Article got Published to the online newspaper as I am working as an editor of this program.
Hajoon Song, Grade 11
Hajoon Song
[32-4]-First Draft
9th September 2024
Teaching English to Guatemala Students
I recently had an opportunity to tutor Guatemala students in English as a community service experience. I heard that Guatemala has very limited access to English education; students tend to learn English that is significantly easier than the contents of a different country. I used an online meeting app to tutor, and the face of an 11-year-old girl, Cathy, appeared on my computer screen as I connected. There were many challenges and rewards of tutoring.
At first, communicating with Cathy was one of the largest problems that I encountered when teaching her English. In Guatemala, the mother tongue language is Spanish, which I do not know anything about. Since Cathy did not have a great understanding of English skills at first, it was challenging for me to understand Cathy whenever I tried to teach her basic some English words and grammar. So, I relied on the Spanish translator, images, and body language to help Cathy out whenever she was confused about my lesson.
During the English Lessons, I tried to make the session lesson as fascinating and fun as possible. I knew that Cathy would not focus well if I just focused on teaching as much information as possible. We played word games, sang English songs, and read simple stories together. I used a lot of visual materials to act things out and to break things down step-by-step. Cathy’s favorite interaction was always the conversation practice/acting which took place at the end of the class. Cathay said that her main goal for this tutoring was that she wants to go to the United Sstates after the lessons and speak English fluently. We would discuss her day, his interests, his hobbies, and current events. I was eventually astonished at how quickly Cathy’s conversational English skills improved. I could see that she had the confidence to speak.
Tutoring Cathy has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my tutoring life. I tend to tutor a wide range of students, by her unique energy and enthusiasm to learn and heris progress each week was significantly improving week by week. We have become good friends, checking in on each other’s lives beyond just the lessons.
If you have the chance to volunteer in tutoring Eenglish, I highly recommend you to do it. The impact that you can have, even from thousands of miles away, can be very regarding if you meet an amazing tutee.
Byline
Hajoon Song, Grade 11, International School of Beijing
[Source: Author, Hajoon Song]
I taught Cathy by reading a short story together.
[Source: Author, Hajoon Song]
Cathy’s English skills have improved a lot, so I taught her with more challenging materials.