In this ongoing case study I review lessons I volunteer tutor in Beginner English for an Vietnamese elderly woman who has lived in Melbourne for 18 months without knowing how to say more than hello, good bye and thank you. In the first lesson, we looked at how to complete a Needs Analysis to ascertain what this student knows already and what she needs more help with.
One of the things Binh was able to do was write cursively and yet when she wrote English, even though the alphabet is the …

Commencing tutoring of a student whose English is the equivalent of only hello, good bye and thank you provides a unique opportunity to provide a case study for a new English teacher to see how they too may develop the English skills of their first time English learner students.

The unique aspect of AMES as an educational body is that they have given the tutor total education freedom to teach their students how they see fit. This is both a good thing and bad. Good for the experienced teacher like myself to guide the student gradually but bad for the inexperienced teacher who fumbles their way through. What they do offer is a fantastic array of teaching resources but what lacks is the how element to teaching. This is what I hope to explore in this ongoing case study of my Vietnamese elderly student, Binh.

It will be my one year anniversary for returning to Australia in just 19 days. And I’ve felt every one of those days pass. Slowly. Sometimes painfully. Other times with great happiness and gratitude.

This site, and my writing in general, simply stopped. It wasn’t writing block. It was reverse culture shock and a lack of direction that prevented me from doing what I love. I learned that my two and half years of English teaching and teacher training experience was worthless here if I didn’t have a piece of paper from the government to say I’m accredited to be a trainer.

Being rejected by registered training organisations and ESL schools was like walking into a brick wall over and over again.

Faced with the financial inability to study, no where to live, no employment and the reality that I would have to take a considerable career step backwards in order to achieve some semblance of stability for my partner & my future together I realised that my passion had to be put on hold.