I met Sundol for the first time at a Starbucks on Tennessee Street. I devoted our first meeting to gauging his skill level in English, as well as getting an idea of what and where he wanted to improve. Sundol is from South Korea, and pursues an American degree in Chemical Engineering. The main thing he said he wanted to improve was his listening skills, because he needs to be able to understand what the instructors and professors are saying when he finally gets admitted into a university in this country. Specifically, he expressed that he wishes to better comprehend longer, more complicated, multi-idea sentences, as opposed to shorter, one-idea sentences. I asked him what kinds of English-language movies and TV show he watches to figure out what kind of listening practice he has already had, and he said he's into American Crime dramas, like CSI. So, with that, I will definitely center the first listening activity around something that requires a comparable, yet more difficult skill level.
Sundol's pronunciation has plenty of room for improvement, so that's definitely something to consider in putting together my lesson plans. There are many sounds and words he uses that are difficult to understand, specifically the "L" sound, which, as I've learned from the TEFL course, is very often the case South Koreans have when they begin learning English.
In regards to writing, Sundol seems confident, but did mention that he only wants to gear his writing towards what the TOEFL requires. When it comes to reading, he said he is only interested and has only attempted to read science journals on chemical engineering.
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