Advice on improving Oral Dexterity

[HighFive]

Hi UE,
Nice site you've got here. I've been teaching English to Chinese students at my university for a while, and have a question concerning a new one. She's a young professional in medical school, here in the States for another 6 months. Her vocabulary is already good and she packs on words easily. Her pronunciation is not as good, but she's responsive to instruction. (Very hard working at it; I have found that most Grad School ESL students are.)

The issue I'm having is that when she speaks, it's like she's just been chewing on ice, or like her jaw is sore. She can't form sentences quickly.

This is only our second lesson. If anyone has had a similar case, I'd like to know if this likely to improve with pronunciation practice, or if there's something specific I can do to help her with it. I figured tongue twisters might help.

HighFive

[Tdol]

It's not uncommon. Many students spend a lot of time memorising vocab and not enough on putting it into use. Recording them can be a good way to make them aware of what they sound like.