Part 1 Learners Background

(i) Language Learning Background

The subjects name is Marco. He has taken English as a subject at school. According to his own account, he has been studying English for about six years: during elementary school and part of high school. Apparently he didnt like the class during his first year studying it because of the teacher and the way he taught (grammar rules which were not very clear). Then he had a Russian teacher and apparently the class was more dynamic and he started liking the class as well as learning the language. He only took an hour-long class a day. The methodology used was very similar to the one used during the CELTA course. He mentioned there was a language focus stage (of course he didnt say it that way) covering meaning, form and pronunciation. It is possible that his teachers could have taken the CELTA course. He also mentioned listening exercises like the ones we had during the course. He also mentioned that the textbook he used was called Scrap (I asked for the publishing company, but he didnt know it. I looked the book up, but I couldnt find it). His learning style appears to be Visual / Auditory for he said he liked learning new words/grammar through the use of pictures and listening to music to develop his listening ability. This is the reason why he mentions the fun class with the Russian teacher. He feels hes good at reading but he isnt as confident when it comes to speaking and listening. One of his weaknesses is definitely speaking: he makes many mistakes because he translates Spanish to English a lot (e.g. than the Spanish, because is good to). He is clearly speaking English but thinking as he would in

Spanish. He also finds difficult using irregular verbs in the past especially the past participle forms because the forms change from present to past to past participle and some of them are so different. Phrasal verbs are a bit problematic and difficult to understand for him. He mentioned give up as an example and he said he didnt understand up.

(ii) The Learners motivation

There are mainly two reasons why he wants to study English. First of all, hes majoring in architecture and he has to read books in English. He wants to travel to visit important architectural sites and, according to him, most people speak English at these places, so he needs to speak the language. Also the software and other things he needs to work with are in English. The second reason is that he enjoys listening to music, reading and going to the movies. He said that its just not the same to read than to watch.

The Learners first language

The learners first language is Spanish. There are some similarities as well as differences between Spanish and English.

Similarities

First of all, both languages use the Roman alphabet. That knowledge helps build a phonemic and phonological foundation.

The alphabet is practically the same which makes it easier for most students to understand words, phrases, etc. This is a huge advantage. Some words have similar meaning and mean the same: dentist, university, etc. Differences between the two languages follow similar patterns: English -ion as the equivalent for Spanish -cin (nation, nacin; perception, percecpcin),1 just to mention a few. As for vocabulary, thousands of words are English-Spanish cognates because they share a common origin. With similar sound, appearance, and meaning, these cognates help students transfer that word knowledge into their second language. Secondly, except for a couple of word order exceptions (adjective before noun in English and noun before adjective in Spanish), sentences in both languages have the same basic structures (as compared to English or other non-Latin derived languages). And thirdly, learning to read and write uses the same basic processes (phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, comprehension, writing mechanics). When teachers and students know these basic similarities between the two languages, it saves time and guess work as students transfer their knowledge of Spanish literacy into English literacy.

http://spanish.about.com/mbiopage.htm

Differences

While most differences relate to form, most differences between these two languages are found in pronunciation and spelling. Therefore, most Mexican students have trouble with these areas. As Smith and Swan so clearly state it, Spelling and pronunciation are very closely and simply related in Spanish, so beginning students tend to pronounce English words letter by letter2. Some examples are: answer, w and r are pronounced; chocolate, the second o is pronounced, etc. There are also some differences between the two languages that may interfere with English pronunciation (phonemic differences) and with decoding or spelling (phonological differences). Perhaps the greatest difference between English and Spanish is that Spanish has only five vowel sounds while English has more than 14, depending on regional dialects. This is the reason Spanish speakers have difficulty differentiating between vowel phonemes in words like seat and sit. Both phonemes are pronounced differently from the Spanish s (yes), which is pronounced somewhere, between those two English phonemes. These differences also affect students' spelling. Here are some other examples of possible interference from Spanish: Here are a few differences between Spanish and English:

The consonants: v, ll, h, j, r, rr, z, , x

Swan, Michael and Smith, Bernard, Learner English, CUP, pg. 94.

Combinations in Spanish that are pronounced differently: que, qui, ge, gi. For example: the u is not pronounced unless it is written as ; therefore, students may not be sure how to pronounce words like queen, quiet, or quick

Quotation marks vs. dashes: "Come here," he said. Ven aqule dijo. Spanish does not have the following sounds (listed by category):

Vowel diagraphs: ou, ow, eigh, au, aw, oo Consonant digraphs: sh, th, wh, ph Consonant blends: sl, sm, sts, scr, spr, str Initial sounds: kn, qu, wr, sk Final sounds: ck, ng, gh Endings: -ed (pronounced /d/ or /t/ or /ded/ or /ted/) Endings: -s (pronounced /s/ or /z/ or /ez/ or /es/) Endings without a vowel: -ps, -ts Suffixes/prefixes: un-, over-, under-, -ly, -ness, -ful, -est Contractions: don't, isn't, weren't, etc.3 Finally, spelling and punctuation differ from on language to another. Spanish speakers tend to use longer sentences when writing. Commas are used quite frequently to separate clauses, whereas English speakers tend to prefer shorter sentences when writing. Punctuation also varies a lot. In English, words such as days of the week, months of the year, nationalities, etc. need to be capitalized. These same words are not capitalized in Spanish.

