Barbara CP#6

Our conversation today centered around the Fun with Grammar book that Prof. Kim recommended we get for learning how to teach grammar.  Natalia and I looked at verb forms and past tenses and worked on how to use “were, was, weren’t and wasn’t.”  I wish that I had gotten this book sooner because I think we could have completed many of the exercises and she would have benefitted greatly from the practice.  As it stands now, her spoken English has improved so much in the past 7 weeks.  She brought up this fact and I told her that I had noticed it too.  I think that she is also working with someone else which is beneficial to her as well.  I told her that Jennifer Ramsey in our TEFL class works on campus and they may be able to speak.  Jennifer has a degree in Russian and is also working to keep up her skills.   Natalia and I agreed that she would keep the grammar book for the summer.  I am going to Alaska for two months and there is no need for it to sit at my house.  She plans to enroll at CIES in September and we will make arrangements to get together so that she can give me back the book.  We finished our session with her teaching me the Russian alphabet.  It was a lot of fun because I got to pronounce it following her lead.  I really don’t know how much she learned from these sessions but I know that I learned a lot about how to work with a non-English speaker.  It was amazing and I am sorry to see it end.