UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE LA SANTÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN

FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN

“Language Learner Profile”

Ingrid Bello Acuña,

Paulina Escobar Aguayo.

INTERVIEW

Good afternoon, thank you for the opportunity to interview you

1. Interviewer: How are you today?

2. Learner: I am… I am like the play in the computer.

3. Interviewer: How old are you?

4. Learner: Fifteen… fifteen years old.

5. Interviewer: Do you practice any sport?

6. Learner: Football, football.

7. Interviewer: How often do you practice sport?

8. Learner: Once an the mouth.

9. Interviewer: Tell me about yourself.

10. Learner: I am intelligent and I like the look the movie and the play my phone and I

am the talk and my friend.

11. Interviewer: What’s your favorite food?

12. Learner: Lasagna

13. Interviewer: What’s your favorite movie?

14. Learner: And the saw.

15. Interviewer: What do you want to study in the future?

16. Learner: Tecnic of construction.

17. Interviewer: What’s your favorite friend’s name?

18. Learner: Eliazar

19. Interviewer: What is more important for you, “your friends” or “your family”?

20 Learner: My family

21. Interviewer: Why?

22. Learner: I am family I love you so much, we, we I love you so much and have a

good relationship.

23. Interviewer: Tell me about your family.

24. Learner: My family is wonderful, much comprehensive.

25. Interviewer: Do you have brothers and sisters?

26. Learner: Yes.

27. Interviewer: How many brothers and sisters do you have?

28. Learner: And the one brother and the one sister.

29. Interviewer: Tell me about your father.

30. Learner: My is work in the topography

31. Interviewer: Tell me about your mother.

32. Learner: My mother in the work in the house and…

33. Interviewer: Do you have any pet?

34. Learner: Yes.

35. Interviewer: Is your pet important for you?

36. Learner: Yes.

37. Interviewer: Why?

38. Learner: What I love you.

39. Interviewer: Do you take care your pet?

40. Learner: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

41. Interviewer: What do you do in your free time?

42. Learner: And the play in the computer, the look TV and the sound the music.

43. Interviewer: Do you like to read?

44. Learner: Yes, yes.

45. Interviewer: Why?

46. Learner: And the comprehensive and the beautiful and the read and…

47. Interviewer: How often do you study?

48. Learner: When I study. Mmmm, sometimes.

49. Interviewer: Do you like to study?

50. Learner: No.

51. Interviewer: Why do you consider that to study is important for you? Why not?

52. Learner: My, I study is important why on the next I professional.

Report

1. English background of the learner

The learner interviewed is fifteen years old and he has been exposed to English

language form 5 grade (secondary school) with no more than 2 hours during the

week. Actually, the learner is in the high school, exactly in second medio at

“Colegio Los Acacios” in Concepciòn. This is not bilingual school thus; he has no

more than 4 hours of English language in a week. In addition, the learner generally

listens to music in English. His favourite singer is Michael Jackson. Besides, the

learner generally watches movies in English and the learner watches movies with

subtitles in English.

ANALYSIS

Through the interview we could identified some weaknesses in the use of

English made by the learner. Some weaknesses were in the grammatical area;

furthermore, a lack of vocabulary. In the case of grammar the most common issue

was the wrong use of definitive article “The”. The learner constantly added this

article before verbs. Another issue was the problems with vocabulary. The learner

used wrong verbs in the sentences. For example: look instead of watch, sound

instead of listened and so on.

We could realize that the students have these failing because he still presents

a strong interference with the L1. He uses a similar grammatical structure that in

Spanish. He applies the same grammatical rules in English and for this reason he

makes these mistakes when he speaks. Also we have to add that the learner usually

listens to music in English and maybe this is another reason why the students made

mistakes when he speaks in English. We believe that he imitates his favourite singer

and the way the singer speaks or the actors speak in the movies. We think that

nowadays both music and movies have a great impact and influence on teenagers

and our learner is a clear example of this.

We have to recognize a very important issue, the learner`s attitude, he was

really confident during the interview and spoke fluently. Clearly the learner does

not have problem with fluency, he has only problems with accurancy (vocabulary

and grammatical structures)

ANALYSIS

From a grammatical point of view the learner has the following

weaknesses:

1.- Issues with the use of definite article “the”

Example 1 the learner said: ... I am like the play in the computer. (L2)

Maybe the learner would want to say: I like playing in the computer

Example 2 the learner said: ... I like the look the movie and the play my phone and

I am the talk and my friend. (L10)

Maybe the learner would want to say: I like watching the movies and playing with

my phone and talking with my friend.

