Alyssa B - TS #5 - Yao

Tutoring Session 05

Date: July 12, 2017
Time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Area: CIES
Tutee: Yao Wang
Level: Aces

Yao is a very serious student! She’s a biology student from China, and always thinks up elaborate answers, and her English is impeccably good.

              To start off, I did the general questions to find out about her and judge her placement. For her, those questions were basically warmups.

              And those were perfect warmups, too, because basically all she needs to practice is her speech. She let me know about the SPEAK test that she has been studying to pass, so before our session, I was able to print it out. She’s been studying that one, of course, but it gave me a good idea of what exactly the test was like. It’s very difficult.

Basically, what it is, is that Yao will have to answer in timed increments based off of pictures. For example, on is giving directions based on a map of a town, and using that same map she has to suggest a place to go and why. These are all timed, and should take up most of the time given—usually thirty seconds to one minute. The next is a series of pictures, and she has to explain the story being depicted, and then tell what she would do in the same situation. It really is easier to imagine than to say it.

What I found was awful is that the practice test actually has a GRAPH that she has to explain! And then, based on the information, Yao has to make a prediction as to what she thinks will happen next…. That’s something I wouldn’t expect to be on a speech test…

All in all, I think it went well, but our session only lasted an hour because I had a conversation with Shuaihua scheduled right after her, and he was already waiting right across the room. |||D Next time we’ll have plenty of time to practice, and that’s good because she says she wants to practice until 5:15pm. ^^; I understand, so that’s fine with me, but I live forty-five minutes away, so it’s kind of cumbersome, haha.

So, more as a side note from me:

Yao = Biology major

Dasom = Political science major

Shuaihua = Film production major

Jiwan = Mechanical engineering

Wow! What a mix!

~Alyssa