Focus on the learner
A. Learner’s profile
Virginia is a 29-year old native Spanish speaker born in Madrid. She is currently studying a professional training course and works as an animal caretaker.
She is one of the A2 or Elementary proficiency level students of the Celta Teacher Training Program at International house Language School. She took part of the same program two years ago, but she didn’t continue studying English afterwards.
Virginia studied English in primary and secondary school following a traditional teaching method, which used grammar as the starting point and foundation, for the development of all language skills — speaking, listening, writing, and reading, however there was relatively little focus on speaking and listening. As reported by Virginia, she was exposed to explicit information about the structure of the language and to rules that she had to internalize through repetitions and direct translation with little or no opportunity of participating in activities that encourage meaningful communication. This situation hindered the development of her speaking skills, and made her fail in her attempts to attain the necessary fluency and confidence to successfully communicate in English during her trips abroad.
Knowledge of grammar without meaningful practice of the language is ineffective, as Jim Scrivener says: “There is no point knowing a lot about language if you can’t use it (which sadly, has been the experience of many language learners in the past – able to conjugate a verb, but unable to respond to a simple question)” (Scrivener, 2005; 146)
As a result of the different frustrating situations she had to face when trying to make herself understand in foreign countries, and due to her love for travelling, she developed an intrinsic motivation to study English. She thinks English is a lingua franca that opens doors to other cultures, on the contrary, she doesn’t have any extrinsic motivation as she doesn’t need to speak English for any other purposes than
Virginia is a 29-year old native Spanish speaker born in Madrid. She is currently studying a professional training course and works as an animal caretaker.
She is one of the A2 or Elementary proficiency level students of the Celta Teacher Training Program at International house Language School. She took part of the same program two years ago, but she didn’t continue studying English afterwards.
Virginia studied English in primary and secondary school following a traditional teaching method, which used grammar as the starting point and foundation, for the development of all language skills — speaking, listening, writing, and reading, however there was relatively little focus on speaking and listening. As reported by Virginia, she was exposed to explicit information about the structure of the language and to rules that she had to internalize through repetitions and direct translation with little or no opportunity of participating in activities that encourage meaningful communication. This situation hindered the development of her speaking skills, and made her fail in her attempts to attain the necessary fluency and confidence to successfully communicate in English during her trips abroad.
Knowledge of grammar without meaningful practice of the language is ineffective, as Jim Scrivener says: “There is no point knowing a lot about language if you can’t use it (which sadly, has been the experience of many language learners in the past – able to conjugate a verb, but unable to respond to a simple question)” (Scrivener, 2005; 146)
As a result of the different frustrating situations she had to face when trying to make herself understand in foreign countries, and due to her love for travelling, she developed an intrinsic motivation to study English. She thinks English is a lingua franca that opens doors to other cultures, on the contrary, she doesn’t have any extrinsic motivation as she doesn’t need to speak English for any other purposes than
References: Hancock, M (2003) English Pronunciation in Use. Cambridge University Press. Oxenden, C, Latham-Koening, C and Seligson, P. New English File, Elementary Student (2007). Oxford University Press. Scrivener, J (2005) Learning Teaching, A guidebook for English Language Teachers. Second Edition. Macmillan Books for Teachers. Rajadurai, J. (2001). An investigation of the effectiveness of teaching pronunciation to Malaysian TESL students MacMillan Dictionary : http://www.macmillandictionary.com/