CELTA Assignment 2
Name: Maira Aymone
Rodrigues
Focus on the Learner
Class: Part-time CELTA
January 2013
I – Background, motivation and learning style For this assignment I interviewed Sara, a Peruvian student at the Elementary class. She has been living in London with her son since 2008. In Peru, she worked as a nurse after graduating from a University level course. She is now the primary carer of a member of the family, so she is currently not working. Her husband and other three children (all over eighteen) remained in Peru. Sara never studied English back in her home country and is very keen to come to the English classes at the moment. Sara’s native language is Spanish and she is mainly surrounded by Spanish speakers in her daily life – her 27 year old son, other members of the family, friends and acquaintances. Because Sara spends the majority of time at home, she has learnt very little English in the four years she has been in London. Her main motivation to learn is to become more independent in everyday tasks. She wants to be able to request and understand information (e.g. directions, timetables, etc.) and give information about herself, e.g. tell her doctor how she feels in case she falls ill. Also, in her words, ‘I live in this country, all people speak in English’. In class, Sara struggles mainly with understanding verbal instructions. For Sara, visuals are very important in the classroom. Pictures aid her understanding of the context and target language. Taking notes helps her memorising new words and useful sentences. As a visual and kinaesthetic learner, she also relies on the teacher’s gesticulations to grasp the meaning instructions given in class. Sara’s favourite classroom activities are the ones that involve speaking, especially controlled and less controlled practices, in which she feels more confident, as well as having her pronunciation drilled. She enjoys pair and group work and prefers activities that get her moving around. At home, Sara is happy to have some homework to do and has been trying to improve her pronunciation and listening skills by using free pronunciation websites and watching movies in English with Spanish subtitles. II – Strengths and weaknesses Grammar Sara’s knowledge of grammar is very limited. Even though she has demonstrated having some knowledge of the correct form of Present Simple (‘My husband and I have a family of four children’, ‘They are all over 18’), particularly when speaking it becomes clear that the knowledge has not been 1
consolidated. For example, when asked what she did in London, she replied ‘For this moment, no working’. She confuses the verb tenses, rarely using the past form (‘In Peru I studying nurse’, when trying to say she studied, ‘I come to London no speaking English. In here, learn a little’) and tends to use verbs mainly in their base or continuous form, dropping the verb to be (‘I need to speak English when going a hospital to explain not feeling well a doctor’). These examples also show that Sara has difficulty using prepositions. She often substitutes then for prepositions in her native language (‘I sometimes go a the gym club, I have a card de gym swimming pool’). Vocabulary Sara’s vocabulary is also limited. From the interview and form observing her in class, I can tell she knows the basic vocabulary related to giving personal information, household objects, food and drink, some jobs and professions and most commonly used verbs and adjectives. When asked to write about what she likes and dislikes in London she wrote: ‘I like the snow. I also like the people very friendly and multicultural. I don’t like the wather specially the rain’. When asked if she liked to ‘take notes’ during the lesson she got confused about the meaning of the expression. Sara understood the majority of the simple questions about herself and study habits but they had to be delivered very slowly, with plenty of pauses and some explanation of meaning, for example when I asked if it helped her to repeat words after the teacher in class – I had to reword my question as ‘In class, do you like to say the words again to the teacher?’ Pronunciation Sara’s pronunciation difficulties are heavily influenced by how certain sounds are pronounced in Spanish. Some common pronunciation mistakes she makes are: English Sound
Mistake
/eɪ/
"favourite"
/ä/
as in "father"
/ð/
"they"
/t /
“today”
/t /
/ /
“speak”
/ /
/r/
“reading”
soft Spanish /r/ as is “claro”
/d/
as in "day"
as in “took" as in “bin”
There is also the addition of the schwa to words that begin with /sp/ or /st/. Spanish words that have the same consonant cluster at the beginning of a word are often preceded by an ‘e’, e.g. ‘estudiante’ (student). 2
Communicative Skills Sara’s verbal communication skills are at a very basic level, where she can make herself understood using somewhat logical but incorrect sentences, e.g. “Near my house no is a pool”, or “I no understand the sentence” (she frequently drops ‘there’ and auxiliary verbs). Her understanding and use of written text to communicate ideas is much more developed than her listening and speaking skills, e.g. she wrote “My daugheter (sic) has just had a baby girl and now I am a grandmother”. For Sara, having a simple conversation with an English native speaker is a challenging task. When listening, she needs a considerable amount of processing time and when speaking she is very hesitant due to her lack of vocabulary and knowledge of form. III - Suggestions for language development Sara’s language development focus should be on functional English, to cater for her main motivation, which is to become more independent in her everyday life in London. Overall, given Sara’s current availability and the fact that her son does not like to speak English at home, the main recommendation is that Sara attends as many classes at Hammersmith College as possible, as she is able to come to both sessions (afternoons and evenings) nearly every day. Grammar In order to make herself understood, Sara needs to start by practicing and consolidating the correct use and form of the Present Simple. To help her with that I recommend ‘New Headway – Elementary Workbook’, pages 14-17 (Present Simple 1) and pages 19-20 and 22 (Present Simple 2). That will give her a base to build the confidence to give out personal information and ask simple questions. It is very important that Sara consolidates the question form in the Present Simple as it will serve as scaffolding for the next tenses. Vocabulary and listening skills Exercises A and B on page 14 of ‘English Result – Elementary’ can give Sara some practice of giving and listening to personal information. In SoundsEnglish (http://soundsenglish.com/elem.html) there is also a small selection of free listening exercises that can reinforce the theme. To help Sara with vocabulary needed to give and understand directions plus a listening practice on the subject I recommend ‘New Headway – Elementary Workbook’, page 27 exercise 10 and ‘English Result – Elementary Student’s Book’ page 27 exercises B and C. I also believe that her current practice of watching English and American movies with Spanish subtitles may help with building more vocabulary. Pronunciation 3
Sara told me she has easy access to the internet at home. I recommend that she consults www.thefreedictionary.com to help with her pronunciation, as it offers an audio demo of British and American pronunciations for every word. Sara also would benefit from doing as many listening activities as possible. On www.livemocha.com she can quickly set a user account and have access to a free elementary online course with plenty of listening exercises appropriate to her level, presenting a lot of repetition and useful sentences for practical situations.
Bibliography: McKenna, J. 2008. English Result (Elementary pack). Oxford University Press http://www.livemocha.com/
Scrivener, J. 2005. Learning Teaching (Third Edition Edition). Macmillan Soars, L and Wheeldon, S. 2006. New Headway (Elementary pack). Oxford University Press http://soundsenglish.com/elem.html http://www.thefreedictionary.com
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