Abdul
I met with Abdul in Strozier library. Because he wanted to
work on speaking skills, I compiled a list of common phrases and idioms. We
went over the phrases and I tried to give as many examples as possible. I
explained to beat around the bush
would be hinting at something you don’t want to say. He also asked about something
being bound to happen. I had a little
trouble explaining what a wild goose
chase was because it’s usually used as more of an exaggeration that anything
else. After we got through the 30 or so phrases, he had a question about the
word opt.
We came up with a few sentences using the word in context
such as I opted out of doing that.
Next to this sentence I had him write I
chose not to do that. Using this word in a few different contexts
was a bit difficult for me but after a few minutes of looking at it I was able
to come up with some good examples. It also resulted in me adding threw me for a loop to the list of
phrases. He had brought a friend with him so we ended up all chatting for a
while after the session. It was a lot of fun and really great to get to know
them a bit. At this point the conversation was really more of just hanging out
but I was able to keep adding phrases to the list that I was using organically
in conversation which is still pretty cool!
Hayley,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had a really good experience with Abdul. I have always taken idiomatic language for granted, and find it refreshing to hear about trying to explain it to ESL students. Your comment about "a wild goose chase" is pretty funny. Did you come up with any short answer, or was it a "beating around the bush" kind of thing?