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Foreign Language Tutoring

February 27th, 2015

Students can see a lot of benefit from getting tutoring for their foreign language classes. While the material may seem simple in class, retaining the information is the challenging part. This is especially true once students get to the second, third, and even fourth years of their language. Seeing a tutor for their foreign language is beneficial for may reasons.

 

  1. Because they are with a tutor, the student will get more one-on-one time than they would with a teacher. A tutor can make sure the student is working on their pronunciation correctly, getting their accents right, and using the appropriate tenses. It is hard for a student to get the one-on-one attention they need in a class with thirty other kids who are all learning the same language. They may not know they are doing something wrong until they lose points on their test.
  2. Practice conversation with a tutor will be much more helpful than the conversation practice they get in the classroom. Sometimes students may be paired up with students who cannot even make it through a sentence properly, or take a long time to even think of a response. Having conversations with someone who actually knows the language will help your student conjugate quickly and correctly, and be able to quickly form sentences out of their ideas.
  3. A tutor will be able to find a way to explain tenses to your student that actually makes sense to him or her. Often times teachers explain the concept thoroughly, but it just doesn’t click with a lot of students.
  4. The extra practice will help your student’s memory stay fresh. They will be able to distinguish between which words have masculine and which words have feminine articles, and irregular verbs will hardly present a challenge.

Getting Spanish

January 26th, 2015

Joey started coming in to Study Hut because he was really struggling in his Spanish 3 class. All semester he had not been getting the grades that he wanted on tests and large assignments. He worked hard in class and did all of his homework, but he still did not seem to really understand the material. As much as he practiced it just did not stick.

 

Joey worked on Spanish 3 with his tutor Ana. The concepts became easier and he began to fully grasp the material thanks to the practice he was getting outside of the classroom. They worked on pronunciations, how to write using multiple different tenses, and how to make sure his grammar was perfect. Joey was really worried about his final because so much of the semester had not made sense. He put a lot of effort and work into studying and preparing for it. The final was an oral recitation with a lot of difficult future tense and new vocabulary. He and Ana spent a lot of time making sure that he was pronouncing all of his verbs correctly and that all of his irregulars were conjugated the right way. They also paid close attention to making sure that Joey remembered to follow the accents when he was giving the words emphasis.

Joey ended up getting a 95% on his final. He was incredibly proud of himself, and Ana was proud of him, too!

Best Ways to Prepare for a Language Test

November 10th, 2014

Foreign language classes never fail to be a little more difficult than all of a student’s other classes, especially once they have advanced past the first year. Learning a language is a bit different from other subjects though, and requires some extra effort and patience to truly master it.

 

First, master your conjugations. Conjugating verbs is one of the first things you learn in a language, and that’s because you are going to use it in every single thing that you do. If you know that certain verbs are going to be on an upcoming test, make sure that you know how to conjugate and correctly spell them for every form, especially if they are irregular verbs.

 

Know exactly what each tense is used for and how to use it. A lot of language tests will cover any new tenses you have learned in the class and when to use them over other tenses you have previously learned. If a tense just doesn’t make sense to you and your teacher can’t clear it up, see a tutor! They can walk you through exactly what each tense is used for and will explain it in a way that your teacher hasn’t.

 

Make sure you know the difference between masculine and feminine words. In some languages the gender of the object will affect its adjectives and how the verb in the sentence is spelled.   Some teachers will count each of these things for separate points, so make sure that you know them!

Back to School Shopping

August 17th, 2012

As a kid, one of my favorite times of the year was when my parents would fork out money for me to go back to school shopping. I would go with my mom to pick out the newest styles. Requirements were new shoes, a new backpack, and at least three new outfits, one for each day of the first week of school. My brother and I would always want to wear our new shoes right away, but were forced to wait until the first day of school.

Along with the back to school shopping came orientation. Mira Costa has their orientation this week as well as Manhattan Beach Middle School. This was always exciting because the students got to see which teachers they had, and also,more importantly, which friends made it in the same class.

Now that I am no longer in school I see more of an importance on the preparation academically rather than the outfits and classes. Students are starting to trickle into The Manhattan Beach Study Hut to get their mind in gear and ready for the whirl wind to begin. Most students need refreshers on math and Spanish. It is extremely important for the seventh graders to come in and review their foreign language. Spanish, French, Latin, and even Chinese are subjects the middle school offers. These are such new topics to the students that they often forget how to conjugate a verb. However, after a simple refresher they are ready for the school year. Moral of the story, don’t forget about tutoring when you are shopping for back to school. The Hut is open for appointments!