Adam TP # 12

Today I met with Bayasgalan again in the CIES classroom across from 403. He discussed his life in Mongolia and how his only other second-language learning experience before English had been with learning Russian (the most commonly taught second language in Mongolia). I helped him out with his grammar homework by giving him more examples of present perfect and simple past tense, and asked him to rewrite sentences in one form by making them sentences in the other form. He also said he struggled with the placement of adverbs. I explained by giving him examples. For example, I gave the example of "I eat cheese slowly," "I slowly eat cheese," and "I slowly eat." I explained that the adverb modifies the verb, so you can not say "I eat slowly cheese."

In general, Bayasgalan's confidence and competence in spoken English are both improving. However, I am concerned for him as he says he is still struggling in his grammar class, in which he has a test tomorrow. In general, however, I hope I was able to help him explain and understand the concepts he will need to comprehend English grammar.