Come prepared

Bring pens, pencils, paper and any books you think the learner may be interested in to the first session. Make sure that any reading materials you bring are at a variety of different levels.

Although the first meeting is generally just to get to know each other and establish trust, some learners may be anxious to get started. Some activities that you can do with your learner to start may include:

• Reading a short passage
  Let the learner look through the materials you have brought and choose a passage to read aloud to you. It is important to let the learner pick the book rather than use the "trial and error" approach where the learner may be given something too difficult to read and may feel uncomfortable.
  This activity will enable you to discover how well the learner decodes the written text and will give you a chance to hear her pronunciation. Asking additional comprehension questions will give you a better idea of what the learner can comprehend from the text.
• The Language Experience Story
  This is a good exercise for the first session because it will allow you to get to know the learner as well as assess the learner's spoken English. Have the learner read the story back to you.
• Trying the "Getting to Know You" questionnaire in Session 2
  This questionnaire could be used during the first session. You could ask your learner the questions to get to know more about her and her cultural background. She could also ask you these questions to get to know more about the activities in which you (and other Canadians) participate.
  
  The most important thing to remember is to let the learner control the activities during this first session. Establishing trust and a comfortable learning environment is more important than assessment at this point in time.

⁶ Virginia Sauvé, Voices and Visions: An Introduction to Teaching ESL (Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press Canada, 2000.) By permission of Oxford University Press Canada.