Karen Hand TS #12

Karen Hand TS #12 (Adult Tutee)

Date/Time: 11/23/15, 2:50 – 4:30 p.m.

Location: CIES

Topic Discussed: Needs Assessment

Feedback provided to tutee: Today I met a new tutee that I have decided to take on. She is from Kuwait and has been in Tallahassee for the past two months studying English. Her goal is to pass the TOEFL and study Chemical Engineering at FSU. Today I spoke with her and got to know her. She is Foundations level, but actually communicates very well. She has a husband and 3 daughters. They all speak English. Her husband studied in Daytona Beach for his Bachelor’s Degree before they married. Her children attended British schools in Kuwait. She says she can understand them when they speak in English, but she cannot respond in English. She is very motivated to learn and wanted to meet with me every day. I can’t do it every day, but I am agreeable to meeting 2-3 times per week. She specifically wants to work on prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. She also wants me to give her extra composition, speaking, and listening exercises. I will work on preparing some materials for our future sessions. I also taught her a few new words and wrote down some sample sentences for her. I am already on track to complete enough tutoring sessions with my other tutees by the end of the semester, so I took on this new tutee out of a love of tutoring and of sharing my culture with others and learning about their cultures. Also, when I heard that she was from Kuwait, I felt a unique kinship with her. I served in the Air Force during the Gulf War when we liberated Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s invasion, and it feels like a miracle to me to be sitting side-by-side with a young woman who grew up in the very country I helped free 25 years ago, and to be teaching her English and learning about her country and language, too! I personally want to make sure that she passes the TOEFL and has the opportunity to go to school here. :-)