas such as English, maths, science, etc. I had the pleasure of working with a student by the name of Fatma, who is 17 years old and had come from Lebanon. From the information that I have gathered, from the teachers, she was in the IEC for three years and she still was very limited, in terms of her fluency in the English literacy. I could see that she could not express her thoughts to me when she repeated uhms, which meant that she could not think of the words to tell me in English, of what she had in her mind, which led me to think that her vocabulary was also limited. I also found out that she was engaged and that after she finishes the IEC course, she will not be continuing her education. During her first lesson, she was in a maths class. The maths teacher tried to explain the concept of polygons with angles and sides as the main topic of the lesson whereby she explained that a hexagon contained six sides and six angles, heptagon with seven sides and seven angles, and so on. From where I was sitting, if the students knew what the word side and angle meant, the problems were easy to be solved but she was constantly mentioning the word polygon and triangle to me, when I tried to explain to her about the number of angles and the sides. From a teacher�s perspective, most of the other students, such as Ben-2 months, Fatima-6 months, Elvisa- 8 months and Dee Wha who has been in Australia for 5 months, were keen in trying to learn English, but Fatma did not seem to be interested. I could feel the tension, which existed between the teacher�s effort of teaching students, and the student�s not paying attention. The second class, which was a science class, seemed to lack in many things. During the class, the teacher handed out a book to all the students called �Plants and seeds�. It contained questions such as �What is this seed?� �What will this seed be?� �What plant will it be?� type of questions with pictures of different seeds. The follow up exercise ended up being filling in the missing words of the questions mentioned above, with the books made available to them. I think it is a fair criticism to make when I say that there was not much use in the whole exercise. They would have learned more by the teacher making a conversation with the students on what they did during their weekends, instead of telling them to look at the book, fill in the words, which were missing, that were written up on the blackboard word for word from the book. The third lesson was maths. During the lesson, students were given a �find a word puzzle�, where they had to find relevant words in the box with the alphabets. Fatma seemed to focus better on the exercise. When she finished, she was given an exercise to do, which involved putting herself in the past and the future, calculating the year in which she was in. For example: If current year is 1995, what year was it 4 years ago? Although the answer was 1991, she would constantly say 1998. I realised that she could not understand me due to her insufficient vocabulary, since I spent about 15 minutes trying to explain to her, just on this question. Fourth lesson was English. She did not have very much problem in understanding the concept of understanding when to use was/were, go/goes, give/gives, etc. She did not happen to have very much problem in paying attention. During the fifth lesson, she seemed very active. When she was attending the lesson on food technology, she seemed very keen to do the actual cooking. The class made Choc-anana muffins, which was a muffin containing banana and choc chips, where the movements of the procedures such as whisking the egg, breaking the egg, stirring the mix, etc were used and explained, including the tools that were used during the cooking procedure such as spoon, water, flour, bowl, etc. This was the only class in which there were two translators who spoke the language in which the majority of the students spoke in. the teacher also asked students what the words such as beating, stirring, bowl, fork, etc were in their own languages. E.g. in Chinese, Lebanon, etc. Although most of the lessons were very well sequenced, some needed some improvements, especially science. Students seemed to lack in motivation, unless it involved something practical such as cooking and find a word puzzle. Students seemed to like talking to each other, which could have been used as an advantage by providing them with jigsaw puzzle type of exercises where they would have to find information which a particular student hold with them, to finish off a story or an exercise. Students should have been allowed to explore and find out information, instead of just feeding them texts from books over and over again.

