FOCUS ON THE LEARNER - A CASE STUDY(+/- 900 words)

Name: Ana Rita Ribeiro de Freitas

Due: 18-08-2014

In this assignment you will write a report on both your TP group as a whole and on a student in the TP class you are teaching now. As a practising teacher, you will, at times, have to write reports on students for various reasons, e.g. passing on information to a colleague, providing information for a student’s employer, etc.

The purpose of this assignment is: To encourage trainees to reflect on the motivation and learning background of a

group of learners. To develop trainees’ ability to identify and evaluate a particular learner’s linguistic

strengths and needs. To focus trainees on some ways in which an individual learner’s needs can be met in

a group situation through use of appropriate resources

Assessment criteria (from Cambridge ESOL Syllabus)Successful candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

Showing awareness of how a learner’s/learners’ background(s), previous learning experience and learning style(s) affect learning;

Identifying the learner’s/learners’ language/skills needs Correctly using terminology relating to the description of language systems and language

skills. Selecting appropriate material and/or resources to aid learner’s/learners’ language

development Providing a rationale for using specific activities with a learner/learners Finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using written

language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task

Each assignment may be submitted twice

COMMENTS

1.PASS

RESUBMIT

2.PASS on Resubmission

FAIL

FIRST MARKER SECOND MARKER

Teacher Training DepartmentCELTA - Day 10Date 18/08/2014

Task:Write a report which a colleague would find useful if they inherited this group from you. The report should be based on three ‘research’ methods:

1. Refer to the observation tasks which have helped you focus on various concrete aspects of the group´s performance;

2. Refer to any interviews you’ve conducted with the group and a particular student;3. Any written work you have collected and marked from one student.

Student’s name: Yukiko

Student’s level: Upper-Intermediate

Section 1

1. An account of the group´s background and learning experience, with particular regard to learning English. Make sure you comment on your case study student’s background and their learning experience

Write your answer here: The group comes from a wide-ranged background with an age range from early twenties to early sixties. The students are predominantly Portuguese, however there are also Brazilian (4), Italian (2), Polish (1), Japanese (1) students.When it comes to past learning experiences, My student, Yukiko, comes from Japan and studied English for 10 years at school, but she also spent a month in the USA. Yukiko stated that during her school years, teachers mostly used the Reading and Writing approach. Her background is very important, because of the cultural aspect, that is, students in Japan rarely learn speaking and are not encouraged to participate actively.

2. The group´s reasons / motivation for learning English, and what you consider to be their needs in English. What about your case study student?

Write your answer here: This group has eclectic reasons and motivations for attending English lessons.While some are attending for personal development, others are attending for professional, social reasons. Generally speaking, it is clear that the group’s main aim is to be able to communicate in a more fluent manner as well as be able to understand spoken English betterMy student, Yukiko, is attending this course because she wants to enhance to communicate with people in Portugal. She has no time to fully learn Portuguese and since the majority of Portuguese people speak English, she thought of expanding what she already knows.

3. Your interpretation of the group´s various preferred learning styles and the reasons for this. e.g. I think they might be visual because I’ve noticed that…What about your case study student?

Write your answer here: In broad terms, the group prefers visual and kinaesthetic activities; this is remarkably noticeable with lessons that focus on lexis. Students show enthusiasm for visual prompts as well as activities that engage them

physically (with one or two exceptions). They are intolerant to ambiguity and might ask questions to the teacher till they are fully satisfied as seen on many lessons. This group is also syllabus-bound. When asked if they studied at home, the big majority answered no. It is clear they prefer to learn in a class.I think my Yukiko is an introvert, she needs to be nominated most times in order to take part in the lesson and a serialist, she likes organization and needs to learn in sequence so that she can organize all the information she already has on her mind.

4. The activities which the group enjoys most and benefits from in class. What about your case study student?

Write your answer here: What this group really enjoys are the activities where they can share their opinions and thoughts without restrictions (authentic English) turning all activities, that involve speaking into a success and very enjoyable. It is important to state, however, that some students are not as extrovert as others and tasks should motivate all types of personalities if something is to be elicited.The group enjoys mostly pair work. They feel it is better to speak or share ideas before speaking in an open group feedback. That can be stated when they are asked to do it individually and during feedback, the strongest students are the initiators because others might feel self-conscious.One of the students has hearing impairment and is not keen on Listening activities. One other student doesn’t really appreciate writing in groups because she doesn’t understand the point of writing if time is so short.My case study, Yukiko enjoys pair-work very much as it gives her a chance of practising English, which is her number one goal for coming to these lessons. She does not like reading, because it is a solitary task. For the last two weeks I have seen her confidence building up and she is participating more without being nominated to do so and I believe the motivating tasks have helped her in that sense.

