(1144) Missed the train

This is the third week my son and I attempt to teach a 16 year old young man English using the hearing route.

We borrow junior books from the library. At first I read and the student listens. If he does not ask any question, I then proceed to ask questions in Chinese or Malay. If he could answer them correctly then I know he understands at that reading level using the audio mode.

With suggestion from my son who has taught him for two years, I moved from nursery books to kindergarten level material. Slowly the books could be gauged to be Standard 3 in a Chinese school. Next I moved on to subject books like science and cartoon drawing manuals. Our student is artistic and could sketch quite well. Here we look at the pictures and talk about them in English.

During these three weeks of experimentation, I have established that he actually look at the shape of words, not the spelling. Hence for him,  the look say method may work. I have been here about eight weeks. It took many weeks to gain trust. Apparently he was beaten badly by an ex-headmistress who tutored him for quite a few years before he came to be taught by my son. On the first day he saw me, he wanted to leave, two brothers who knew me from 5 years ago reassured him I don't punish people physically. He was still suspicious and asked if I was a friend of teacher Susan. Of course I wasn't, I am not a local person. He certainly went through trauma for his early years of education.

Bearing in mind I personally have no training, no talent to teach reading like this, everyday I pray about lessons and teaching methodology. Three days ago I kept having the impression of "conversations". I dug out a TOEFL listening script, my son and I chose a 2 minute conversation on him. It worked. Though he never attempted to speak anything more than one or two words in English at one time, he actually understood about 70% of the simulated conversation.