Reflection Essay on Focus on the Learner
French student from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the intermediate class. Sidekick was born in Albumin’s. He got his Matrix in 2008 and attended university for 2 years before and he’s learning English so that he can continue his studies in South Africa. “The reason I’m learning English is that I am a French speaker and I wand to study in a English country,” he writes. Learner style: Sidekick response positively towards practical sessions.
During an interview with Sidekick, he also reinforced this statement by saying that he prefers doing something and/or seeing something rather than just listening. This would suggest that he is mostly kinetic and visual with an emphasis on kinetic. These examples can be seen when asked to physically apply what he’s learned. Learners four skills: Observing Sidekick, I’ve noticed that he struggles a little in each form, but that his weakest area is reading. He also struggles with speaking and writing, but both are connected in the sense that he translates directly from French.
In English this would change something that he series Into a thin, straight, hand-held stick. There’s also certain problems that occur with tenses, as I will mention In language systems. Sidekick also makes use of a speaking rhythm that is unnatural in English. In English phonetics and phonology: a practical course By Peter Roach, Rough explains that there’s a difference between the rhythm of English and French. French makes use of a syllable timed rhythm and that all syllables whether stressed or unstressed occur at regular intervals.
Listening: Sidekick follows natural speech rather easily. Reading: The main concern I’ve found is that while Sidekick can continue with listening,writing and speaking with mistakes, he stops when encounters a word that he is unfamiliar with. Writing: Along with his speaking the problem is tense usage. Other problems are spelling mistakes. He’ll write words exactly as they sound. Language systems: After viewing 3 letters that I received from Sidekick, I observed several common mistakes. Continuous and simple forms: ” My hobbles are: Sports, go to the cinema, Ana listening music. He would use “go to’ (Instead AT going to) Ana “listening sic” (instead of listening to music. ) It shows logic in the forms that he use, but that there’s some confusion of when to use continuous and simple tenses. Pronunciation: As mentioned before, Sidekick often replaces the It/ sound with the [d/ sound. Areas where the student needs help: So far Sidekick’s greatest problems stem from the use of future tenses and question tenses. For questions he will at times confuse the subject and verb e. G. Muff are Tom? ” and “Are you Tom? The emphasis on his words imply different meanings as we’ve learned during class. The former acknowledging that the speaker is vaguely familiar with the person and the latter purely asking. After reviewing his letters, I’ve decided that it’s not Just his future tense that is the problem, but that he still struggles with most tenses. The activities I’ve selected and why: For the skill I’ve focused on reading. Continuous reading will help Sidekick see how to language is used, and if he stops reading Just because of one word, then he’ll never progress any further.
At the same time, the activity I’ve chosen for his reading, also applies to the other language area he requires help in: Vocabulary. The activity isn’t focused on his learning style, but what he needs help in. It’s been downloaded from www. Insidious. Net and has several tasks which will help him to improve. The gap fill will allow him to look at the entire sentence and then get him the gist of words. There is also a task which will improve his spelling and use of parts of speech, another area that he struggles with. For the language area, I’ve chosen tenses in general.
Sidekick has claimed that it’s only the future tense that confuses him, but Judging by his written work, there’s also other tenses that he needs help on. The activity is Snakes and Ladders – Tenses from Cutting Edge: Upper Intermediate students’ book by Sarah Cunningham and Peter Moor. The questions were all changed to apply to his level and weaknesses. This game focuses on his kinetic and visual needs, helping him learn in a particle and fun setting. References: www. London-translations. Co. UK www. Insidious. Net Moor. English phonetics and phonology: a practical course By Peter Roach Class notes