Example 3 the learner said: And the saw

Maybe the learner would want to say: Saw

Example 4 the learner said: And the one brother and the one sister (L28)

Maybe the learner would want to say: I have one brother and one sister

Example 5 the learner said: My mother in the work in the house and (L32)

Maybe the learner would want to say: My mother works in the house and

The learner repeats the definite article “the” several times when he

speaks. Maybe it is because in Spanish, we generally use the article

before names, nouns, etc. We have to consider that this is a wrong

use of this article in Spanish and unfortunately the learner repeats

the same error when he speaks in English

2.- Issues with verb tenses

Example 1 the learner said: ... I am like the play in the computer. (L2)

Maybe the learner would want to say: I like playing in the computer

Example 2 the learner said: ... My is work in the topography (L30)

Maybe the learner would want to say: my father works as a surveyor

Example 3 the learner said: my mother in the work in the house and (L32)

Maybe the learner would want to say: my mother works in the house and

Learner has difficulties with the verb “to be”, especially with the use

of the simple present tense. Also the learner does not add the final

“S” in the case of the third person singular maybe he is not totally

clear about the use of the verbs tenses

3.- Issues with pronouns.

Example 1 the learner said: ... I am family I love you so much. (L22)

Maybe the learner would want to say: I love my family, I love them so much

Example 2 the learner said: ... What I love you. (L38)

Maybe the learner would want to say: because I love it

Example 3 the learner said: My, I study is important (L52)

Maybe the learner would want to say: My studies are important

Learner has an enormous confusion between subject pronouns and

object pronouns. He tends to confuse these. We would say that the

learner does not know when he has to use a subject pronoun and

when he has to use an object pronoun. We strongly believe that the

students repeat the sentence “I love you” instead of “I love them”

because this is a very typical and common sentence used in movies

and songs and maybe the students remembers this easily because he

has listened this sentence several times before

In the case of vocabulary the learner has the following weakness:

Example 1 the learner said: ... My family is wonderful, much comprehensive

(L24)

Maybe the learner would want to say: My family is wonderful and understanding

Example 2 the learner said: ... And the comprehensive and the beautiful and the read and… (L46)

Maybe the learner would want to say: because read is interesting and beautiful

In both examples the learner used the mother tongue because in Spanish

we say “comprensivo” (it is an interference of L1)

Example 3 the learner said: My is work in the topography (L30)

Maybe the learner would want to say: my father works as a surveyor

In this example the learner made the same relationship than in Spanish

because in Spanish the family word of topography is “topògrafìa,

topògrafo” ; however, in English we cannot do the same relationship with

words. In this case the correct words is surveyor

Example 4 the learner said: I like the look the movie and the play my phone and I am the talk and my friend.(L10)

Maybe the learner would want to say: I like watching movies and playing with my phone and talking with my friend.

In this case the students used the verbs “look” instead of “watch”. It was

maybe because the students learned at school that verb look means to turn

your eyes; nonetheless , he does not know that in the case of be in front of

a screem we have to use the verb “watch”., He gives a generally uses it

this verb (look)

Example 5 the learner said: why on the next I professional.(L52)

Maybe the learner would want to say: because I will be professional next year.

From a phonetics point of view the learner has the following weakness:

1.- Problems with the stress patterns

RP learner

Fifteen ˈfiftin ˈfiftin

RP learner

relationship rɪˈleɪʃnʃɪp relɪnʃnˈʃip

2.- problems with some vowels sounds

RP learner

Phone fəʊn fɒn

RP learner

Love lʌv lɒv

RP learner

Sometimes ˈsʌmtaɪm sɒmtaɪms

3.- Problems with soem consonants sounds

RP learner

The ðə de

RP learner

Football ˈfʊtbɔ:l ˈfʊbbɒl

RP learner

Intelligent ɪnˈtelɪdʒənt inˈtelɪgen

COMMENT: we think that in this particular area (phonetics) the students

has weaknesses with vowels and consonants and also with the stress

patterns because he has not any notion about phonetics; furthermore, he

only repeats the sounds according how he listens or how he reads. Clearly

he does not know that in English there are twenty different vowels sounds

and twenty two consonants in Spanish and he tends to use these sounds

when he speaks in English

Interview (phonetics transcription)

From the interview we took the following lines which were taken from the

learner`s answers:

