1

Index
Learners Background..2
Testing of knowledge and skills....3
Phonetic Transcription...4
Analysis.5
General Analysis...5
Phonetic Analysis...5
Grammatical Analysis..7
Proposal.9
Conclusion..10














2



Language Learner Profile
I. Learners Background.

The interviewee is a 21 years old woman; she is in 3th year of commercial engineering at the
UCSC. At the present time she already had been approved English I & English II (Courses that
are in her major curriculum). Nowadays, she is cursing English III. Mara Jos, studied since
Kinder until 8
th
grade in Colegio Adventista Talcahuano and she had English since her 1
st

scholar year. From 1
st
to 5
th
grade she had 1:30 hours a week of English classes, and then since
6
th
to 8
th
grade she had 2:15 hours of English classes. In her high school education, she points
out that she had and English more technical according to her specialty, which it was Tnico
en Administracin de Empresas, in Colegio Espiritu Santo Talcahuano, where she studied
since 1
st
to 4
th
secondary grade. Also, she participated in the Summer Camp 2009
accomplished in Colegio Santa Bernardita, Talcahuano. It should be mentioned that the
interviewee is Nicol Irarrzabals cousin, that is why she answers in the 2
nd
line of the interview
the phrase when you and I, referring to Nicol.













3



II. Testing of knowledge and skills
a) Taped Interview
Interviewer: Nicol Irarrzabal (N)
Interviewee: (I)
Length: 2:32 minutes.
1. (N): Do you remember any good experience from your childhood? Tell me about it.
2. (I): Ooh yem, I have a lot of memories when I was a child, for example when you and I
eeeh
3. go to the swim class, and we learn to swim we learn a lot of thing and we have, we have
a
4. so so much fun time.
5. (N): What do you do in your free time?
6. (I): In my free time, well I watch a lot of TV, I I chat (haha) in whatsapp, I study when
I
7. I have to study and pretty much that.
8. (N): Would you like to travel to another country? Why?
9. (I): No really, I prefer to travel around my country because ee I love them.
10. (N): How do you see yourself in 10 years?
11. (I): Oh, I see myself married, with a lot of children and happy with my car and workin.
12. (N): Tell me about your daily routine.
13. (I): Mmmh, well I usually get up early and sometimes I get up late too, then and about 2
14. oclock I go to my class until 7 oclock, and then I go I return to my
15. home and I I have my lunch time and then I go to bed.
16. (N): What will you do this weekend?
17. (I): Iihm I dont know because I I dont I I dont have plans I I dont I dont like it
18. make plans because I dont know its all ihmmm spontaneous? And that.

LINK TO THE RECORDING: http://1drv.ms/1lrkyOI








4



III. Phonetic Transcription

This is an extract of learners taped interview. The objective is to transcribe the speech
phonetically pure, just like the learner produced the message, with the purpose of analysis.
Extract:
11. Oh, I see myself married, with a lot of children and happy with my car and workin. 13.
Mmmh, well I usually get up early and sometimes I get up late too. Then, at about two 14.
oclock I go to my class until seven oclock, and then I go I return to my 15. home and I
I have my lunch time and then I go to bed. 17. ehm I dont know because I I dont I I dont
have plans I I dont I dont like it 18. make plans because I dont know its all ehm
spontaneous? And that.
Transcription:
| // a si: maself mrd // w lt v tldren n hpi w ma ka:r
nd wrkn // m wel // a jutli et p erli n smtams a et p le t
// en t bat t klk a t ma kls ntl seven klk // n den
a // a rtn t ma hm //em a hv ma lnt tam n en a
t bed // a: a d n bks ai: // ai: dn // ai: // a dn hv plens //
ai: a d ai: d // a n lak // mek plens bk:s // a d n ts ll em
spntens // en t ||









5



IV. Analysis
In this section, all the mistakes that the interviewee made during the recording are highlighted
in order to analyse them in detail. Additionally, the analysis is divided into two groups with the
aim of classifying the mistakes, which are: phonetic/phonologic and grammatical/syntactical.
a) General Analysis
On the whole, we have noticed that the learner English is quite good at speaking compared to
other recordings that we analysed. The main issue is that even though she was conscious
about the use of tenses and the correct pronunciation; she tended to hesitate in order to
remember the words that she was going to use, and also at the moment of articulating
sentences. Sometimes she got lost because she could not find a word in the L2 to describe
what she was thinking about; however, she did not use Spanish vocabulary to find out a word,
she always kept her speech in English during the recording. The interviewee replaced those
empty gaps with hesitation or lengthening some final vowel sounds to look for vocabulary and
answer properly. We also found that L1 interference is present in final sounds, some vowels
that are typical from the English language but are not present in Spanish and Intonation.
b) Phonetic Analysis

