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Sheena Cowie

Assignment One

Focus on the Learner

Introduction
Ismael is a 20-year-old student who first began to learn English at
secondary school when he was 15. Although his father has spoken English
since he was a child, as he is in Norway, Ismael is unable to practice his
language skills at home. He would like to work in the restaurants in
Granada and believes that learning English will make it easier to get such
a job because he will be able to engage with the foreign customers and
tourists. Presently he is at Pre Intermediate level. Ismael always arrives
late for class but easily picks up on the topic being taught. He does not
often volunteer answers, but is quite happy to speak when asked. He is
reticent when working in a pair/group until the other(s) involve him in the
discussion at which time he always has a contribution to make. He makes
the most confident (and correct) contributions when the class is based on
a listening skill, but he also responds well to pictures. I would therefore
consider him primarily an audio learner but with visual leanings. He
prefers the controlled practice rather than open class work because he
doesnt want to make a mistake in front of his peers. As he gains in
confidence, I believe that he will become more integrated with the class
as a whole.
Strengths

Vocabulary
His grasp of some vocabulary is shown in his written work,
where he used the verb (triumph) in the correct context
(triumph in the USA). He is also able to use collocations in his
written work (Just like that) and (Im going to be). He also
described his intention to be (one of the best). His vocabulary
is surprisingly wide ranging but its not always apparent as he
speaks very quietly in class. The vocabulary he used during
our interview showed that he often knew more than he
thought he did if I paused for a moment he would sometimes
offer an alternative word to one he had previously used e.g,. in
rap music, the part that is repeated the most is called the
hook but he was also able to offer chorus.

Listening

Listening is a language system that Ismael is very strong in.


He is able to pick out the correct information from both gist
and detailed listening. This is evidenced by the speed at
which he completes gap filling exercises and the ability to
pick out the information necessary to make a false statement
true. (She live with her friend because is very expensive). He
listens to a lot of rap music and this may have enhanced his
ability to hear individual sounds better than might be
expected at this stage of language learning.

Grammar
He has a good knowledge of the past simple tense and uses it
fluently in both the classroom when speaking, and in his
written work (I was), (I robbed and killed), (I found).

Areas of Weakness
Vocabulary
The vocabulary used is sometimes in its Spanish form rather
than English.
This is more prevalent in writing than in
speaking. In the written work, he uses grabation studio
instead of recording studio and fortunity instead of
Fortune.
His spelling of words which in both English and
his first language have single consonants, show up in his
written work with double letters e.g. proffessional and
bussiness. This is unusual in that it is more common to find
the words appearing in written work, which drop the double
letter 1 apear or necesary.

Grammar.
Ismael shows some difficulty with the present simple tense:
he missed out the I when writing .. spend on things that
(I) want and on another written piece produced in the
classroom, he wrote she live with her friend because it very
expensive. In the latter example, he omitted the s for third
person singular and is before the adjective very and
finally, again in written work, She want to open a restaurant
one day also missing the s in want.

Pronunciation
In our interview, Ismael mispronounced some words such as
child and island- they were pronounced as chilld and is
land. The /ai/ sound is getting replaced by the /i/. Given that
his most effective learning medium is listening, the activity

addresses that. The words are first spoken then repeated,


spoken repeated, as often as seems necessary to bring out
the correct sound before being spoken again and placed on
the W/B (audio + visual).

Tasks and Exercises to improve the areas of Weakness.

For the vocabulary, a crossword with words that Ismael has had or
may have problems with has been created (using an online
crossword maker). The crossword could be done as a fun exercise
after the main focus of the lesson and involve other students. It
could be made more complicated as the vocabulary increases.

Present simple. The written exercise is presented as an


underlining task which is again aimed at his visual style. Although
the task may seem too simple for a pre-intermediate, as he is
making recurring mistakes in this area, I considered it worthwhile to
go back to basics

For the area of pronunciation and because Ismael is primarily an


audio learner, I would first begin with pronunciation drill of the
words as written on the list on Appendix ( ). Once we had done the
drilling, I would ask the student(s) to repeat the words individually
and write them on the correct part of the board.
Word Count 944

Swan Ed M., Smith B. Learner English Cambridge University Press:


Cambridge. (Coe Norman,
TheBusyTeacher.org Pronunciation worksheet. (Adapted)
http://my.puzzle-maker.com

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