On Sunday, Ahmed followed me to the Railroad Square Art
Park. When I tried to give him
directions on the phone, it spiraled into a downward confused jumble of
miscommunication. Henceforth, I
drove to his apt. parking lot and had him follow me. Working with a conversation partner over the phone could prove
to be a worthwhile endeavor.
Understanding someone’s English in person is at least 10 times easier
than over the phone! Nevertheless,
I brought him to the Mickee Faust Clubhouse, where I was going to be rehearsing
for an upcoming show. He seemed pleased
to have been invited to the clubhouse, because he stayed and watched the first
15 minutes of our rehearsal after he and I had our conversation.
I
was thankful to have been in class on Thursday when we discussed “minimal
pairs”, because they became very helpful during my conversation with
Ahmed. As we spoke, he mentioned
that he needed to work on his English pronunciation. I strongly agreed, remembering our phone conversation
moments earlier, in which I could barely understand a single word he said. He was challenged with the words
“rain”, “ran”, and “run”. We worked
together as he repeated the words and I helped to motivate him with consistent
feedback. Also, we made sentences
with “that”, “cat”, “rat”, “brat”...I could tell though, that someone needs to
be intrinsically motivated to progress with minimal pairs, as the repetitive
nature may seem tedious to a less focused student.
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