Simon Seung Hui Kim | (203.134.35.73) | Friday, 14 June 2002 1:39:23 AM
During the visit to the Holroyd Intensive English Centre, I was surprised in many ways. Firstly, I did not know that the students in the IEC learned the different curriculum areas such as English, maths, science, etc. I had the pleasure of working with a student by the name of Fatma, who is 17 years old and had come from Lebanon. From the information that I have gathered, from the teachers, she was in the IEC for three years and she still was very limited, in terms of her fluency in the English literacy. I could see that she could not express her thoughts to me when she repeated uhms, which meant that she could not think of the words to tell me in English, of what she had in her mind, which led me to think that her vocabulary was also limited. I also found out that she was engaged and that after she finishes the IEC course, she will not be continuing her education. During her first lesson, she was in a maths class. The maths teacher tried to explain the concept of polygons with angles and sides as the main topic of the lesson whereby she explained that a hexagon contained six sides and six angles, heptagon with seven sides and seven angles, and so on. From where I was sitting, if the students knew what the word side and angle meant, the problems were easy to be solved but she was constantly mentioning the word polygon and triangle to me, when I tried to explain to her about the number of angles and the sides. From a teacher�s perspective, most of the other students, such as Ben-2 months, Fatima-6 months, Elvisa- 8 months and Dee Wha who has been in Australia for 5 months, were keen in trying to learn English, but Fatma did not seem to be interested. I could feel the tension, which existed between the teacher�s effort of teaching students, and the student�s not paying attention. The second class, which was a science class, seemed to lack in many things. During the class, the teacher handed out a book to all the students called �Plants and seeds�. It contained questions such as �What is this seed?� �What will this seed be?� �What plant will it be?� type of questions with pictures of different seeds. The follow up exercise ended up being filling in the missing words of the questions mentioned above, with the books made available to them. I think it is a fair criticism to make when I say that there was not much use in the whole exercise. They would have learned more by the teacher making a conversation with the students on what they did during their weekends, instead of telling them to look at the book, fill in the words, which were missing, that were written up on the blackboard word for word from the book. The third lesson was maths. During the lesson, students were given a �find a word puzzle�, where they had to find relevant words in the box with the alphabets. Fatma seemed to focus better on the exercise. When she finished, she was given an exercise to do, which involved putting herself in the past and the future, calculating the year in which she was in. For example: If current year is 1995, what year was it 4 years ago? Although the answer was 1991, she would constantly say 1998. I realised that she could not understand me due to her insufficient vocabulary, since I spent about 15 minutes trying to explain to her, just on this question. Fourth lesson was English. She did not have very much problem in understanding the concept of understanding when to use was/were, go/goes, give/gives, etc. She did not happen to have very much problem in paying attention. During the fifth lesson, she seemed very active. When she was attending the lesson on food technology, she seemed very keen to do the actual cooking. The class made Choc-anana muffins, which was a muffin containing banana and choc chips, where the movements of the procedures such as whisking the egg, breaking the egg, stirring the mix, etc were used and explained, including the tools that were used during the cooking procedure such as spoon, water, flour, bowl, etc. This was the only class in which there were two translators who spoke the language in which the majority of the students spoke in. the teacher also asked students what the words such as beating, stirring, bowl, fork, etc were in their own languages. E.g. in Chinese, Lebanon, etc. Although most of the lessons were very well sequenced, some needed some improvements, especially science. Students seemed to lack in motivation, unless it involved something practical such as cooking and find a word puzzle. Students seemed to like talking to each other, which could have been used as an advantage by providing them with jigsaw puzzle type of exercises where they would have to find information which a particular student hold with them, to finish off a story or an exercise. Students should have been allowed to explore and find out information, instead of just feeding them texts from books over and over again.

Simon Seung Hui Kim | (203.134.35.73) | Friday, 14 June 2002 1:51:03 AM
During the visit to the Holroyd Intensive English Centre, I was surprised in many ways. Firstly, I did not know that the students in the IEC learned the different curriculum areas such as English, maths, science, etc. I had the pleasure of working with a student by the name of Fatma, who is 17 years old and had come from Lebanon. From the information that I have gathered, from the teachers, she was in the IEC for three years and she still was very limited, in terms of her fluency in the English literacy. I could see that she could not express her thoughts to me when she repeated uhms, which meant that she could not think of the words to tell me in English, of what she had in her mind, which led me to think that her vocabulary was also limited. I also found out that she was engaged and that after she finishes the IEC course, she will not be continuing her education. During her first lesson, she was in a maths class. The maths teacher tried to explain the concept of polygons with angles and sides as the main topic of the lesson whereby she explained that a hexagon contained six sides and six angles, heptagon with seven sides and seven angles, and so on. From where I was sitting, if the students knew what the word side and angle meant, the problems were easy to be solved but she was constantly mentioning the word polygon and triangle to me, when I tried to explain to her about the number of angles and the sides. From a teacher�s perspective, most of the other students, such as Ben-2 months, Fatima-6 months, Elvisa- 8 months and Dee Wha who has been in Australia for 5 months, were keen in trying to learn English, but Fatma did not seem to be interested. I could feel the tension, which existed between the teacher�s effort of teaching students, and the student�s not paying attention. The second class, which was a science class, seemed to lack in many things. During the class, the teacher handed out a book to all the students called �Plants and seeds�. It contained questions such as �What is this seed?� �What will this seed be?� �What plant will it be?� type of questions with pictures of different seeds. The follow up exercise ended up being filling in the missing words of the questions mentioned above, with the books made available to them. I think it is a fair criticism to make when I say that there was not much use in the whole exercise. They would have learned more by the teacher making a conversation with the students on what they did during their weekends, instead of telling them to look at the book, fill in the words, which were missing, that were written up on the blackboard word for word from the book. The third lesson was maths. During the lesson, students were given a �find a word puzzle�, where they had to find relevant words in the box with the alphabets. Fatma seemed to focus better on the exercise. When she finished, she was given an exercise to do, which involved putting herself in the past and the future, calculating the year in which she was in. For example: If current year is 1995, what year was it 4 years ago? Although the answer was 1991, she would constantly say 1998. I realised that she could not understand me due to her insufficient vocabulary, since I spent about 15 minutes trying to explain to her, just on this question. Fourth lesson was English. She did not have very much problem in understanding the concept of understanding when to use was/were, go/goes, give/gives, etc. She did not happen to have very much problem in paying attention. During the fifth lesson, she seemed very active. When she was attending the lesson on food technology, she seemed very keen to do the actual cooking. The class made Choc-anana muffins, which was a muffin containing banana and choc chips, where the movements of the procedures such as whisking the egg, breaking the egg, stirring the mix, etc were used and explained, including the tools that were used during the cooking procedure such as spoon, water, flour, bowl, etc. This was the only class in which there were two translators who spoke the language in which the majority of the students spoke in. the teacher also asked students what the words such as beating, stirring, bowl, fork, etc were in their own languages. E.g. in Chinese, Lebanon, etc. Although most of the lessons were very well sequenced, some needed some improvements, especially science. Students seemed to lack in motivation, unless it involved something practical such as cooking and find a word puzzle. Students seemed to like talking to each other, which could have been used as an advantage by providing them with jigsaw puzzle type of exercises where they would have to find information which a particular student hold with them, to finish off a story or an exercise. Students should have been allowed to explore and find out information, instead of just feeding them texts from books over and over again.

