This blog will shift to a case study based on my tutorship on
Ma, in the term of dairies.

Up to now, I’ve been tutoring Ma for 2 months, once a week. I’ll
recall my memory of the impression that the young man gave to me
and my feelings during the procedure of my tutoring.

Before I begin my tutoring to this 13 years old boy, I had had a
met with his teacher, who take care of him during the work days.
(It is quite common in china, especially in the well-developed
coastal cities; some students’ parents are very busy with their own
business, so they just make their kids lodge in their teachers’.
Usually there can be about 10 students boarding in a teacher’s
home. )

According to his teacher, Ma is a slow leaner in the school,
especially in English classes. He is negative and has no motivation
for study. In his teacher’s words, Ma always told his classmates
it’s no use studying. Also, the teacher said this boy didn’t have
any hobby, and Ma’s father is a bank manager, when asked about Ma’s
mother, the teacher said he didn’t know, maybe a chief manager of a
factory.

So at the very beginning, I think it is better for me to pay
more attention to Ma’s psychology rather then his English study,
but I know, as a tutor, my task is help him boost his grade.

The first time I met Ma, he seemed very unenergetic, as if just
wake up (it was 12:00 in the noon). Then, I followed him to his
home, when the door opened, I was shocked—everything is in a mass
in this home. In the living room, there’s no sofa, against the wall
is a table where laid some leftover, and also a desk, it is for
Ma’s study. The family is not poor. On the contrary, they are rich,
as far as I know. Then I sow his cousin, a senior in the
university, who take care of ma during the weekends. He didn’t
walk, but jump, a victim of polio. I asked ma where his father was,
he said he went to work, when was asked where his mother was, he
said I don’t know, maybe she is in, maybe out.

I’ve mentioned that I what to develop the boy’s interest on
English. So, on the one hand I want to use the way of talking to
him in English and made the topic interesting to draw his
attention, then, make him enjoy it. On the other hand, that was the
first class delivered by me, so I just want to know his English
level. As a result, at the beginning I just had a short
conversation with him. But what made me disappointed was that he
couldn’t recall the meaning of the word
“old” and failed to answer my
question “how old are you?” It
is far away from the average English level of the students of grade
8. I know I must give up the way of free talking with him to
develop his interest on English, it wouldn’t work, but can only
makes him lose his heart. So at that time, I learnt that what the
boy need is something basic. I began to focus on his text book, and
asked him to read the text. In this process, I found out he
couldn’t read a word according to the rules of pronunciation, and
it directly leads to the problem of his poor spelling skills. So I
got to know what was my task the next class—talking about the
skills of pronunciation. We spent on 4 hours for the first class, I
remember I kept talking for mostly all the time on grammar and the
meanings of the text, as well as his homework. The first day, the
boy didn’t ask me any questions, and never stopped me, seems a
little bit negative. Even though he seemed very tired, but he just
let it be. He didn’t smile, even in our conversation at the very
beginning, and ignored my praising words. For all the 4 hours, I
didn’t criticize him, though he didn’t know the very basic word or
grammar, instead I said “good” and was active for all the time.
When I came back, on the road, I felt very tired, also down, but
only a bit.

Oh, still, about 2 o’clock, his mother came in, just say
“hello” to me, didn’t pay any
attention to Ma, not so friendly I should say. Then she sat down
and ate some leftover in a hurry, going directly to the bedroom and
begin to watch TV, later, she called someone, yelling.

So, I think the boy is thirsty to praise and love.