Teacher Discussion Forums

I'm looking for some ideas about how to help an intermediate student of mine. She mentioned to me at one point that she had "memory problems" in school, and that everyone was surprised when she was able to pass the standardized high school? test in her country (Haiti). I'm thinking that she has some type of speech impediment or aphasia. But not really knowing, I'm reluctant to talk to her about it.

When she reads, I can understand her. However, I find it extremely difficult to understand her English conversation, as do her classmates. (and I'm generally adept at understanding accented English). We can all only ask for clarification so often and then must move on. I think we're all nodding our heads alot, but missing so much of what she has to offer.

Anyone had experience with working with these issues before?

She keeps up with the class fairly well and has made progress with writing, grammar, etc. She's not reticent about speaking really. I just want to help her be understood as much as possible.

I had a student like this and I tape recorded her. Something was wrong with the batteries of the tape recorder and it played it back really slowly and we found that we could understand every word! She just had a very fast way of speaking that threw everyone off. After that we asked her to really slow down her speech so it sounded almost retarded to her inside ears and everyone could understand her.

it might be the opposite too and she speaks slowly so it hard to remember all the sounds she says to get the message. You could slow down or speed up the tape recorder to see what helps.

Just something interesting to try.

It sounds like you don't have any facilities to refer her to so she can get an actual diagnosis and help from a professional. It also sounds like she copes pretty well in the long run if she passed her exams. But it might make her life even better if she was referred to someone by her regular doctor along with a note from you about the kinds of problems you hear.

You could also get her to listen to the tape and write down exactly what she said so you can go over it and see what is happening.

Thanks, Sally, taping is an excellent idea, I'll give it a try.

I'm teaching at a private language school without any facilities of the sort you mentioned, though there would be tons of resources beyond the school in this urban area. I'm just not sure how to raise the issue of any existing "condition" (maybe there isn't one) without making the student self-conscious etc. . ..

So far I've been careful to give her specific praise/feedback after she reads slowly and usually clearly. And I've helped her with specific pronunciation issues in the context of the class.