Sometimes the absurdity of teaching English in my school makes itself openly apparent. I’ve been tutoring a girl in an intensive 1 on 1 sort of class. She goes to a privately run religious all English elementary school. I’m sometimes helping her with reading, sometimes with her homework, or science projects. I’m basically a paid to help the girl review her work in class and prepare her for her upcoming tests and speeches. Keep in mind, this is a 10 year old girl that studies in a second language entirely.
Her mother is sending her away for a home stay in the United States. She’ll be attending school, living with a family, and will be immersed in English for an extended period of time. Some of the students at our school are staying for approximately one month while touring Ivy league schools on the east coast. She might be traveling for the same period of time, or she might be staying longer. I don’t know if she is touring with the groups of students that are going, or if she is doing her own thing. Since she isn’t in class with other students, she might be doing something entirely different.
I’ve been told to prepare scenarios, dialogs, or vocabulary lessons based on what I think she might encounter while staying in the United States. Whoa. That’s a pretty tall order, considering I know none of the details of her stay. According to my director, she’ll need to know how to speak to her host family, as well as be able to stay in a classroom full of English speakers.
Since she already studies in an all English environment, her uptake of English classroom commands is excellent. She knew all the vocabulary I prepared for the lesson today. I made sure to cover things about asking for repetition, asking about clarification, and how to get more details. We also went over the vocabulary for readings books, (turn the page, flip through the magazine, etc).
Since I have to worry about English for her home stay host family, we did a dialog about introductions, as well as vocabulary for getting ready for bed. My mind is overwhelmed when I look at the books at our disposable for general vocabulary. She’ll probably never need to know how to do laundry or change a car tire, but how much focus do I give to paying cash for something? Is it more or less important than listening to directions how to go somewhere? What’s there to cover, and how much depth does it need? I’ve never really prepared someone expressly for this purpose.
I can think of a few role plays that will help. I think that the girl is bright enough that she knows how to ask for help when she doesn’t understand. She certainly doesn’t seem scared about going, but perhaps it’s because it’s still a few weeks away. I teased her by telling her she’d have to work like Cinderella, cleaning all the dishes and floors for her evil home stay parents and children. We reviewed the cleanliness and scrubbing chapters intensely. She didn’t believe me, or so I hope.
