JJ 6

My current ESL student and I spend ~half our time reading different types of passages together. We have read scientific articles, poems, and passages form several novels. She has trouble understanding the nuances of the readings and I have found that these troubles largely stem from #7 (lack of the "cultural literacy" assumed by the text's author) and #8 (inadequate vocabulary) of Engaging Ideas. The cultural literacy issues are, at least on the surface, easier to deal with (e.g., not understanding the Christ story) as I can summarize the high points. I find that vocabulary is a more pressing concern because sometimes it is not simply a matter of looking up a difficult word in the dictionary but knowing when to look up a word. For example, my student was confused about the word 'tempered' used in a poem. The way 'tempered; was used in the poem was meant to convey strengthening, however she only knew the definition of the emotion (e.g., a bad-tempered baby). This could lead to a misinterpretation, not because she didn't know the meaning of the word but because she did know the meaning, just not the particular meaning that the poem was expressing. It would be untenable to have her look up nearly every word she reads so I am thinking about actionable ways to address the issue. I would be curious to hear if anyone else from the class has a take on this situation.

Comments

  1. IanFebruary 22, 2019 at 3:36 PM

    I can certainly relate to the culture/vocabulary challenge. Maybe the most productive session I've had with one of my ELL students basically amounted to her bringing in a sheet of idioms and sentence structures that she had recently encountered but did not understand, and us then going through them one by one. While your situation sounds different than my own, it seems like your student is also generally aware of the moments where she gets tripped up, and might similarly benefit from compiling a running list of these hiccups to go over with you. Also makes for a nice change of pace from the line editing :)

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