Monday
It’s safe to say that few people really like a Monday morning. In fact, it’s fair to say that the majority quite literally loathe it. I have to admit, I felt a relunctance to drag myself out of bed at 6am this morning. My bed had that kind of comfort that it only reserves for a Monday morning, returning to it’s original state for the rest of the week. However, this morning, once I had a coffee, Brazilian style (aka, extremely strong for my tea-loving tastebuds) I felt chirpy and ready to go. I, with the very minute minority, actually quite like a Monday morning. It has a freshness to it, a start of promises and resolutions and it decides the direction of the week. And, this morning started with one of my favourite classes.
Denise S is a very senior Manager at the financial institute where I teach. Her English is good although she needs to build up her confidence speaking as she feels timid and reserved, a whole different world to how she speaks when she’s communciating in Portugese! Normally our classes are just conversational to help improve her fluency but today was different as she required a more specific focus. On Wednesday she has an exam in English, a BULATS test which she is required to pass at a certain level in order for the bank she works at to continue funding her classes. She had text me the day before asking for a class on BULATS practice and of course, I was more than happy to make the adjustments for her.
Her main focus that she wanted was listening as this was the area proving most difficult for her. We began our class as usual: a chat about the weekend, including the recent Carnival – the much loved and popular event in Brazil which took place just last week. This has been an excellent talking point recently in my classes! Then we reviewed some BULATS material that contains hints and tips for students, for example, reading the text and guessing potential words in the gaps, looking for clues as what the answer could be, highlighting key words and vocabulary. She created a list of tips that worked for her based on this information, adding to the list at the end of the class once we completed the practice materials. We did two different listening exercises:
1. The first was that she listened to 5 conversations about a particular subject (in our case, facts concluded from a shopping survey) and selected the statement from a list of 8 that best matches the conversation. This is a particuarly difficult task as it requires 100% concentration and understanding as the conversations can deliberately lead you towards the wrong answer if you don’t pay attention properly or even slightly mis-hear. My student did well receiving 20% the first time I played it and 100% the second time. The only problem is, during the test, they only play the recording once.
2. The second was listening to a conversation and filling in the blanks of a related form (in our case, an application for employment). There are only 4 blanks to fill in and again, my student did well: 50% the first time, 100% the second time. Again, however, they only play this once in the test.
Regardless of this, we developed and practiced skills for filtering out non-important information and selecting the most relevant and specific words. We continued to practice these skills throughout the class and when we did another BULATS practice test (the same styles as mentioned above but different topics), she scored a much higher mark.
I’m very pleased with this class as by the end of it, my student’s confidence rapidly developed as she used skills she had but just wasn’t sure how to use. She left the class with a more positive outlook towards her test on Wednesday, and I wrapped it up with a feeling of success and satisfaction.
Not bad for a Monday morning.
ESL: Teaching English in Brazil and the World 