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Focus on the Learner
I. Introduction
The student I have chosen for this assignment is Salwa. She is a 40 year old University
professor of mechanical engineering. She speaks standard Arabic and French fluently and is
an A 2- level speaker of English. She enjoys learning new languages and dreams of becoming
a polyglot one day. She is also fond of reading and walking.
II. Learning Background
Salwa has had a long and successful academic experience. She had her Ph.D in mechanical
engineering 3 years ago. As for English, when I interviewed her, she told me that she started
studying English in 1989. She hasnt had any formal learning of the language for the past 10
years. Most of what she knows about English, she has acquired in classes in high school and
later on, at University. She stopped using and learning English when she graduated from the
University and started working as a teacher. Despite her love of the language, Salwa said that
she was unable to keep learning English because she was too busy with her Ph.D and her job.
Due to the relatively long exposure to the language, Salwa has a lot of passive knowledge
which was evident in the TPs. Since most of the exposure to language was in the context of a
classroom, Salwa is rather weak in speaking. Traditional teaching methods, prevalent at the
time, were focused on grammar, reading and writing rather than speaking. This is why she
finds reading activities much easier than speaking activities.
III. Learning Style
As I observed the student during TPs, I noticed that she liked working in groups in speaking
activities but not in reading or language activities. In the latter, she prefers to work alone then
check her answers with her peers. Also, whenever there is a group discussion she tends to
dominate the rest of the group and starts correcting her peers pronunciation or language
structure.
In one of the TPs, I noticed that Salwa was rather reserved and silent which is unlike her.
When I asked her about it after the course she said that she didnt feel comfortable with the
seating arrangement in the session (she was the only female in the group). On another
occasion, one of my colleagues set up a pair work activity and she was asked to turn around
and work with the boy sitting behind her. She completely ignored the instructions and joined
the two girls sitting next to her.
From my observations of Salwa during TPs, the interview and from the learning style
questionnaire I asked her to fill out, I have come to the following conclusions:
She feels comfortable working in a group which is similar to her in level and gender.
She doesnt like kinesthetic activities that demand moving a lot or making physical
contact with others.
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She concentrates more on analyzing language than on using it. (She often asks why we
put this here, What the rule is for this language structure, etc.)
Her main focus in speaking activities is pronouncing the words the right way, rather
than communicating. She doesnt take risks with language (by trying out a structure
she isnt sure of). Whenever in doubt, she stops the speaking task to ask about the
accuracy of the utterance or the spelling.
She always brings a dictionary with her to class to check the meaning of words she
doesnt understand or to check pronunciation.
She re-writes her notes when she goes back home and revises them before coming to
class. She also wants teachers to assign homework.
In The Practice of English Language Teaching, Jeremy Harmer cites Keith Willings
description of different learning styles. If I were to assign one of the descriptions to Salwa, I
would categorize her as a conformist. The latter according to Willing prefer learning about
language over learning to use it. My student, Salwa, seemed more interested in learning about
the grammatical form and the right pronunciation of words than she was in using them.
Furthermore, when I assigned her a short piece of writing in which she was to tell me what
she liked about learning English, she wrote Im very happy to learn English because it is an
easy language like French She then proceeded to give some examples of the differences
between the two languages. Her style of writing was rather analytical and argumentative.
IV. Linguistic Needs
a) Strengths and weaknesses
Through some samples of written activities done in the classroom and the free writing
assigned to Salwa, I have concluded that she didnt have serious difficulties with lexis. By
comparison to her classmates, she had a rather wide range of vocabulary. In the paragraph
appended to this assignment, Salwa used some words which most beginners wouldnt be
expected to know such as particularly, a few and section. However, she often drew on
her knowledge of French and sometimes used false friends or transferred the closest French
word in meaning to the target language. In one of the TPs, my colleague Wassim was trying
to elicit the word disappear and she suggested disparear. The interference of the French
language is evident here because she was transferring the French word disparaitre into
English. Also, in the appended paragraph she wrote I almost reserve a few minutes to revise
my English. This is an instance of using a false friend because rserver quelques minutes
in French means to devote few minutes whereas to reserve has a different meaning in
English.
Observing Salwa during the TPs, I noticed on several occasions that she had some difficulties
with pronunciation that could have been caused by the fact that both Arabic and French are
constantly interfering in her learning of English. The main problem I noticed is stressing all
the syllables in the word even short or weakened ones. For instance, in a controlled speaking
