Focus on the Learner
Assignment 2: focus on the learner
1- Background to the learner:
My student is called Samir Salem Abdullah Al-Ahsani. He is an Omani student working as an employee in the Bouhelba Company. He speaks Arabic which is his mother tongue and a little English. He’s at the elementary level at Polyglot Institute. He first studied English in the Omani public schools where he didn’t learn much according to him. He felt he couldn’t respond ,when talked to in English, and needs to improve his speaking skills so he decided to join Polyglot Institute for an English language course. When I met Samir I asked him: “ why didn’t you learn speaking at school. What’s going to change now?” He simply said that he hadn’t had the same motivations .He had been careless and that now he really cares. At school he didn’t feel the need for this language and the number of students in the class didn’t help at all. Days and days passed in class and he did not utter a word in English. The teacher didn’t talk to him either. Now, it’s completely different .He has a clear goal. It’s to be more comfortable at work where he has to talk to people in English. Samir has a passive studial learner style while at school and a passive experiential learner in real life (see the attached questionnaire).
As such, Samir cannot improve so much in speaking unless he becomes active studial .The speaking skill needs some more initiative and to be more daring. Samir, according to the questionnaire, is of a visual interpersonal intelligence. He prefers learning by watching and forming a mental image of target knowledge. He also learns better when listening to the other’s explanations or instructions. I think Samir should be helped to acquire more learning intelligence (verbal or kinesthetic) to move to the active style of learning. This is not difficult, I think, as according to his above explanation of how he studied at school, he was not naturally passive but forced by negligence to be so. 2-
1- Background to the learner:
My student is called Samir Salem Abdullah Al-Ahsani. He is an Omani student working as an employee in the Bouhelba Company. He speaks Arabic which is his mother tongue and a little English. He’s at the elementary level at Polyglot Institute. He first studied English in the Omani public schools where he didn’t learn much according to him. He felt he couldn’t respond ,when talked to in English, and needs to improve his speaking skills so he decided to join Polyglot Institute for an English language course. When I met Samir I asked him: “ why didn’t you learn speaking at school. What’s going to change now?” He simply said that he hadn’t had the same motivations .He had been careless and that now he really cares. At school he didn’t feel the need for this language and the number of students in the class didn’t help at all. Days and days passed in class and he did not utter a word in English. The teacher didn’t talk to him either. Now, it’s completely different .He has a clear goal. It’s to be more comfortable at work where he has to talk to people in English. Samir has a passive studial learner style while at school and a passive experiential learner in real life (see the attached questionnaire).
As such, Samir cannot improve so much in speaking unless he becomes active studial .The speaking skill needs some more initiative and to be more daring. Samir, according to the questionnaire, is of a visual interpersonal intelligence. He prefers learning by watching and forming a mental image of target knowledge. He also learns better when listening to the other’s explanations or instructions. I think Samir should be helped to acquire more learning intelligence (verbal or kinesthetic) to move to the active style of learning. This is not difficult, I think, as according to his above explanation of how he studied at school, he was not naturally passive but forced by negligence to be so. 2-