Alex TP4

   On Tuesday I met with Jung in the Starbucks café at Strozier library. She had a workbook out and was doing practice problems when I got there, so we just jumped right in. As I previously mentioned her biggest issue is in the speaking area. The practice problems she had laid out were maps that you had to verbally explain the walking directions from one place on the map to another. I was familiar with this exercise as I had done it in Spanish classes.
   After going through a few problems I noticed her biggest problems were distinguishing between left and right, her pronunciation of “l”s and “r”s, and her confidence. After the first problem I gave her some appropriate verbs such “head, go, walk” etc, to use in her directions. For the issue of left and right I told her to try and think about the distinction as often as she can, like when she’s walking, driving, writing, whatever. For the pronunciation of the “l”s and “r”s, I had a similar speech impediment when I was a child so I had her go through some exercises. I first explained the difference as to where your tongue should be as you pronounce the sound. Then we slowly worked our way into pronouncing the sound and then the word. Finally I’d have her repeat after me as I rattled off various “r” and “l” words.
   When Jung would go through the directions she would stutter or hesitate and look up at me for reassurance to know she was doing it correctly, when after all, most of the time she was right. I just had her run through the directions with her eyes on the table without looking up. When she was done I simply assured her that it was very good. There were small mistakes but nothing significant enough to damage her confidence.