FSU TEFL Certificate Course_Spring 2025

Date/Time: Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025, 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. (two sessions) Location: Online on Zoom Topic/Skill: Active and Passive Voice Feedback provided to the tutee: For this session, Livio and I worked on the differences between the active and passive voices. This topic came up during our last lesson when we were learning about writing emails in American English, since Livio did not fully understand the difference between these two tones. The activity we did was modeled after an activity we did for a different lesson that he really enjoyed, where we used his social media page as a vehicle for the activity. I asked him to write sentences about the image on his Instagram in both the active and passive voice so he could learn the difference between the two in practice. Lesson(s) about tutoring: I continue to be reminded that the extent to which your tutee or student enjoys the lesson plan has a direct impact on how much or how quickly they learn the material. I always try to find wa...

Date/Time: Thursday, April 10th, 2025, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Location: Online on Zoom Topic/Skill: Formatting Emails in English Feedback provided to the tutee: Although today's lesson was rather unique, Livio expressed to me that with his new office position at work, he wanted to learn how to format an email in American English since he works with a lot of American clients. Some of the things I went over with him included typical intros, email structures, sign-offs, and different tones. I was able to express to Livio that Americans speak a certain way, whether or not it's in email, due to the way American culture is structured, which added a cool cultural element to the lesson. Overall, I think Livio learned a lot and found the lesson to be very helpful! Lesson(s) about tutoring: I learned that not every lesson is going to look the same. Of course, this is the case with the lesson plan content itself, but the ease or quickness of comprehension is not linear, especially when wo...

 4/24 In this tutoring session with Karim, we focused primarily on free-flowing conversation, giving him the opportunity to practice speaking fluently and naturally. He shared details about his recent trip to Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, describing the architecture, local food, and the historical sites he visited. Karim expressed himself well, and I occasionally stepped in to correct pronunciation—particularly with words like “architecture” and "Charleston" (he pronounced it as char-les-ton)—as well as some grammatical slips, such as article usage and verb tense consistency. The informal structure allowed him to build confidence while speaking, and we also took moments to expand his vocabulary with more precise or native-sounding alternatives. Overall, the session was relaxed but productive, reinforcing his comfort with spontaneous conversation.

 4/16 During today’s tutoring session with Karim we continued to focus on enhancing both his reading comprehension and conversational skills. Karim was able to engage with a challenging news article on environmental policy, which we used to identify key vocabulary and practice summarizing complex ideas. He demonstrated strong analytical thinking as we discussed the author’s perspective and underlying assumptions. In the second half of the session, we transitioned to open conversation, where Karim spoke confidently about cultural differences he’s observed since arriving, occasionally needing help with idiomatic expressions and advanced vocabulary. His fluency and comprehension continue to improve steadily with each session.

In our last session we discussed more daily life activities including my graduation and her moving back to South Korea for the summer. We went over variations for different words and different parts of a car when driving. For example steering wheel, seat, and turn signal. We had a great time this semester working together and we thanked each other for a great time learning and spending time together.

In this session we went over her lecture recital speech and talked about pronunciation and content. Her lecture recital was how water and nature plays into composers' work. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend her lecture recital which was a great time.

In this session we discussed daily life. We went over pronunciation of certain words and how to say them. We also went over the difference between words like, see, look, and watch.

In this session we practice for her lecture recital. We discussed pronunciation and content. We also went over the order in which the speech should be organized. We isolated difficult to pronounce words and either practiced them found synonyms that were easier to say.

In this tutoring session we met for 1 and ½ hours (I count it as 2, 45 min sessions). In this session we ventured off campus and got coffee and went to publix. We discussed plans for the week and practiced ordering at a counter. We first went over what she wanted then how to ask for it. We also discussed more about our week and our plans. She asked me about my favorite snacks and we went to Publix to purchase them.

