I worked very hard developing activities that I thought would be useful for non-native speakers. Just about everyone has searched for a job in his/her life, but there are certain cultural characteristics of a society that must be attended to. My activities focus on reading comprehension. Though I put much thought and planning into my activities, after a certain point I will admit that I was so focused on finishing the 15 activities that I overlooked certain mistakes. I began to make typos and forget to include certain things in my instructions. I did not realize just how many mistakes needed to be changed until I received feedback from a teacher that teaches in the Intensive English Program (IEP) at Georgia State University. I trust her advice and look up to her because I was her Practicum student. Although she is an extremely nice person, I know that she is very honest as well. She would not have the apprehension that she would hurt my feelings if she had to critique some of my activities. I valued her honesty and bluntness, which she always mingled with a little humor. She has been working with ESL students for a few years so she tried to look at the activities from the perspective of an ESL student. She suggested that I change the format on some of my activities, especially the matching exercises. She also found a few typos and suggested that I change the modals in a couple of my sentences to adjust the meaning of certain sentences.

The two students that I had to test my activities were at different levels. One is a non-native student in graduate school at GSU taking one ESL class and the other is an intermediate student. The graduate student is a Chinese male and the intermediate student is a Panamanian female. The Chinese student suggested that I modify my directions on some of the activities, but did not find them all that difficult, except for the matching exercises, which I changed so that all the responses would fit on one page without having to scroll from left to right. The Panamanian student had major technical problems, but was fairly able to do the activities, though she did the activities at her home while watching her favorite soap opera. That was definitely a mistake because it was hard for her to focus on the activities.

I appreciate all the feedback that I was given and I surely implemented much of it. I do know that my activities are not yet complete and that further revisions will need to be made in the future. I would appreciate any feedback that could be given. You can e-mail me at [email protected] or just click on my name at the TOP of this page.