Adult Tutee: André Accioly, Brazilian working for the government here in Tallahassee (TS#1 October 22, 2015)
His level of fluency is high but he requested help with accent reduction. His accent rarely impedes his ability to communicate but I highlighted some of the sounds and syllables that he most commonly mispronounced. Occasionally, in accordance with his own diagnostic, he hesitated to speak due to a delay in finding the appropriate word to speak. We will work to improve his confidence when speaking in order to improve overall professional confidence when engaging in higher level professional conversation with co-workers and clients.
Many international students appear to lack self-confidence due to their hesitation to speak English however this is usually a reflection of them as English speakers and rarely continues when observed speaking with peers in native language. This is certainly the case for André, yet due to the importance of perceived self-confidence while conducting business in the USA, we will strive to improve this for him.
He suggested that we pick a topic or news article to discuss in English in order to get him accustomed to using a more sophisticated vocabulary with academic and professional level discussion. He typically softly pronounces or skips over the final syllable of some words such as saying "pret" instead of "pretty." We plan to reduce his accent through writing a list of words each meeting that he habitually mispronounces and slowly review them at the end of each session.
He is also a Christian and attended church with me this Sunday where I introduced him to more Americans with whom he has started to form friendships and will be able to practice substantially. Sorry for the long post, the next will be shorter.
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