In this tutoring session we started talking about her lecture recital presentation. We went over what she needed to do for her recital. She explained the articles she needed to read and the various points she needed to hit to pass her recital. We started getting to work reviewing the materials.

In this tutoring session we talked about our spring breaks and what we had done. I went to London for spring break and Seunghye stayed in Tallahassee most of the time but went to the beach with her friends for a couple days. We talked about what we enjoyed doing during spring break and about possible locations in the future. We mostly focus on speaking and listening skills as well as pronunciation corrections. 

In this tutoring session (1 hour long) we discussed Korean holidays including the Lunar New Year. We also talked about her Korean age and US age and how they differ. In this session I learned more about her culture and she taught me a couple different words. We did our usual conversation and word pronunciation correction. We talked about Korean food and various things about her life at home. We discussed day-to-day problems regarding school, and personal life. 

March 20th, 2025  (sorry, I messed up the order when writing my posts and skipped this session)  Today, I worked with Thica on nursing vocabulary. We started by reviewing the vocabulary from her previous session. Then, I introduced the new vocabulary and worked on the pronunciation and definition of the new terms. Then, I had Thica complete a matching, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple-choice worksheet on the new vocabulary. As Thica was working on the questions, I corrected any spelling or grammar mistakes she made and continued to review pronunciation with her. 

April 10th, 2025  Today, I continued working with Thica on nursing vocabulary. We began our session by reviewing the vocabulary from our last session. Then, I introduced Thica to new vocabulary terms. To practice and understand the new vocabulary, we worked on matching, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank. As Thica worked through the problems, I corrected her grammar, pronunciation, or spelling mistakes. During this session we really worked on the pronunciation because the vocabulary I introduced was getting harder and more complex. 

 April 10th, 2025  In today's listening class, I worked with my students to help them prep for an upcoming quiz in their listening class. I worked with them, reviewing vocabulary and writing sentences. As my tutees worked on their sentences, I corrected any spelling or grammar mistakes I saw.

April 8th, 2025  In today's listening class, I worked with my tutees on understanding an episode of Chefs Table. We watched an episode together as a class, and I watched with my tutees and explained any unknown vocabulary or difficult-to-understand sentence structures and concepts to them. 

April 3rd, 2025 Today, I continued working with my tutees on the Taco Stand article. I worked with my tutees to continue reviewing confusing vocabulary and the sentences they wrote in the last class. We then read through the article again as a class, and I continued to review any confusing parts of the article or unknown vocabulary words. I continue working with my tutees on their pronunciation, grammar, and spelling. 

April 1st, 2025 Today, I worked with My Phoung and Ana Paula in their listening class on an article entitled "Taco Stand in Mexico City Gets Michelin Star." We started by reading through the story as a class, and then I worked with my tutees, reviewing any unknown vocabulary. Then, my tutees went through and had to highlight any unknown vocabulary words, and I worked with them to write new sentences for the vocabulary words. As my tutees wrote their sentences, I corrected any grammar or spelling issues.   

March 21st, 2025 Today, I worked with Thica, reviewing more nursing vocabulary. We first began by reviewing the vocabulary we had covered in our previous tutoring session, and then I introduced new vocabulary words. We worked on matching word-to-definition practice, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank activities. I worked with Thica on her nursing vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and spelling.

March 20th, 2025 In today's listening class with My Phuong and Ana Paula, we continued working on the Wild Boar article. We began by reviewing some of the vocabulary words they had previously struggled with. Then, we reviewed the list of vocabulary words that would be tested on their following quiz. Next, I worked with my tutees to write new sentences using the vocabulary words that they would be tested on. I first let my tutees write the sentence on their own and then corrected any grammar or spelling issues. 

March 18th, 2025  In today's listening class, I worked with My Phuong and Ana Paula on reading "Wild Boar." We began by reading the article together. After reading the article, we had a class discussion on its topic. I worked with my tutees to explain any sentences or vocabulary words that they were unfamiliar with. Next, my tutees went through the article again and circled any vocabulary words they were unfamiliar with. I worked with them to give them context clues to see if they could guess the meaning independently. 