Matthew Louttit | (203.30.219.5) | Tuesday, 25 June 2002 2:27:42 PM
My third lesson with M at IEC has just been completed. It left me in a positive frame of mind and encouraged about my usefulness as a teacher. The day began well. Mohammad noticed me as I waited for the bus at Parramatta station, and he looked very pleased to see me. His attitude was almost eager! This was in contrast to the more guarded and irritable person I had seen on the previous day we worked together. Inside the bus I assumed he would want to ride on the back seat with his friends and younger brother, but he took the seat directly behind mine and began a conversation with me about the latest soccer results. I was again surprised and delighted that he was initiating casual talk, which is one of the most challenging tasks for learners of a second language. I tried to keep the flow of conversation moving naturally among topics that related to the soccer or the limited experiences we had shared.

For day 3 I had prepared further handwriting drills and had planned to combine the required elements of recorded interview and writing tasks in a single activity. That morning M had other plans. He wanted to find the time and channel of a World Cup match, so I suggested we use the Internet in the high school library. With minimal keyboard skills and some scaffolding from me, M found what he was looking for and we had the chance to solve a real information gap problem, as well as get practice in interpreting diagrams and recognising dates, times and country names in English. I had a second lucky break. It allowed me to build on recent progress and connect M's work in withdrawal classes with the academic, in-class work he had done in my absence. A brief in-class conversation with Ms K, the SEF science teacher, revealed that a new strategy with M had brought good results. In essence her idea was, to elicit information on a science topic, such as a genus or species of animal, then to have M (I assume along with other students) write what he knew on the topic without concern for legibility. This might be called writing at the speed of thought.

The teacher would scribe for M as he 'read' aloud the fairly primitive-looking script. Then he would be able to review the corrected version, which still contained his knowledge, not the teacher's, about, say, camels. The writing done at the speed of thought, though less well-formed than his usual writing, was important for his progress as an English learner. I think there are at least three reasons for this:

(a) Writing that followed his thoughts, however roughly, had the great benefit of reducing the frustration of having to write without the skills that come from long practice and a fully internalised knowledge of conventions.

(b) The writing was produced in an entirely meaningful context. Knowledge was being recorded for the purpose of showing what the writer knew. The act of recording something grapho-phonemically was directly connected to the writer's own cognitive goings-on. These acts in turn fitted the conventions of academic work in the classroom.

(c) The task was motivating. It called on M to access his considerable general world-knowledge and show that he was intelligent.

The last point is critical. I think that TESOL teachers must hold as their prime goal activating and appreciating the intelligence of their ESL students. So many psychological and environmental factors, most of then unconscious, might otherwise lead us to behave as if 'X is not fluent in English' = 'X is not thinking' (!). The students know immediately when someone treats them, deliberately or not, as if they are stupid. Scorn and disgust, like embarrassment, are difficult feelings to conceal from an audience. This is motivational poison.

These steps are from the activity M and I tried in withdrawal class on day 3. The procedure was, roughly:

(1) Teacher talks to M about the purpose for writing: 'My Life': ie, where I come from; how I came to Australia. Elicit some knowledge from M.

