JulietteTS#15

For my last session with Saeed before his IELDS exam, he wanted to work on speaking prompts. Saeed wants to sound more native and use proper rising and falling intonation with his speech. He definitely sounds monotone and pauses at awkward points in his sentences. I taught him where to put natural pauses in his sentences. I explained how if he starts off his sentence with "Because" and then takes a big breath, he can use this pause to think of the rest of his sentence. Before I taught him this, he would say "Because I ........" and then take a big pause. This just made him sound like a beginner EFL student. We also worked on connecting words and phrases together with proper intonation. For example he wanted to say "My home in Kuwait is very big. I want to add a large green garden on the roof where my boys can play and I can smoke while I look out over the city". I showed him if he connects "My home in-Kuwait ...(pause) is veeeery big. I want-to-add a large green-garden, on-the-roof... where my boys can-play... and I can-smoke....while I look-out  over-the-city (falling intonation)." This seems obvious to a native speaker, but Saeed would pause very awkwardly,  take time over the wrong words, or use odd intonation and phrasing. We would record him answering the questions, then listen and write out what he said. We would go through and correct his mistakes while explaining the correct answers. Then at the end we would practice the interview questions using the new, corrected answers. This approach really made sense to Saeed and helped him improve. I am still worried about his ability to receive a 5.5 on the IELDS. This was Saeed and I's last session. I am very sad, Saeed was a great person and tutee!!