Do you practice any sport? en de ˈfʊbbɒl. (L6)

How often do you practice sport?ˈwɒns ʌn de mæk (L8)

Tell me about yourself.

aɪjʌm inˈtelɪgen ən aɪ laɪk de luk de mu:bi: ʌn de pleɪ ʌn de maɪ fɒn en aɪjʌm de tɒk ʌn maɪ fren. (L10)

Future needs

Based on one the weaknesses of our learner “The use of the definite article

the” we propose the following to solve it. First, English has to be taught

not only from a grammatical point of view, but also in context. Nowadays,

a great percents of the students know what a verb is; however they do not

know when to apply these in a real situation. In this particular case the

learner absolutely does not know when he has to apply the definite article

and when he does not.

Other issue is about verb tenses, as we know it is so hard for students.

Because they understand the grammatical structured but as we wrote

before the idea is to teach grammar based on functions, not only as

isolated words, but also with functions in order to the students develop the

capacity to connect words into sentences, paragraph etc. As a conclusion,

the idea is to teach communicative English instead of structural English.

Learning strategies lesson planning form

Content are : English Topic : Grammar

Grade : Low beginners

Objectives

Content knowledge/skills: Use of definite article in reading.

Learning strategy : Recognize, highlight and underline key words

in a piece of writing.

Procedures

Preparation

How will you find out what strategies your students are already using for

this type of task?

1. Apply check lists (it could be in Spanish) which give us

information about how our learners learn. The learner is going to

check some options that represent how they prefer to learn a

language (go to annex)

2. Ask students what strategies they use to comprehend when they

read, both in their native language and in the target language.

Encourage students to share their strategies, and write those

strategies on the board.

“When you read, what things you do to help yourself understand the

story?”

Presentation

How will you model and describe the strategy? What name will you

give the strategy in your target language?

First, the teacher is going to use a piece of writing as an example to the

students learns what they have to do after.

1. Identify the definite article “the” in the text.

“Well students, we are going to identify the definite article “the” in the text.

If you don’t know indentify some words in a text is very useful and

affective for you, because if you do a good job you can understand the main

idea of a text and in this particular case the use of some words in a text. You

have to underline and highlight the word “THE” with a bright color and then

you have to underline the word which is after the definite article “the” (you

may also demonstrate how to identify these words, if you feel it is

necessary).

Now, look at the screen. We are going to identify the word together. You

and me. If you can see there is one definite article here. (all of this activities

are based on a small text)

Practice

How will students practice the strategy using the content and language

you want them to learn?

Have students work in pairs to use identifying to find the word “THE”

and when the find one, the have to rise their hand and say where is the

word. For example: The house. The teacher will write the example on

the board. After all of the examples the teacher will explain the use of

the definitive article “the” (the activity is base on a small text

according to the age of the students and their interest)

Evaluation

How will your students assess whether the strategy helped them learn?

Will you use the strategy “identifying” in the future?

Apply a check list (it could be in Spanish) which gives us information

about how successful the strategy was for them, orally. With questions

such as:

It was easy for you to find the definite article “the” in the text?

Could you recognize what world were before or after the

article?

According this text could you said me if the article can be used

in every sentence? Do you consider that this strategy help you

to understand the use of this article? Or you don`t?

This strategy helps you to understand or identify another thing.

Tell me what

Expansion

How will students transfer teh strategy to other tasks and

situations?

They can apply this strategy in different classes such as, the

language class, literature class and the history class. All the subjects

connected with reading. The purpose is to abstract new vocabulary

and the applications of some structures. Also it is help to understand

the main of the text and some details

Reflexiones en el aprendizaje del lenguaje

¿Cómo tú aprendes un lenguaje?

¿Cómo tú prefieres aprender un lenguaje? ¿Què es lo màs

conveniente para ti?

- Leer un diccionario

- Leer un libro

- Haciendo listas de vocabulario

- Viendo tv

- Estudiando gramática

- Escribiendo historias

- Leyendo diccionarios

- Aprendiendo canciones

- Traduciendo

- Usando un computador

- Leyendo materiales auténticos (historias, publicidad etc)

- Escuchando la radio

- Aprendiendo diálogos

- Estudiando solo

- Estudiando con amigos

- Hablando con hablantes nativos

- Hablando con tus compañeros

(Take and modified from “the learning strategies” by Anna Uhl,

Sarah Barnhard, Pamela Beard and Jill Robbins, pag 56)