 Date/Time: Thursday 4/25 @ 6:30pm Location: Dirac Library Topic/Skill: Listening, reading, and speaking This week, we watched an advanced video about the truffle industry. We reviewed new vocabulary to know prior to watching. This was a good period to practice new vocab and speaking; she recognized some of the words and was able to practice speaking by explaining them to me out loud. After the video, we answered comprehension questions about it. Next week, we will start with vocab like usual and practice speaking afterwards.

We practiced on her listening skills and we realized she has trouble summarizing so I assigned her homework  to summarize a passage.

 We spent the entire hour working on spelling tricks and learning new words.

 When: 4/9/25 6:30-8:00 Where: Tutee's Home Notes: Today we practiced cooking vocabulary! Through this unique session, Stephanie taught me how to cook Colombian empanadas (in English) while I provided linquistic support for the many practical cooking-related vocabulary words that she did not know (such as stir, dough, spatula, pots/pans, boil, chop, etc.). Through this hands-on practice, Stephanie can now provide step-by-step cooking instructions in English!

When: 4/17/25 6:30-7:30pm Notes: We practiced storytelling and casual conversation. Stephanie has not been attending English classes recently, so she wants to revert to speaking Spanish when telling a difficult part of a story out of frustration, but I encouraged her to continue in English and showed her patience and understanding. I also continued to emphasize the fact that it is a judgement-free space, which gave her the courage to continue and made her feel more comfortable. Through our conversation practice, Stephanie often gains many new vocabulary words that are vital for everyday living here in Tallahassee and has demonstrated her retention of these words over the past few sessions.

04/16 zoom: 8pm  Topic/Skill: listening  Activity: I read aloud 3 conversations between friends, one about a job interview, one about old friends in a photograph, and one about a woman's new job. then, i would ask him questions about what happened in the dialogue:  what was her new job, how long has she been working there, etc   Corrections given to tutee: i had to read a few sentences. couple extra times because he hadn't heard them the first time. he did really well on this assignment and didn't need too many corrections.  he was at the bus stop so he had to answer my questions in the chat, but it still worked out!  Corrections for tutor: this was a greta listening activity, and able to be done win-tut the other person talking if needed 

 4/14 In Monday's tutoring session, Karim practiced a presentation he had for class the following day. He had to create a powerpoint and present in front of the class on a research project he had done -- the traffic safety in Tallahassee. This session consisted of him running through the presentation a few times and me providing comments and advice to make it better. He continues to have some difficulty with the sentence structure of questions vs. statements: "you are going to the park later?" when it should be "are you going to the park later?" And I noticed a few instances of this which I corrected him on. He continues to progress very quickly.

 4/8 In this tutoring session, Karim and I worked on writing and reading comprehension. The main grammar topic we discussed was adjective clauses. We did some practice with these and then began working on reading comprehension with articles and exercises. To conclude, as we usually do, we just talked. I can tell Karim wants to learn English from casual conversations, to better immerse himself in the language. As such, I try to devote some time in our sessions to just chatting with slang and speaking to him less as a teacher of the language and more how I'd speak to my friends. 

 04/16 on zoom. 9 am EST topic/skill: speaking skills, using present tense, using grammatically correct sentences, adjectives  Activity: Charades Corrections given tutee: he said too fastly, corrected to quickly but was not sure why, happy instead of happily, but he was able to use grammatically correct and full sentences without modifiers very well.  Corrections for tutor: was great for explaining the different ways to use present tense is +ing  verb-s  it would be helpful to have a list of -ly words we can use to modify once tutee gets the hang of the game 

March 6th, 2025  Today, I worked with Thica for the first time one-on-one. Throughout the semester, I have been tutoring in Thica's listening class, and at the end of class, Thica asked me if I could tutor her in nursing terminology. Thica hopes to pursue a degree in nursing after she graduates from CIES, so she wanted to begin learning some of the nursing terminology she would need to know for her future classes. For our first tutoring session, I decided to start with fundamental medical terminology such as bandage, thermometer, wheelchair, gloves, patient, etc. I created a few activities for Thica to complete: a matching section (matching medical terms with definitions), fill-in-the-blank, simple dialogue, true or false, and a sentence scramble. We worked through all the activities together, and I helped Thica pronounce and explain the definition of medical terminology. 

