Part I

Snezhana is a 38-year old Russian speaker, who doesn’t speak any other languages
apart from English. She works as an executive manager in a big company. She has
learned English at school, where students were mostly taught using Grammar
Translation method, and it wasn’t a successful experience for her. In 2016 she had
decided to change her job and found out that for a desirable position knowledge of
English was required. Since then she’s been having lessons with private tutors
(one for Business English, one for General English), also, she took she took an
English course on Malta in June of 2017 and attended English courses at BKC in
June 2018. By the start of the course she had a strong Intermediate level.
Besides getting better work opportunities Snezhana is learning English to be able
to communicate with foreigners in Russia and during her trip as she is quite a
sociable person and likes meeting new people. Recently she has travelled to the
USA and keeps in touch with friends she met there. Thus, her motivation is not
only extrinsic (finding a new job), but also intrinsic (communication for pleasure).
And according to Jeremy Harmer, a combination of both kinds of motivation
enhances learner’s chances of successful learning. [1]
Snezhana considers herself a visual and auditory learner. Her preferred type of
activity in class is speaking. She is ready to participate in any kinds of speaking
activities, whether it is pair work and group work or just giving feedback to a
teacher. At the same time, she finds these tasks the most challenging for her and
thinks she needs to improve her speaking skills the most. Also, in her opinion, she
has large passive vocabulary and she would like to start using these words in her
speech. According to her, grammar and reading activities are not difficult for her.
Part II
Snezhana has sufficient communicative skills, she speaks confidently and quite
fluently. She always tries to make herself clear, likewise, when she doesn’t
understand her partner (mostly because of unknown vocabulary) she is not afraid
of asking for clarification. That is why, though Snezhana is at strong Intermediate
level, she was able to attend classes with Upper-Intermediate students and perform
well.
Despite the fact that Snezhana’s communicative ability is high, she mentioned
speaking and pronunciation as areas to work on. Having observed her over six
lessons, I agree with her opinion to some extent. As I’ve mentioned before, no
problems with fluency were noticed. She has a dominant manner of speech and is
always eager to participate in any kind of speaking activity. Nevertheless, accuracy
is a challenge for her. She tends to make grammar mistakes in oral speech, though
she doesn’t make them when writing. Also, English intonation patterns seem to be
difficult for Snezhana. She either doesn’t change the intonation much throughout a
sentence or finishes a sentence with a fall, which is typical for Russian learners. [2]
It makes her sound quite impolite.
Conversely, Snezhana has no difficulties with reading comprehension. It doesn’t
take her much time to read a text, find necessary information there or understand
writer’s opinion. She was capable of doing both reading for gist and for detail. She
was usually one of the fast finishers in reading tasks and used the time left to find
out the meaning of unknown vocabulary.
Language Problems
Error Type Examples Possible reason
Grammar  People doesn’t like I think it became a
Usage of Present Simple this situation. fossilized error. She
in positive and negative  You looks like a knows the rules and if a
sentences. smart person. teacher asks her to find a
 Does Joe likes this mistake in her speech, she
idea? does it easily.
Also, she is more focused
on communication aim
than on accuracy of
speech.
Lexis  Technology is Student is confused about
Student doesn’t use better than early. comparative forms.
comparative adverbs  People learn to use Maybe she hasn’t studied
where they should be smartphones soon this topic in detail or
used. than they learn to practiced it enough.
talk.
 Now I speak
English well than
last year.
Phonology  the man Sound / ð/ doesn’t exist in
Student pronounces / ð/ /də mæn/ Russian language.
sound as /d/  this program
/dɪs ˈprəʊɡræm/
 than before
/dən bɪˈfɔː(r)/

Part III
Snezhana makes quite a lot of mistakes using Present Simple to speak about other
people. This topic is usually covered at Elementary course, so I would use this
activity (See Activity 1) for a warm-up or a lead-in. As she already knows the
rules, she just needs more practice to get rid of the fossilized error. Maybe
unobtrusive error correction would be suitable, as the student doesn’t notice her
own mistakes. It’s a speaking activity as the student tends to make more of these
mistakes in oral speech. It’s accompanied with visual aids so it fits learner’s
preferred learning styles. First, I would quickly elicit the rules/model for Present
Simple, then I would give each student one empty character card and one card with
information and put students in pairs to get missing information and fill in the
character cards. After that students would mingle around the classroom finding
information about other people and fill in ‘who’ cards. Therefore, students would
practice asking and answering questions in Present Simple. For the feedback I
would ask students to tell 2 positive and 2 negative facts about one character. Thus
they would practice making positive and negative sentences.
To address the problem with pronunciation of / ð/ sound I would use a dialogue
(Activity 2). Before the task I would set the context by showing a picture of a hat
shop and eliciting the situation from students. Then I would model and drill the
pronunciation of th-words from the dialogue both chorally and individually. After
that students would read the dialogue in pairs. I would monitor closely and correct
students’ mistakes as it’s a controlled practice activity. This task would suit
Snezhana as she’s a sociable person and enjoys pair work.
References:
1. The Practice of English Language Teaching, by Jeremy Harmer, 2001,
Longman, p. 51
2. Learner English, by Michael Swan and Bernard Smith, Cambridge University
Press, p.149
Activity 1. Phonology
Ship or Sheep? An Intermediate Pronunciation Course, by Ann Baker, 2006,
Cambridge University Press, p. 157.

Source: Google Images

Activity 2 Grammar
Games for Grammar Practice, by Maria Lucia Zaorob and Elizabeth Chin,
Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 15