(2) Teacher helps M find an atlas or world map to support thinking about countries and travel between them. Locate relevent countries.

(3) Teacher presents a model for writing on the topic. I had prepared a short written text titled 'MY LIFE', which gave real, factual information about myself in the form:

- I was born in [CITY], in [COUNTRY]. This country is close to [NEARBY COUNTRY].

- After [NO.] years I travelled with [FAMILY MEMBERS] to Australia.

- I began living in Australia in [YEAR].

- Now my home is in [AUST CITY].

(4) Teacher paraphrases unfamiliar vocabulary. Connect lexical items, world map and date and time words.

(5) Teacher asks for M to tell his story orally. Encourage connections between his account with lexical items in my written text.

(6) Ask M to write his story at the 'speed of thought'. M set about this task with determination.

(7) Teacher scribes, or rewrites, the story under M's oral direction. While writing, refer equally to his 'speed-of-thought' text and other facts he introduces or rephrases orally.

(8) Teacher reads aloud the 'formal' written account we have constructed to confirm it has all elements M wanted to be included.

Here is my transcription of an example of M's work in this 'speed-of-thought' mode of writing quickly and purposefully. What seems at first to be his control of writing conventions 'going out the window', is really the result of his becoming more purposeful in his writing and wanting to record his thoughts as fast as possible. His handwriting was similar to the samples on pages 13 and 15 of the case study about Mai Lin, by Medley, in the TESOL readings.

I was barn in IRAN Kermarshah.

I was born in Iran, in the town of Kermarshah.

IRAN near IRAQ After 14 years I km to De MALeSa AftrA KtoAnDNes

Iran is near Iraq. After 14 years I came to [the] Malaysia. After that, I came to Indonesia.

AftrA KM t M Ankel mBrDrs in DAotr inDr mAnl isKmenK 3 years . . .

I stayed there with my uncle for 3 years. After that, my brother and my other uncle went with me [is coming] to Australia . . .

The general pattern of our verbal exchanges, as tape-recorded, bears out what Ken has predicted in tutorials. I do too much talking, and I wonder if too much of this talk is (what I think of as) the 'directing traffic' type, where the teacher's insistence on pursuing a technical point interferes with the student's construction of meaning. However, I am confident that reading aloud to M as we followed the written texts was helpful to him. There is a gestural component too that a tape recording cannot show - I try to generate literal connections between concepts through my gestures during any extended bout of 'talking at' a student.

I noticed that the contents of M's recollections far exceeded his writing abilities and stamina. The rewritten version of his story, in which I wrote as he directed orally, is longer and more detailed than the portion he could put on paper. There was a point during step 6, as M set about writing, when I suddenly felt an emotional connection with him and his struggles. It was something about his wholehearted engagement with this task. It was something about hearing the facts of his story, its steady accumulation of departures, separations and losses. I feel it again as I write. My own discovery on day 3 was that I care deeply about what happens to M. I would like this situation, of learning English with a clear purpose and inherent interest, to be M's usual one in his remaining time at school, and with teachers like Ms K this seems achievable.

At the end of the day M asked for assistance in another matter. He said he wanted to join a local soccer club to play soccer out of school hours. I am researching this and hope to have some information to bring him by next Monday. I have some phone numbers at this stage and there is a good chance I can make this happen for him.

___________

Note to Ken: The taped session was spoilt by a technical fault - the usual infuriating experience when a tape recorder is used to record something unrepeatable in the field. The voltage setting on the power supply was flicked to an incorrect voltage as it was jostled in my bag. During recording this problem was invisible. The tape of the session runs but we both sound like Dr-Who Daleks under the influence of helium gas.

If getting a recording is a vital part of the assignment, I would like to transcribe some portions of the recording myself - having been part of the session will allow me to decipher it. I know there is useful data in the tape as an aural record, but the distortion in this recording is severe and very distracting.

Matthew Louttit | (203.30.219.5) | Tuesday, 25 June 2002 2:32:27 PM
My third lesson with M at IEC has just been completed. It left me in a positive frame of mind and encouraged about my usefulness as a teacher. The day began well. Mohammad noticed me as I waited for the bus at Parramatta station, and he looked very pleased to see me. His attitude was almost eager! This was in contrast to the more guarded and irritable person I had seen on the previous day we worked together. Inside the bus I assumed he would want to ride on the back seat with his friends and younger brother, but he took the seat directly behind mine and began a conversation with me about the latest soccer results. I was again surprised and delighted that he was initiating casual talk, which is one of the most challenging tasks for learners of a second language. I tried to keep the flow of conversation moving naturally among topics that related to the soccer or the limited experiences we had shared.