Name of Artifact: Case Study Activity
Date: Spring 2003
Course: FL 664 (SLA)
Rationale:
The following artifact is the activity I used in my Case Study project for Second
Language Acquisition. I gave my subject a list of math-related terms and tested the ways in which she knew them.
I tested her competency in listening, reading, speaking, and writing.
This activity allowed me to see what she needed the most help with. As
I expected, her listening, reading, and writing skills were excellent. The only part of the assessment she lacked competency
on was the oral production segment.
As her tutor, this new information helped me determine which direction to take
to help to strengthen her performance. At this point we began working on activities that required her to use vocabulary
to complete tasks. I used a variety of exercises that demanded oral production. Finally, the one that was
the most effective was having her tell me how to solve math problems as I worked them out on paper in front of her.
This activity worked really well. It increased her competence and showed
me how much she really knew. However, had I had the opportunity to meet with this student more, I would not have continued
to use the same method simply because it worked. I think that it's important to experiment with a wide range of tasks
that demand different skills and competencies of the learner. Also, in a one-on-one tutoring situation, this is much
easier to do than in a regular classroom.
