Focus on the Learners

Assignment 1 for _________ Training Course

November 3 – 28, 2008

Phuket, Thailand

Presented to: XXXXXXX

By: Shelia A. Peace
Date: November 10, 2008

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 Focus on the Learners

Part A

Observation: Learning Styles, Student Profiles, Strengths and

Weaknesses

The learning group is composed of 10 students: 9 native-Thai

speakers and one native-Russian speaker. As a group, they are highly
educated, and highly-motivated to learn English. The majority have
attended University and now are studying English for business purposes.
General learning group aspirations are to improve economic situations
and/or social life by communicating with foreigners.
Outside commitments include spouses, children, and work.
Several are in business, as owners, managers, or self-employed.
Regarding group motivation Rod Ellis (1998), wrote that learners who
want to become “ . . integrated into the target language culture . . .” or
need to meet an examination goal will retain communicative language
skills.
Six of the 10 with high motivation regularly attend the two-hour
afternoon free English lessons conducted by XXXXXXXXX’s
candidates. Two of this group say knowledge of another language has
helped them with English vocabulary: Italian and Russian.
This group is mostly Visual learners (Sheerin, S. Self Access. OUP,
1989): aided by boardwork / picture concepts that explain meaning. They
are open to Kinesthetic (Sheerin) experiences, which allow them to move
around the classroom and/or write at the whiteboard using target
language.
There are two Auditory learners (Sheerin), who listen to learn, take
extensive notes and talk much less than their fellow learners.

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 Sheerin says that educators must recognize and provide for
differences in students’ psychology, personality, and purposes for
learning. I believe, the teacher must and remedy problems according to
the need(s) of the student(s).
The day one assignment to observe students doing pairwork
resulted in the following observations:
• Weaker students grouped together for mutual support.
• Stronger students cancelled-out one another in conversation.
• Quiet students write more, and need to talk more.
• Witty answers imply a higher target language knowledge.
• Nearly all want to improve speaking ability.
As well, these students need help with article usage (“a”/”the”),
and sentence formation, as well pronunciation. And, as David Smyth
stated in “Thai Speakers” this group has problems “articulating certain
final consonants and consonant clusters.” Smyth also stated:
“Essentially, there are no punctuation marks in Thai . This apparent, I
assume the lack of punctuation marks in written Thai carries over into
spoken Thai: evidenced by Lek, who finds it difficult to “intonate”
despite drilling efforts by teachers.
Ellis (1998) wrote that mistakes help the learner identify what he /
she needs to know. Since this group understands directions and
completes tasks easily, I observe their strengths to be listening and
speaking (while most students insist both are their weakness). This
group’s two weaknesses are word order (verb/adjective placement) and
grammar (tense structure).

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 Part B
Activities to Help Student Learning

In Testing Second Language Speaking (1998), Glenn Fulcher

wrote: “Word order and omission errors are almost always high gravity .
. . and that in languages “. . . such as English, tense selection is probably
the most common problem in speech production.”
Exercises to help students arrange sentences in order would help
with its “word order” weakness. One such exercise would allow word
sections of a whole sentence in group projects. It’s an adaptation of a
pronunciation task from How to Teach English (page 28). This job-
interview task requires students to devise a role-play: planning question
and answer exchanges for a job interview. Following pairwork, the
teacher notes errors / corrections, then works with students on language.
I would do controlled practice word/sentence drills for word order, then
activate a follow-up interview, changing partners for freer practice.
A good grammar lesson, focusing on tense and time, is in
Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar (pp. 108-109). It’s the
original version of what was adapted for this candidate’s Teacher Practice
lesson on present perfect / past simple tenses. This lesson uses a bar
graph giving information on the Mexican economy in the area of balance
of payments. Learners interpret/understand the bar graph; then work in
pairs to complete a worksheet, providing focused practice through
statements completed using simple past or present perfect forms.
Following the worksheet, students write a paragraph about balance of
payments in Mexico, correctly using simple past and present perfect,
providing written record.

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 According to Harmer, a good lesson plan needs a blend of “ . . .
coherence and variety . . . “ and students need to see “a logical pattern to
the lesson.” He says, a good lesson plan should “allow the student to do
different things.”
Fulcher describes tense errors as “. . . low gravity . . .” having ittle
impact on “ . . . the listener’s ability to understand what the speaker
means.” Yet, in prescribing “tense” work for this Learning Group, we
consider that most of these learners study English for business purposes:
greater accuracy means higher financial returns for the Learner. Lek, for
example, does phone surveys for a Time-Share operation. Incorrect
“tense” usage may result in false survey results.
This group needs to use Explicit (learned rules) knowledge to
develop Implicit (instinctive) output (Ellis): “Good language learners
seem to pay conscious attention to grammar and to learn a large number
of rules . . . New rules are internalized subconsciously when learners
comprehend input.”
I will conclude by saying that in accordance with Howard
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory - cited in the XXXXXXXXX
Course Book - that learners have a number of intelligences, and people do
function more or less efficiently in these different spheres. The Course
Textbook used to teach this Learning Group, Straightforward, by Phillip
Kerr and Ceri Jones, allows a multi-level approach to teaching and
learning, incorporating reading (Visual intelligence), Listening (Audio
and Musical skills), writing and problem-solving (using special, artistic
and mathematical skills) that should allow each student to be reached at
his / her optimum level of learning. Based on motivation of learners and
teachers, I think this will be a successful English Class.

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Works Cited

Celce-Murcia, Marianne and Hilles, Sharon. Techniques

and Resources in Teaching Grammar. England.
Oxford University Press, 1988.

Ellis, Rod. SLA Research and Language Teaching.

England. Pearson Education Limited, 1998.

ECC Phuket Teacher Training Center. “Cambridge

ESOL CELTA Handbook,” 2008

Fulcher, Glenn. Testing Second Language Speaking.

Great Britain. Pearson Education Limited, 2003.

Harmer, Jeremy. How to Teach English. England.

Pearson Education Limited, 1998.

Sheerin, S. Self Access. (OUP, 1989) pp. 4 – 6

Smyth, David. “Thai Speakers.” In Learner English:

A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems.
Ed. Michael Swan and Bernard Smith. England.
Cambridge University Press, 1987.