Teaching Adults

Recently I started volunteering at an organization called 'Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture'. The clients using this facility are from all over the world and have come from unfortunate circumstances. Many of them who have come to Toronto as refugees (running away from a terrible past) are becoming accustomed to Canadian culture and are becoming familiar with the area. Many of those clients are there to learn English.

As a volunteer, I have started to help out a client in order to prepare her for The International English Language Test (IELT). She wants to pursue her PhD, hence she wants to improve her English so that she can get admission to a university in Toronto. Using books and online sources, I ensure that she gets sufficient practice in all three areas: reading, writing, and conversing. I select magazine/newspaper articles or passages that are filled with vocabulary so that she can learn new words- learn the spelling, pronunciation, meaning, and how to utilize that word.

 As well, I also assist adult clients who are new to using computer programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Word. Using these programs are so natural for daily users that I did not realize the difficulty of breaking down the instructions to use various basic tools and type. However using analogies such as changing the font style/size/colour is like going shopping for clothes and choosing between a huge variety of types, sizes, and colours.

Teaching how to use Microsoft Word