Vie Miller TS#5

Song and I sat down at El Cocinero for lunch and our second lesson. She wanted to improve her speech, so I decided to run a speaking drill with her similar to the one used on the TOEFL exam. Over chips and guac, I asked Song short questions and gave her 45 seconds to think through and verbally share her answer and her rationale. Song took a little longer than 45 seconds to formulate her thoughts and reply --I became stricter with time as we carried on--but I was proud of the results. The meaning of her replies was always very clear, and though I found myself struggling to take write down her responses as she shared them (as the recording app on my phone was less intuitive than I had anticipated), I still was able to give her feedback on her grammar-in-use. That said, I don’t think I will use this exercise again with Song. She enjoyed the activity, but I felt like I needed a better sense of her own understanding of grammar; the only way to get that (I think) is to ask her to write first and speak second.