Raleigh TS #8

Date/Time: 6/9/17 (8pm)
Location: Dave's Pizza Garage
Topic/Skill: speaking and listening
Feedback provided to tutee: I'm happy that she stepped out of her comfort zone to meet more Americans.

Dasom went with some friends and me to get dinner this time so that she could meet some more native speakers and get more listening practice. She usually doesn't have schoolwork that she wants to work on, so I try to get creative and treat her sessions more like conversation partner sessions so that she'll be more comfortable speaking. It seems like she's a lot more comfortable speaking when it's not about school-related things because she doesn't feel like she's being graded. Even if I just say, "today, we'll be working on..." she gets more nervous and doesn't speak as much. I can tell that she doesn't want to say anything that's inherently "wrong," so I constantly reassure her that I'm not judging her and that it's ok to say something that isn't exactly "right" since the point is just to get her to practice her speaking anyway. I think the dinner was a challenge for her, and she can be pretty shy. I think it was good that she stepped out of her comfort zone to go with us though because I think she enjoyed it. She did mention that my friend, Gus, talks really fast. I thought that was pretty funny because I had never noticed until she was there, so I was actually focused on whether or not she could follow the conversation. I think she was also happy to go to a new place. I think it was great practice for her because she had to listen to different speech rates and accents all at once. She didn't seem overwhelmed though, which I think is great. I hope she will keep branching out in order to get more practice.