Date/Time: Sunday 4/13 @ 11:00am Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Listening/Speaking This week, we finished a lesson from the week before. The lesson focused on our longest listening video yet with some complicated vocabulary. I chose this video because it had some words that he didn't know, but were explained in the context of the video itself. We began by learning some words that were not explained. We then discussed some questions that I would ask at the end. This was an intense listening video. We watched it on 0.75 speed and re-listened to a few sections. Overall, he did well recognizing the contextual explanations of words. I wrapped up the session by asking his what he's liked about our lessons. We only have two remaining, so I wanted to make sur they were working well for him. We will do our next two lessons beginning with a listening/speaking activity, then wrap it up with some niche vocabulary.

Date/Time: Thursday 4/10 @ 5:00pm Location: Dirac Library Topic/Skill: Vocabulary and American Government (Culture) This week, we went over some questions about vocabulary that Wei had gathered between sessions. Most English videos she watches contain many expressions and idioms, so there were many complex phrases to cover and explain. Many of those were rooted in cultural significance, such as television references. After that, we watched a short video about how the US Government works, which she's been wanting to understand because of the many news stories surrounding it. We watched the video and I elaborated on certain points like checks, balances, and the divisions of government. Next week, we will start with vocab like usual and practice speaking afterwards.

 We went over different grammar rules and also phrasal verbs.

 Date/Time: Wednesday, April 2nd 6:30pm-8:00pm Location: Tutee's home Topic/Skill: Prepositions Comments: Last session, my tutee requested that we work on prepositions that follow verbs. I prepared a lesson using worksheets, however, despite me trying to guide her, she seemed to struggle greatly in answering the questions. This is definitely something we will continue to work on, as it seems to be a big road block for her. I will see if I can prepare simpler worksheets for next time.

04/08  8 pm zoom  Topic: speaking; help with writing homework  Corrections for tutee: I corrected him on pronunciation, including missing letter form words like "President" he would pronounce at "resident." He also had trouble pronouncing the letter m  Corrections for tutor: this lesson ended up going an hour and a half, because after talking for an hour practicing speaking, he asked me to help him with his writing homework. Good lesson in planning out the session a little better so it doesn't end up interfering with my own time. I also wouldn't have waited that long to start the corrections if I knew he wanted to go over it. Good lesson for me though! 

 We spent all this time going through different phrasal verbs and explaining the meaning behind many of them.

Date/Time: Tuesday, March 27th, 2025, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Location: Online on Zoom Topic/Skill: Speaking in Different Grammar Tenses (Survey Activity) Feedback provided to the tutee: Livio and I, once again, worked with the different grammar tenses with the survey activity I prepared. I was shocked that after two sessions, Livio still wanted to work with this activity, however, I leaned into this motivation and used it to Livio's learning benefit! We went through the rest of the topics and continued speaking in different grammar tenses. As a result, Livio was getting very comfortable with using the different tenses in his original thoughts and even told me that this lesson contributed to some work conversations he had in English the same week! Lesson(s) about tutoring: I learned that by designing lessons that apply to real-life situations, for everyone but especially specific to your student, it makes the learning process that much more meaningful. Livio continued to express to ...

