This student's goal was to get into a prestigious international school.
He is athletic, enthusiastic and studious with English skills similar to his peers.
He had issues with his writing forms and his grammar, but he was proficient in conversational English and had the determination to improve.
The school application process consisted of two parts, an English Reading Assessment, and an Interview.
So we focused on both of these in our lessons; we dedicated half a lesson to a mock interview each week, practising the type of questions that are common for these, and during every other part of our lessons I asked him questions to demonstrate his understanding and assess his Spoken English Skills.
To help with his Reading Comprehension we used four tools, a Reading textbook, a Writing Textbook, Vocabulary Tests, and Digital Resources.
Each of these helped in a different way. We used the Reading book to practice answering questions on a text.
The Writing book helped with this, as it taught grammar rules which explain what the sentences are talking about.
We then used the Vocabulary tests and Digital resources to give immediate feedback on his progress and give him familiarity with new words.
His two biggest challenges with English were both related to giving a “wrong” answer to a question.
The first was that he gave short answers to verbal questions that (while factual) didn’t tell the interviewer what they actually wanted to know.
The second was that he would give a (factual) answer that was often the opposite of what a written question was asking for.
So a large part of our lessons were spent analysing questions and what they really want to know.
When we started this, he was unfamiliar with this skill, but after consistent practice together, he became very good at understanding what a question was truly asking.
He was able to put these new skills to good use and pass his interview on the first attempt.
