English Learning and Acquisition

Language Learning Profile

By: - Camila Martinez -Estefany Lazcano

Section: II Teacher: Iris Roa

Date: 19th June 2014

Concepcion, June 2014

Index

Page

1. Index 2

2. Introduction 3

3. Learner’s Background 4

- Student’s Background 4

- English studies 4

4. Testing 5

- Taped interview 5

5. Phonetic transcription 6

6. General Analysis 6

7. Presentation of the problem phonetic/phonology 7

- Problem 1 7

- Problem 2 8

8. Presentation of the problem grammar/syntax 9

- Problem 1 9

- Problem 2 10

9. Proposals 11

- Phonetic /phonology problem 11

- Grammar /syntax problem 12

10. Conclusion 16

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Introduction

This language learning profile shows us the error analyses of a second language learner in the first year of the major English pedagogy in the “Universidad Católica de la Santisima Concepcion”.

The first part of this piece of work is the English Background that the student has in terms of her English studies.

The second part is the taped interview, which contemplates seven questions and answers provided by the first year student.

Besides, we added phonetic transcriptions. The third part is the analyses of two grammatical errors and two phonetic errors. Ultimately, we considered some proposals and possible solutions in order to overcome the errors that were analyzed.

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Student’s background

The student’s name is Paulina Montoya; she is nineteen years-old, from Los Angeles, Chile, now she lives in a hostel in Concepcion. Currently, she is in first year in “Universidad Catolica de la Santisima Concepcion”, in Concepcion. Then we asked her about her studies, her interests in the major, and some questions about herself.

English studies

Paulina Montoya studied in a semi-private school in Los Angeles called Saint George School. She had English eight hours a week in her school.

Her decision to become an English teacher was influenced by her former English teacher, because she started to like English and became to be interested in watching movies and TV series in English, surfing on internet and listening to music.

She actually did not take any English course in an institute before starting the university; nevertheless, she decided to study English pedagogy because she really likes English and teaching .In the present, she studies English Pedagogy in “Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción” in her first year.

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Testing

Taped interview

T: interviewerS: interviewee

1-.T: What is your name?2-.S: My name is Paulina Montoya

3-.T: How old are you?4-.S: I’m nineteen years old.

5-.T: When did you start the university?6-.S: Well… I start the university here when I was seventeen and I came here actually with 7-.my brother. My brother also start the university to study.

8-.T: What is your greatest strength?9-.S: My greatest strength, well when I’m studying my greatest strength is that I have a really10-.good ability to listen and understanding what you’re saying.

11-.T: What is the last non-school related book you read? 12-.S: I read the fallen starts

13-.T: What did you learn from this book?14-.S: That book teach me that life can be really really cruel. It doesn’t matter what if you 15-.stick someone even if you are in trouble you can be happy

16-.T: Why did you choose to study English pedagogy?17-.S: Because I like English that‘s the first motivation and the next because I like to teach 18-.and my mother is a teacher and I saw her and that’s motivate me to.

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Phonetic transcription

Text:

6-.Well… I start the university here when I was seventeen and I came here actually with my 7-.brother. My brother also start the university to study.

9-.My greatest strength, well when I’m studying my greatest strength is that I have a really 10-.good ability to listen and understanding what you’re saying.

| well ˈaɪ ˈstɑːtɪdðə ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsɪtihɪə wen ˈaɪwəz ˌsevnˈtiːnənd ˈaɪkeɪmhɪər ˈæktʃuəliwɪðmaɪ ˈbrʌðə | maɪ ˈbrʌðər ˈɔːlsəʊstɑːtðə ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsɪtitə ˈstʌdi |

| maɪ ˈɡreɪtɪststreŋθ | wel wen aɪm ˈstʌdɪɪŋmaɪ ˈɡreɪtɪststreŋθ s ðət ˈaɪhəv ə ˈrɪəliɡʊdəˈbɪlətitə ˈlɪsnO ənd ˌʌndəˈstændɪŋ ˈwɒtjə ˈseɪɪŋ |

General analysis:

During the interview were presented several problems in pronunciation and

grammatical mistakes. The problems are divided in two groups. The first one is

phonetics; in this case there are problems with dental fricative sound and

vowels sounds. In the case of grammar, the interviewee presented particular

problems in past tense use and she did not pronounce final‘s’ sound.

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Presentation of the problem: Phonetics/phonology

Problem 1:

She said:

9-.My greatest streng, well when I’m studying my greatest streng is that I have a really good 10-.ability to listen and understanding what you’re saying

She should have said:

My greatest strength, well when I’m studying my greatest strength is that I have a really good ability to listen and understanding what you’re saying

| maɪ ˈɡreɪtɪststreŋθ | wel wen aɪm ˈstʌdɪɪŋmaɪ ˈɡreɪtɪststreŋθ s ðət ˈaɪhəv ə ˈrɪəliɡʊdəˈbɪlətitə ˈlɪsnO ənd ˌʌndəˈstændɪŋ ˈwɒtjə ˈseɪɪŋ |

Analysis of the problem:

Paulina Montoya did not use the dental fricative sound; this is a phonetic problem, because she makes a very common mistake in the first year’s students. We reflect that this happened because of the interlanguage. Probably, she is in the process of learning the target language. On the other hand, these kinds of sounds do not exist in Spanish language, so she is not getting used to acquire these new sounds. Finally, she is in her first year of the major and she does not have the phonetic course, so she needs to learn how to pronounce this kind of sound.