activity, which I appended to this assignment, she pronounced breakfast as /brekfa:st/.
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In Learner English, Swan attributes this problem to the influence of French. Since vowels
which are not stressed retain their pronunciation, rather than being shortened or weakened,
French speakers have difficulty perceiving and producing shortened and weakened syllables.
(Swan 55)
Getting the right pronunciation however, is one of Salwas personal aims. Hence, she would
always check how a new word is pronounced. She seemed to enjoy drilling and would drill
the word herself when she hears it for the first time.
In Grammar and language structures, Salwa had a lot of passive knowledge. In a TP, one of
my colleagues said I do not have or we can say we dont have. In response, she said yes,
the short form is I dont have. This metalanguage is evidence of knowledge gathered through
a long exposure to the language but which has not been activated and used for quite some
time.
Also, she knew the rules for forming the Present and Past but kept using them interchangeably
in free speaking and writing activities. In controlled production however, she would usually
use the right form and structure because she would be paying more attention to her grammar.
Some of Salwas grammatical structures were incorrect because she was drawing on her
knowledge of French grammar. In the appended paragraph she wrote There exist some
differences This is an instance of transferring. As Swan explains it in Learner English, in
French, the expression corresponding to there is is the idiomatic phrase beginning with the
equivalent of it (62). This is often a source of confusion for French speakers learning
English.
b) Sub-skills to work on
I believe my student needs to work on listening for gist. She is very good at listening for
specific information and filling in gaps. However, she doesnt do so well in listening for gist
activities. She tends to concentrate on the sounds and pronunciation and tries to understand
every word.
Since it is one of her personal goals; I believe my student would be more than happy to work
on developing her phonological accuracy. In my opinion, her weakness in this sub -skill is due
to the interference of French. As I have mentioned in the previous section, Salwa tends to
pronounce all the syllables even weak ones. She also pronounces the r sound in words like
teacher which she pronounces as / ti:ter/.
V. Suggested Activities
The three most important problem areas I believe my student should work on are the
following:
Listening for gist
Pronunciation
Grammatical structures
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a) For the listening, I have devised an activity for elementary level students like Salwa.
To facilitate the listening task, I will first activate the students schemata and set
context by providing pictures of different types of dishes from around the world. I will
then ask Salwa to look at the pictures and predict what the listening is going to be
about. As she listens, she will check if her predictions were accurate or not.
I have chosen the pictures and the prediction exercise as a pre-listening activity. It will
help activate the students schemata. Furthermore, predicting then listening to check
the truth of the prediction gives purpose to the listening task and makes it meaningful.
I believe such an activity will be a good practice for the student in listening for the
general idea and it is also an example of a communicative situation that she might
encounter in real life. Hence, it is beneficial for her to familiarize herself with the type
of exchange that occurs in such situations. Moreover, this activity relates to my
students learning style because it does not require contact or group work.
b) For the pronunciation, I have chosen a tongue twister for her to practice at home out
loud because she is so keen on pronunciation and would like to do more drilling of
difficult sounds. I will read the tongue twister first so she can familiarize herself with
the sounds /p/, ending sounds like er and ed . Then, she will be asked to try and read
it herself slowly first, then faster. This activity is a fun way of learning and
distinguishing between confusing sounds in English. Not only does it enhance ones
articulation of individual sounds in minimal pairs but it is also a good practice for
linking and intonation patterns.

c) To help my student write accurate grammatical structures while revising functional
language we have seen during the TPs, I have devised a dialogue build activity
inspired from Face2Face Elementary Teachers Book. In one of the TPs, students
have learnt new vocabulary related to ordering meals and reading the menu. Also, the
listening activity described above will familiarize the student with the grammatical
structures used to order a meal. After setting the context through the listening activity,
the student will have to fill in the speech bubbles using the prompt provided in each of
them. By completing the sentences using the prompts, the student will have built a
dialogue between a customer and a waiter.
Being an analytic learner, Salwa will enjoy and benefit from the task. It will require
thought and concentration on the structures of questions, requests, etc., which are the
types of activities she enjoys.








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Works Cited

Clark, Rachel., Belinda Cerda.,Chris Redston and Gillie Gunningham. Face2
Face Elementary: Teachers Book. CUP, 2005.
Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching.(3
rd
Ed.) Longman.
Swan, Michael., and Bernard Smith. Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to
Interference and Other Problems. Cambridge: Cambridge
University, 2001. 2nd edition

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