1. Pronunciation mistakes are pointed out and analysed in this section.
Line Word Interviewee
Pronunciation
Phonetic Analysis Correct
Pronunciation
13. Usually /jutli/ Use of the phoneme /t/
instead of //
/ju:li/
Analysis: The use of the consonant sound /t/ instead of // may be because of the inexistence
of the consonant sound // in Spanish. The replacement of this consonant sound shows that
the interviewee might know the pronunciation of the word, but due to the L1 phonetic
interference she used the consonant sound /t/ to fill that empty gap.
Line Word Interviewee
Pronunciation
Phonetic Analysis Correct
Pronunciation
14. Return /rtn/ Use of the consonant sound
/t/ instead of /t/.
Use of the vowel sound //
instead of //
/rt:n/
Analysis: In this case, the interviewee had two little mistakes in pronunciation: the use of the
consonant sound /t/ instead of /t/, and the use of the vowel sound // instead of // which is
the correct vowel sound. The issue for the learner is that these consonants and vowels sound
are very similar; they are placed nearly in the vocal cavity. For not proficient learners, the
recognition and production of these phonemes are replaced by Spanish similar sounds. To
conclude, the interviewee tried to reproduce the sounds in order to sound alike English which
is not a complete mistake, because it showed a higher level of knowledge and sound
recognition.
6



Line Word Interviewee
Pronunciation
Phonetic Analysis Correct
Pronunciation
17. Because /bk:s/ Use of the vowel sound /:/
instead of //
Use of final consonant sound
/s/ instead of /z/
/bkz/
Analysis: In this analysis, it is important to be aware of how the interviewee was speaking at
that moment to understand the mistake. In the first one, the use of the vowel sound /:/ (the
long //) was made due to the overextension of the vowel, because she used this as an
opportunity to think about a reason to answer the question why? ;meanwhile, she was
lengthening the vowel. And the second one, the use of final /s/ instead of /z/ happened
because of the interference of Chilean Spanish phonology, in which the words with final s or
z are pronounced the same. However, in English this phenomenon does not happen, and
because it is a phonetic language, a letter in a word does not mean that it will be pronounced
the way it is written. In this case, she knows the word because but the Spanish interference
made her to produce the final sound as a /s/ and not as a /z/ which is the correct way.
Line Word Interviewee
Pronunciation
Phonetic Analysis Correct
Pronunciation
17.
18.
Dont (Do not) /d/ Omission of the final sounds
/n/ and /t/
Use of the phoneme //
instead of the diphthong
//
/dnt/
Analysis: The pronunciation of this word is because of Spanish interference on the learner
speech. In Spanish, as it was mentioned before, final sounds are omitted in colloquial speech,
and here the interviewee did not pronounce the final /n/ and /t/ sounds. Furthermore, it is
recommendable to give a context and speculate the cause of the omission. After the word
dont she said know /n/; as a result, she could have mixed the sound /n/ of the word
dont with the one in the word know, eliminating the /t/ sound that is in between and
must be pronounced to emphasize the negative connotation of the verb do. The other
pronunciation issue is the use of the vowel sound //, it may happen because of the
inexistence of the diphthong // in Spanish, and the learner may have not included these
vowels in her speech production.
Line Word Interviewee
Pronunciation
Phonetic Analysis Correct
Pronunciation
18. plans /plens/ Use of the vowel sound /e/
instead of //
/plns/
Analysis: It seems that the interviewee tried to produce the vowel sound //, but the attempt
was not successful. It may happen because of the unusual use given to the open a sound in
Spanish, and the comparison between the /a/ sound in Spanish and the several /a/ sounds in
English: /a/, /a:/, // and //. These sounds may not be known by the interviewee.

7



2. An Intonation example is presented in this section.
In the line 11 she says:
Oh, I see myself married, with a lot of children and happy with my car and
workin
Here the arrows represent the tone that she used in order to express the descriptions asked by
the interviewer. The speaker uses rising tone in the words married and children which is
very Spanish like, so it can be concluded that there is L1 interference in the intonation. In the
English language, rising tone can only be used for questions being very representative of
interrogative sentences. To sum up, the correct way to use the tone here is:
Oh, I see myself married with a lot of children and happy with my car and working
c) Grammar examples and analysis.

Tense Mistakes:

- In line 2 and 3 the student says: *+ You and I eeeh go to the swim class.

Subject + Verb + Complement
- Form: Present Simple: pronoun + conjunction + pronoun + interjection + verb infinitive
+ preposition + definitive article + verb infinitive + noun.
- Correct Form: Simple Past: pronoun + conjunction + pronoun + interjection + verb in
past + preposition + definitive article + verb infinitive + noun.

The interviewee is using the verb infinitive in present simple instead of the past of this verb
(went) in a simple past sentence. This happened because she might not remember the past
conjugation of the verb go, which should be answered in that sentence.


- In line 3 she answers: and we learn to swim.

Subject + Verb + Complement.
- Form: Present Simple: conjunction + pronoun + verb infinitive + preposition + pronoun
+ verb infinitive.
- Correct Form: Simple Past: conjunction + pronoun + verb in past + preposition +
pronoun + verb in past.

The interviewee made the same mistake described in the previous example. She conjugated
the word learn in present simple instead of simple past due to the context given by the
question.
In this case, this is produced because she may not remember the past conjugation of the verb
learn, which should be answered in that sentence, and/or she effectively may remember this
verb in past tense, but because of the influence of the L1 she does not pronounces the final
sound in the word learned, and finally it is heard in the L2 as learn.

8



Pronoun Agreement:

- In line 9 she says: I prefer to travel around my country because ee I love them.
- Correction: I prefer to travel around my country because ee I love it.
In this line, country is a singular noun and the verb is love. The agreement between the
pronoun I and the verb love are correct, but the agreement between the verb love and the
pronoun them are incorrect. Therefore, the noun is country, and the pronoun that should
replace this word has to be singular, also it has to be referring to an animal or an object, not to
them. It seems that she was trying to point out the regions of our country that is a possible
reason to be using a plural form; she may have forgotten or became nervous at the time, and
she could not express what was in her head with words. Furthermore, them is an object
pronoun that we can use it when the person or object indicated receives the direct action of
the verb. In this case we only need the personal pronoun it to indicate the subject (Country).

Subject- Verb Agreements:

- In line 3 the student says: We learn a lot of thing.
- Correction: We learned a lot of things.

In the outline phrase, the subject we (personal pronoun) + the verb learn are correct. But the
expression lot of thing is the wrong agreement of the first part we learn. Lot is a quantity
adverb referring to an amount; it cannot be followed by a singular noun. This mistake is due to
the apparently mispronunciation of the final sounds, because of the L1 influence when we tent
to avoid the last vowel and letter.

Vocabulary (Lack of vocabulary):

- In line 13, 14 & 15 she answers: I get up late too, then and about two oclock I go to
my class until 7 oclock, and then I go (she corrected herself) I return to my home and I
I have my lunch time and then I go to bed.

In this sentence we do not propose a correct sentence, because it will depend on the level of
vocabulary that the person could have to connect sentences in a proper way, not only by
coordinating conjunctions as we see here (conjunction: and). The lack of vocabulary here is
demonstrated by the connection of 3 sentences, the three of them are linked by the
conjunction and





9



V. Proposal

As it can be seen through the analysis, the learner does not have a bad level of English because
she could answer properly all the questions, giving reasons and trying to express her ideas in
English. It may seem that the early exposition to the L2 has made her understand and produce
outputs in order to communicate. However, as it is pointed out in the sections of this Language
Learner Profile (LLP) there are mistakes that should be polished in order to improve the level
of proficiency in the L2 of the learner.
First, she is able to communicate and express with a certain quantity of vocabulary, but she
does not know how to use the tenses in the English language. We propose to give her the tools
to communicate with functional language, even though she knows how to talk about a daily
routine, the use of the past form of some words is sort of weak. She needs to study the way
tenses are used in the language at the moment of using them, for example: the way of telling
past experiences, statements, past verb forms and repeat them until she becomes aware of
the use of these functions. We think that it would work as a strong support for her current
level of English and will help her in the future to express her ideas in a better way.
Second, her pronunciation is good and is very easy to understand, but sometimes she tends to
omit final sounds or blend them in order to speak faster. We propose to solve these issues
with oral readings to improve the way words are pronounced in English, correcting very gently
and giving feedback during the practice process As a result, she would be able acquire some of
the English sounds by repetition and constant feedback.
Third, intonation is a very difficult issue to deal with, and she had many problems with the
intonation. During the interview, she would use rising tone for the words that she seemed to
be not sure about or when she finished a statement. This is very typical in learners because of
the interference of L1, and Spanish speakers use rising tone most of the time, mainly when we
are not sure about a topic or we are nervous. We propose to give her the instruction with
feedback that intonation in English does not rise in every sentence or word, but we think that
this is a deeper work to deal with and requires many hours of exposure to the L2.
To conclude, we agreed that this learner was a very good element to be taught English,
because she has the basis, she understands, and is able to communicate accurately, having
also an important amount of words and time expression which are no commonly used by
beginners. Our proposal covers the aspects of improving her communicative, intonation and
pronunciation skills. Besides, these skills should be practiced with the aim of becoming more
precise and strengthen her basis, which is communication (always describing our learner).




10



VI. Conclusion
To finish with, in this learner language profile shall we start saying that the learners English
background apparently was a benefit, because we do not found many mistakes or huge
mistakes in the interviewee. The phonetic transcription and analysis was very important in this
assignment, because the meaning that you give to one sentence or other is going to depend of
the tone that you use at the moment to speak. In the phonological part we also added that the
importance of the interference of the L1 at the moment to speak the L2 not always is positive.
We had 2 cases. The positive interference we could analysis when the student come back to
their L1 to use cognate words to describe a situation, this is a fact that L2 learners we are
making all the time, because it help us to join the ideas and to no let our thoughts without
ending and not connection. Furthermore, the negative interference occurs when we tend to
not pronounce the final sounds in the L2 words, especially when we talk about verb in past
tenses. In the analysis and example topic, we should be aware all the time, and not most of the
time that syntax rules in the English language are different from Spanish language, and at the
moment to create a sentence or write a long text we need to be conscious of this rules, this
will help us to avoid the most common mistakes, such as: subject-verb agreement, pronoun
agreement, and tenses errors.
References:
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring. Thomson Heinle.