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Problem 2:

She said:

17-.Because I like English that‘s the first motivation and the next because I like to teach and my 18-.mother is a teacher and I saw her and that’s motivate me to.

She should have said:

Because I like English that‘s the first motivation and the next because I like to teach and my mother is a teacher and I saw her and that’s motivate me to.

| |bɪˈkɒz ˈaɪ ˈlaɪk ˈɪŋɡlɪʃðætsðə ˈfɜːst ˌməʊtɪˈveɪʃnQ əndðənekstbɪˈkɒz ˈaɪ ˈlaɪktətiːtʃəndmaɪ ˈmʌðə z ə ˈtiːtʃərənd ˈaɪ ˈsɔː hərəndðæts ˈməʊtɪveɪt miː tuː |

Analysis of the problem:

Paulina Montoya did not use the correct pronunciation of the vowels. This situation occurs because she is not familiar with the position of the mouth and the difference sounds that can be produced with the different positions. In this case, she produced the “a” vowel sound as a Spanish way, because she did not consider the different “a” vowels sound that can exist. In conclusion, in vowels is necessary that the air escapes in a relatively unimpeded way through the mouth and/ or nose.These changes can be very slight and difficult to detect for first years students.

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Presentation of the problem: Grammar/syntax

Problem 1:

She said:

6-.Well… I start the university here when I was seventeen and I came here actually with my7-.brother. My brother also start the university to study

She should have said :

Well… I started the university here when I was seventeen and I came here actually with mybrother. My brother also starts the university to study

Analysis of the problem:

Paulina Montoya did not use the “s” in third person. This occurs when students learn the rules of present simple, but they do not use in communicative meaningful activities. Probably, she have not been practiced the use of this rule in her speaking skill. So, she is only aware of the structure of the rule but not use frequently. Moreover, Chilean people tended to omit the final sounds in the plural words and others.

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Problem 2:

She said:

What did you learn from this book?

14-.That book teach me that life can be really cruel. It doesn’t matter what if you stick15-.someone even if you are in trouble you can be happy.

She should have said:

What did you learn from this book?

That book taught me that life can be really cruel. It doesn’t matter what if you stick someone even if you are in trouble you can be happy.

Analyze of the problem: Paulina answer the question without used the past tense form in an irregular verb, although we asked the question in past tense. This issue happens because probably students of the first year of the major do not know the high frequency list of irregular verbs. The beginners used to confuse the rules of regular and irregular verbs. Furthermore, it can be a possibility that they do not know the structure of the past tense.

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Proposals

Phonetics/phonology problem:

1. To overcome the problem of th sound :

A) Give students a phonetic explanation of th sound.

There are actually two different "th" sounds in English, but they are very similar. Both "th" sounds are made putting your tongue between your teeth so that the tip of your tongue is touching the tips of your top teeth. Now you can make a "th" sound by blowing are through your teeth. You can check to see if you are doing it correctly by using a mirror. You should be able to see your tongue when you say words such as "this", "the", and "that". If cannot see your tongue, you may be putting your tongue behind your top teeth instead of touching the tips of your top teeth.

B) Practice: Give students a list of high frequency words. Students have to pronounce all of them and recognize the different position of th sound ( at the begging, in the middle or at the end of the word)

.

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Grammatical/ syntax problem:

1) To overcome the problem of ‘s’ in the third person in present simple :

A) Explain present tense with the third person:

S in present tense: Students have to learn that normally in the present tense, she needs to add S to the end of the verb in the 3rd person (He, She, It).

Verb 3rd Person

Speak Speaks

Play Plays

Give Gives

Make Makes

B) Practice :

Students have to realize an oral presentation in which they have to describe the members of their family and friends. The students are going to use third person and also use verbs that describe actions and routines of their family and friends. The teacher and students have to make sure

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the using of third person and the application of the rule of‘s’ in third person.

2) To overcome the grammatical problem of irregular and regular verbs:

A) Explain the grammatical definition of past simple and the use of it.

.

B) Explain the pattern of past simple:

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C) Give the students the formation of regular verbs in past simple:

D) Give the students a list of high frequency irregular verbs.

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E) PRACTICE

GAME:

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Preparation

1 . H a v e s t u d e n t s s i t i n   a c i r c l e

2. Give students a minute to remember what they did yesterday.

3. After giving instruction appoint one student to begin.

Direction

1. You will have one minute to remember what you did yesterday

2. Then one player will be chosen to tell you what they did

3. Then the next player will repeat what the previous player did using and I and

add what he or she did.

4. Each player will repeat all of the previous players’ activities and add their

own statement.

E) Also, students can practice and learn how to pronounce -ed sounds in high

frequency regular verbs:

Conclusion

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As far as we concern this project was about different phonetic and grammatical error in an interview that was provide by a first year student of the English Pedagogy.

First of all, we analyzed two phonetic issues of the language system. We found problems in the pronunciation of dental fricative sound and vowel sound. We discussed that these two situations happened because the students have not the knowledge about the difference positions of the mouth to produce the difference sounds.

The other issue that we analyzed was grammatical error. These problems were based on the use of the “s” in third person and the use of the past tense form in an irregular verb. We reflect that both of these situations tent to occur, considering that the beginners’ students omit the rules because they do not use frequently in speaking skill.

Finally, we considered that a language learner profile can help to identify easily errors in second language learners and provide positive and successfully proposals to overcome problems, also developing the productive skills such as speaking.

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