Dear Kwako,

I'm trying to teach privately a 11-year old with a learning problem - she's really struggling with English. She likes to play video games. I am the 5th teacher they hired for Alice. She has many video games in English but she does not like it. She is very smart and doesn't like teasing to learn English. Any advice? I'm miserable.

Tomiko - female teacher from Japan

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Tomiko,

First: "Alice's Word List". Ask Alice to write down the words she knows in English. 5, 10...

Second: Ask Alice, "Tell me what you wrote!"

Third: If Alice wrote 10 words and she told you 6 of these words, then her average/score is 60%.

Fourth: Challenge Alice to improve that average next time. The higher score, the better.

First month goal: "Alice's Word List" should have more than 100 words within one month. Alice's score should be 70% or higher.

Second month with "Alice's Word List": She will learn/memorize very short sentences.

That's it for now.

KWAKO

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