Student tutors teach practical English skills

It’s past noon on Saturday and grad student Alicia Arnold is reciting a tongue twister.  
“Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager managing an imaginary menagerie.”

She laughs at herself and begins to explain the phrase to two eager female Asian students. They ask what a menagerie is and Arnold looks up the proper definition on her iPhone. 

“How often do you use this word?” one of the girls asks. 

“Very rarely,” she says.

Arnold is one of the tutors for the Practical English Tutorials program sponsored by the Leo R. Dowling International Center. Today she and nine other tutors are teaching exchange students tongue twisters.

Every Saturday for one hour, tutors — usually IU students — and foreign students meet to learn English as a day-to-day language.

Unlike the English language classes some international students take, the PET program is informal and friendly. The tutors are, for the most part, their peers. They can ask questions about vocabulary, culture and pronunciation.

Director Sandy Britton, who oversees the program, said about 1,000 students go through the program every year. The tutorial began in the mid-’90s and has grown since. 

Right now Britton estimates she has 25 to 30 tutors each semester and a ratio of two students per every tutor. Because she’s had a full staff of tutors this semester, she hasn’t had to do extra recruiting.

“What pleases me is that they are so consistent,” she said of the student volunteers.
There’s no charge, no appointment and no attendance taken. The more often a student goes, the better and more confident he or she is at English.

There’s also no training for the tutors. The only requirement is that they must be native English speakers.

Arnold is a graduate student in the School of Education and focuses on international higher education.

For her, tutoring is one way to practice her skills as an English teacher to foreign students. She’ll be going to Japan in July to teach English, and this Saturday one of her students is Japanese.

She has been tutoring since the fall semester and rarely misses a session.  
“I know the difficulties of learning another language, so teaching English is rewarding,” she said.

Fifth-year senior and Japanese exchange student Ako Saito said the Saturday sessions are a good way to learn English in a relaxed environment.

“I can feel free to ask anything,” Saito said. “They make us really feel comfortable.”
She has been going to the tutorials since January and can tell there’s a difference in her English. She’s more confident talking to Americans.

As an exchange student, Saito attends English language classes, but there is a difference between the classroom and the tutoring session.

“We don’t have to care about the grades,” she said. “Classes are intensive.”

Her sessions range from one-on-one pairs to groups of three. She said she prefers having another student with her, so she doesn’t feel pressure to talk the whole time.
At the end of the session, the three exchange contact information. As she leaves, Saito tells Arnold she will find her on Facebook.

“I’ll look you up.”