Job Discussion Forums

[mandarinstudent]

Recently the director of international affairs at my college asked me for a favor. One of the faculty is going abroad as a visiting scholar and needs to improve her oral english. He wants me to meet with her 5 days a week for an hour every day for around 6 weeks. I asked, "What do you want me to do with her?" He said, "Just chat." He told me that she had been studying English for 15 years and just needed to brush up a bit. I spoke with her on the phone and her english was pretty bad. I don't know if they expect some sort of miracle, but I don't think that she can improve that drastically in 6 weeks. What am I supposed to do with her for an hour every day? I've never done a one on one class before. She has studied for 15 years, so I don't think I will need to teach any grammar. The director said, "Just chat," but that's so vague. I'm going to meet this woman 30 times or so. I asked her, "What did you want to do each time we meet?" because she is an adult and should know what she wants. Her response was, "I think you know the best method to improve oral english." (Side note: Why do Chinese people think that there is some sort of "secret" that only foreigners know when it comes to improving oral english? Duh...Study hard and speak with native speakers, just like any other language!) This lady has been studying for 15 years, basically the only thing left would be for her to practice with native speakers. What am I going to talk about with this lady over the course of 30 meetings? In true Chinese fashion, my boss threw this in my lap one week ahead of time and said that it would be up to her what we would cover. He made it sound like she would know what she wants to practice and I would just show up and chat for a while, but then I talk to her and she has no idea what she wants to do. Any suggestions?

[jwbhomer]

Why don't you treat it like a series of dates...or a relationship? Talk with each other about your work, your outside interests, your families...the kind of stuff that a man and woman would "normally" talk about. Who knows? Something might come of it!

[mandarinstudent]

Actually, I'm married..nothing is going to come from this..hehe

[Lister]

I'd go there with some some ideas/thoughts ready for discussion beforehand in case she's not very forthcoming with ideas.

Things like what to expect at the airport, public transport, cultural differences, slang, vocab she's likely to hear and use in the course of her time there could be good places to start.

[kev7161]

Why not make a list of the top ten things you'd maybe want to know about when visiting another country? Here are some ideas:

1. Food
2. Shopping/money
3. Directions
4. Banking
5. General laws (of the city? state? country?)
6. Local customs/mannerisms/manners
7. Dining out (may be covered with food)
8. Sightseeing/Places of interest
9. Classroom behaviors/expectations of students in the other country
10. ???? (geez, I can't do ALL the work!)

At your first meeting, tell her what you are going to visit with her about the next time (and so on) and, as part of her responsibility, she has to come up with 10 open ended questions about the topic (no yes/no answers) at hand. Then it's up to you to start bantering back and forth about the topic and I'd imagine more ideas will come up and some topics may last for more than one session. Ideally, more things will grow out of these initial 10 topics. If they don't, review vocabulary and helpful phrases you've introduced to her. It's a lot like being a journalist where you come up with the initial ideas and other ideas/questions blossom, based on responses from the interviewee (although I realize you're not interviewing her, but same idea).

[7969]

[mandarinstudent]

[randyj]

Others have given you good suggestions. If her pronunciation is poor, consider augmenting your discussions with a careful review of all the English vowel and consonant sounds.

[Anda]

The following should keep you out of trouble for a while!

For Talking about travel

http://blogs.bootsnall.com/search/China/


For gereral topics with short write ups.


http://www.topics-mag.com/

For topics

http://iteslj.org/questions/


For more topics

http://www.esljunction.com/conversation_questions/index.html

[Anda]

British Council Artical

Teaching one to one
Paul Kaye, Freelance, Trainer, Author

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/onetoone.shtml

Most teachers at some time in their career have to teach one to one classes. They find a very different, challenging and special learning context, with unique possibilities and unique problems. One to one teaching is made more special by the fact that many teachers have to develop their own strategies, approaches and materials; one to one work is common the world over but discussion, support and resources are not. In this article we will look at what exactly makes these classes so different from teaching groups, identify the advantages and disadvantages of learning and teaching in this way, and review some possible approaches and techniques to help effective learning.

[InTime]

Anda's URLs for Questions...great asset!
Teachers are quite different than consumers.
It can be a life-changing FT experience
to be focused upon mind-seeds of learners,
and future generations,
rather than our own here-and-now "happiness."
In the spirit of Logotherapy and Man's Search for Meaning.

Chinese Proverb

qianren zai shu
before-person plant tree

houren chengliang
after-person rest-in-shade

"One generation plants the trees
under whose shade
another generation rests."

As in (r)evolutionary heroes.
And...the Yellow Emperor.

[Margot73]

Prepare dialogues you can practice with her. Meeting and Greeting, airport and immigration, restaurants, shopping (things like "I'm just browsing." Small talk, etc.