Section 2

1. Details of one particular student’s strengths and weaknesses for both language systems and skills. Consider examples from both written and oral work.

Language systems (i.e. word order/ formation/ verb patterns etc. pronunciation)

1. What is the strength/weakness?2. Example3. Why do you think it’s a strength/weakness?

Language skills (reading/writing/listening/speaking)

1. What is the strength/weakness?2. Example3. Why do you think it’s a strength/weakness?

Use the boxes below for your own answers

Language systems strength 1 1- Lexis 2- She makes lists of words on her notebook with the translation next to them. 3- In this student’s case I think it is a strength, because she is using a technique that she has learnt while studying English in Japan to help her cope with this new approach of learning.

Language systems strength 2 1- Grammar2- As you can see from this small text on the left, Yukiko is aware of the rules. 3- Despite having one or two small errors, they do not impede full comprehension.

Language systems weakness 1 1- Phonology (Pronunciation)2- “human are allowed to vote”3- I believe this is a weakness as it happens during oral communication. Yukiko doesn’t seem to be aware of the pronunciation of some words when speaking.

Language systems weakness 2 1- Lexis (Informative-conveying information)Yukiko often uses the wrong word, albeit similar to express something, for instance: 2- “ the waiter adviced the client”3- In this case it is a weakness because it conveys a different meaning from her original intention. It represents a problem with parts of speech.

Language skills strength 1 1- Reading (skimming; scanning)2- On day 8 of this course, she was given a

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

text, which she was able to read faster than her partner and grasp meaning, because I then observed her attempt at explaining to her partner, in words, what she had read.3- The approach (grammar-translation) to teach a language in Japan helped her with grasping the meaning of texts and being able to learn plenty of vocabulary.

Language skills weakness 1 1- Speaking (using interactive strategies)Yukiko can’t produce spoken language immediately, she has to think of the sentence first, although with this communicative approach she has been improving and taking more risks.2- Despite the improvement in her speaking skills, when asked why she didn’t like Reading, she replied:” Boring.” She couldn’t expand her thought into a sentence.3- Due to her cultural background. In Japan silence is acceptable and she has never had to speak English, so she didn’t get to practice what she learnt. Her intention is to stay in Portugal for 3-4 years, which means she needs to develop her interactive strategies.

Section 3

For each of the three weaknesses you identified in the previous section, find a resource to help the learner with that problem (each problem needs a different resource type). Resources can include the internet, other coursebooks (not the one you are using with the class), supplementary books, grammars, etc.

Please don’t repeat resources and make sure they are appropriate to level.

1. Attach a copy of each resource to this document.2. Provide a rationale for the specific activity you choose from the resource What is the activity/task? What problem are you trying to address? Why will this activity/material be suitable to help this learner with this specific problem

Use the boxes below for your own answers

Weakness 1

Phonology (Pronunciation)1-http://www.johnkeithcommunications.com/pronunciation/dailyex.html2- This website has a very thorough pronunciation section followed by very straightforward exercises and activities.The pronunciation section explains the different sounds and has audio examples for Yukiko to adapt to the new sounds and practice them. She would benefit greatly from this type of exercises to raise awareness of sounds.

Weakness 2

Lexis (Informative-conveying information)1-Reading: http://www.cambridge.org/servlet/file/store7/item6615343/version1/Readers%20catalogue%202011.pdf2- Cambridge has available all sorts of book for different levels. I believe this would help Yukiko recognizing words in the different contexts. Since there are multiple levels, she could in fact monitor her own progress.

Weakness 3

Speaking (using interactive strategies)1- http://www.splendidspeaking.com/learn/improve_english_fluency.html2- This resource is great for Yukiko. Not only she can improve her fluency, but also develop her interactive strategies. “practice makes perfect”, and I believe she could really get some results with this.

Any other comments: