Gillnetter
Key Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2010
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- United States
- Current Location
- United States
I have been asked to help an older Chinese lady to learn spoken English. She passed all of the written test for US citizenship but failed the oral interview. This interview is about 15 minutes long. The interviewer typically asks some simple questions in English and waits for a response from the candidate in English. Questions generally are similar to: "Where do you live?", "Who was the first President?", and "When was the American Civil War". This lady has been in the US for about 10 years and lives with her daughter in Southern California. She has not been forced to learn any English as she can go to Chinese markets in the area and speak to other Chinese in her neighborhood. In the past five years I have worked mostly with Spanish speakers from Mexico. Since Mexico is very close and English and Spanish are similar, as are the cultures, I am at somewhat of a loss on how to begin with this student. I would appreciate any insights on how to best help this lady.