http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/background/capitalizing

Part 2 Analysis of learners English Language usage

Category: Pronunciation

Problem Area Word stress Sentence stress Marco stresses some words and sentences incorrectly. He attempts to pronounce these words and sentences correctly; he just tries too hard and often ends up pronouncing incorrectly. Word stress cmputer / interesting / Sentence stress I started liking the language. / I dont Understand some of the verbs. /

Examples

Corrected Examples computer / interesting / Why? Word stress: the only reason I find is that he tries too hard. He is aware that pronunciation in English and Spanish is different, so he tries to make does differences clear, sometimes stressing words incorrectly. Sentence stress: According to Smith and Swan, Spanish speakers tend to pronounce letter by letter. This is reflected in sentence stress. Marco stresses every word ion a sentence because of the nature of his first language. Use back chain drilling to help him stress sentences correctly. After class, teach him how to use the phonemic chart and the phonemic script in found in dictionaries to increase his awareness. Have him say some sentences and record them. Compare to native-speaker pronunciation. I started liking the language. I dont Understand some of the verbs.

/ /

Strategies a) b) c)

Category: Grammar

Problem Area The use of articles and prepositions Marco uses the article the a lot and most of the time he uses it incorrectly. By doing so, he sounds unnatural. Also, his writing tends to be confusing as a result of this. He uses prepositions incorrectly in some cases. Article the Im going to tell you about the Mexico City. The best place is the downtown. But if you like music stores, boutiques and the museums... Corrected Examples Im going to tell you about Mexico City. The best place is downtown. But if you like music stores, boutiques and museums... Why? He has a strong influence form his first language. He may be speaking English but he still uses Spanish syntax. In Spanish what he is trying to say would be correct. His problems is related to L1 interference. He probably has no idea that he is speaking and writing incorrectly because what sounds he wishes to say sounds perfectly fine to him. e.g. ...sobre la Ciudad de Mexico; el centro; los museos. This is how he would normally speak in Spanish. So he sees no problem in doing so in English. As for the prepositions, the same explanation applies. e.g. Cerca de ahi,; Hay un parque cerca de la escuela. Strategies a) I should plan a Language Focus class about the use of the: when to use it, when not to use it. The reason for doing so is that I have a strong feeling that hes not the only one making this type of mistakes. b)Give him remedial work for homework. The Grammar in Use intermediate4 book
4

Examples Prepositions Near of there, there are bars and discos. There is a park near of the school.

Nearby, there are bars and discos. or Near a certain place Theres a park near the school

Murphy, Raymond, English Grammar in Use, 3 ed., CUP, 2004.

would come in handy. Section 73 of the book provides lots of Fill-in-the-blank exercises. c) Have him read texts and ask him to underline the article the/near/nearby so that he notices how they are used. This should help him with his language awareness.

Category: Writing

Problem Area Mechanics Organization For some reason he doesnt Capitalize the pronoun I. This is kind of odd for an intermediate student. He sometimes writes run-on sentences (he misses comas and periods). There are some words which he uses correctly quite frequently, except that he spells them wrong.

Examples Mechanics If you like to walk alone or whit some one. I live in a great city whit its problems. i can say something about it. i used to go to this place frequently. Organization There are music stores, boutiques, and a lot of museums for example the Templo Mayor, the Franz Mayer and my favorite place the Bellas Artes palace i use to go this place frequently and sit on a bench or (This is the what he wrote) There are music stores, boutiques, and a lot of museums, for example: Templo Mayor, Franz Mayer and my favorite place, Bellas Artes Palace. I use to go to this place frequently and sit on a bench or

Corrected Examples If you like to walk alone or with someone. I live in a great city with its problems. I can say something about it. I used to go to this place frequently.

Why? Mechanics: I believe the reason he misspells with has to do with L2 interference. Most of the words he uses in English which begin with w are followed by h (e.g. where, when, why, who, whole, etc.).Therefore, he reaches the conclusion that all words beginning with w should be followed by h. I believe the reason he doesnt capitalize the pronoun I has to do with L1 interference. The pronoun I (yo) in Spanish is not capitalized, except when it is used to start a sentence. Thus, he assumes it must be the same in English.

Organization: To my understanding, he doesnt write a lot and, therefore, he doesnt have a lot of experience punctuating his writing correctly (both in English and in Spanish).

Strategies a) To raise his awareness, he should read different texts and highlight the punctuation marks that are being used. b) Give him a composition with misspelled words and missing punctuation marks. Have him correct the mistakes and write punctuation marks where appropriate. c) Ask him to write similar compositions and to punctuate them correctly.