Sunday, March 23, 2008

Consultant 1

I remember talking about this in class… so ill try to keep this blog short and just review. This was an appointment I had with an international ESL, Ph.D student. Once we took our seats, I asked the client if he wanted some coffee or water. “I think we should just get done with this,” he replied. I didn’t care too much for his attitude as I thought his paper could be really long and he wanted us to have all the time. I soon found out that the student thought of the center as a drive through quick fix solutions to his grammatical problems. One we got started, I asked him to explain what he meant at a certain part of his essay. He asked me if I was worrying about a grammatical error and if not, he thought we should move on. At this point, I felt that the one-on-one pedagogy was not helpful and my approach with this client should be a little more authoritative; an approach that had been applied on him his whole life in his native land, South Korea. I told the student that even though the line did not have any grammar mistakes, it really did not make any sense. I followed my comment by pointing out two grammar mistakes. This showed the student that even thought he was a Ph.D student; an undergrad could be of some help. From that point, the client was more attentive and followed what I said more closely.

Last week, I saw how David used the authoritative approach with a client by sitting across her, and not next to her. In his second appointment of the day, I saw him sitting next to a student. Both clients were ESL students and I observed David alter his practices as needed.

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