Celta Focus on Learner
Assignment: Focus on Learning
Student: xxxxxxxxxxx – Nationality: Nepalese
Background
xxxx has been in England for about 4 months. She followed her husband to the UK with her children. Her husband is doing a PhD. at Oxford University and has a couple of years further study before he finishes. xxxxx is currently working at Primark as a shop assistant. She learnt some basic English while at school, however much of this was listening, reading and writing based and the opportunity to speak with fluent English speakers was limited. Her motivation to improve is initially based on her need to communicate better at work and in everyday life activities, such as shopping. She would also like to do some further study in England but realises that her level of English needs to improve before she would be accepted onto a course. She sees the benefits of her improvement and this motivates her to learn more. She is very much a concrete learner. She enjoys the oral interaction and believes this is how she learns most effectively.
She believes her strengths are in reading and listening. She says she understands most things she reads and hears but struggles when trying to express herself orally. She believes her vocabulary could be significantly improved; and from listening to her I believe her pronunciation could also be improved. Part of the reason for this is her lack of social interaction with native English speakers and also her lack of confidence as she believes this is her weakness. However the challenges of a Nepalese person to differentiate some consonant clusters, stress values, vowel sounds and diphthongs alluded to below needs to be taken into consideration.
xxxx enjoys the oral interaction exercises most of all. She doesn’t particularly dislike anything in the lessons, referring only to doing nothing while waiting for others to finish an exercise.
Analysis
To help xxxxx I believe some focus on speaking to give here more practice and improve her
Student: xxxxxxxxxxx – Nationality: Nepalese
Background
xxxx has been in England for about 4 months. She followed her husband to the UK with her children. Her husband is doing a PhD. at Oxford University and has a couple of years further study before he finishes. xxxxx is currently working at Primark as a shop assistant. She learnt some basic English while at school, however much of this was listening, reading and writing based and the opportunity to speak with fluent English speakers was limited. Her motivation to improve is initially based on her need to communicate better at work and in everyday life activities, such as shopping. She would also like to do some further study in England but realises that her level of English needs to improve before she would be accepted onto a course. She sees the benefits of her improvement and this motivates her to learn more. She is very much a concrete learner. She enjoys the oral interaction and believes this is how she learns most effectively.
She believes her strengths are in reading and listening. She says she understands most things she reads and hears but struggles when trying to express herself orally. She believes her vocabulary could be significantly improved; and from listening to her I believe her pronunciation could also be improved. Part of the reason for this is her lack of social interaction with native English speakers and also her lack of confidence as she believes this is her weakness. However the challenges of a Nepalese person to differentiate some consonant clusters, stress values, vowel sounds and diphthongs alluded to below needs to be taken into consideration.
xxxx enjoys the oral interaction exercises most of all. She doesn’t particularly dislike anything in the lessons, referring only to doing nothing while waiting for others to finish an exercise.
Analysis
To help xxxxx I believe some focus on speaking to give here more practice and improve her
References: 700 Class Room Activities - Instant Lessons for Busy Teachers by David Seymour and Maria Popova – Macmillan Education (10 Oct 2003) Pronunciation: Stress from Just Right Upper Intermediate by Jeremy Harmer and Carol Lethaby - Marshall Cavendish (30 April 2005) Journal of Nelta (Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association) Vol 11, 1-2, December 2006 – Cambridge University Press - Sourced on the internet.