Date/Time: Tuesday, March 25th, 2025, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Location: Online on Zoom Topic/Skill: Speaking in Different Grammar Tenses (Survey Activity) Feedback provided to the tutee: Livio and I continued to work on grammar tenses with the survey activity I prepared, given that there was additional content that could be completed, and he really enjoyed the activity! We moved through the prepared topics in different grammar tenses, and he did better with this activity since it was his second time working with it. I think this, in part, has to do with exposure as well as his overall enjoyment of the activity. Lesson(s) about tutoring: I continue to be reminded of how important it is that your tutee or students enjoy learning the language, especially when you consider how difficult it is. Once a tutee can enjoy learning (intrinsic motivation!), it makes the process much easier on both the student and the tutor/teacher.

 Date/Time: Sunday 4/6 @ 10:30am Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Listening/Speaking We started session by catching up and chatting in English. For this lesson, we practiced listening and speaking in English. I chose two videos: one clip from the Late Show about current events and tariffs, the other a documentary about truffles. We went over relevant vocabulary before watching, then watched each clip at a slightly slower speed. After that, we answered discussion questions. Dojun recognized some of the vocabulary, but most of it was new. We also got to talk about current events and their historical precedents, which was a fun side activity/discussion. Next week, we will finish the Truffles video (we started late today and the video was long). I will do one more video and then a review.

  04/05 zoom 7 am  topic: present tense practice  activity: we began with a worksheet where he filled in the blanks for the present tense verbs:  ex:  Kevin _______________ on that curb all the time. (to trip) We went through about 15 together, reviewing any irregular verbs we came across as well as the difference in conjugating the verb when theres plural subject. He did very well with this, understanding the meaning of the sentences and conjugating them correctly. I did not have to give him many corrections, as the visual support in the parentheses at the end helped him very much. We also began to play charades, learning the rules of the game so we can play with harder words for our last session.

 4/3  Today Karim and I met to go over the writing composition he had prepared for me. I had asked him to write it on paper, so as to not have autocorrect or a computer at his disposal. And right off the bat, this writing piece was 10x better than the one he submitted to me on our second session. He had some spelling errors, mainly related to vowels and I gave him the benefit of the doubt because for words like "important" I could tell he sounded it out in his head by the spelling he provided: "importent". I told him to do some spelling practice, and continue watching videos and media with audio and subtitles to really see patterns in spelling and word formation in English. Otherwise, we continued to chat and work on some writing tips that we'll go over in our session next Tuesday.

 4/1  This Tuesday Karim and I worked on speaking skills once more, as he says he wants to improve on them. This typically consists of us having a casual conversation about various things he's curious about, or we just talk about our week/weekends. I will jump in every time I hear him make a mistake and correct him. I will also offer explanations as to why what he said is wrong. I tend to be quite nitpicky, but he says he appreciates this because he is already relatively advanced and I want him to reach that next level. Additionally, he interviewed me for his class, and I answered several of his questions about the traffic situation in Tallahassee which I thought was a fun conversation as well. I assigned him some writing and reading homework to go over the next session as well.

 3/27  For this tutoring session, Karim and I worked on more reading and speaking practice. He is a quick learner but still sometimes gets caught up in old habits. We worked on reading comprehension, reading articles about international affairs and politics, as this is his main interest. Karim hopes to go to the school of international affairs in the fall, so we wanted to prepare him for this as much as possible. He is progressing well, and his error correction is improving each session.

 04/02 7 pm on zoom  Topic/Skill: speaking; past tense and future tense  For past tense, I asked Adus what he did this past Sunday. He talked about his trip to the beach, where he caught fish, crab, shrimp, and saw a squid. I did not have to make a lot of corrections, and corrections I did make mainly had to do with using the wrong prepositions in context. He is also struggling with his pronunciation, which I am having difficulty learning how to correct.  For future tense, he discussed the next time he plans on going to Korea. During this conversation it was more difficult to understand what he was saying because of his pronunciation, but again, I'm still trying to figure out how to correct this kindly and in a way that will help him remember.