Language Learner Profile

Author (s): Mara Jos Acua

Pamela Humeres

Teachers name: Roxanna Correa.
Subject: Learning and Acquisition of
English as a Foreign Language


Concepcin, June, 2014.

1.- Index
Learners Background_____________________________________________3
Interview_______________________________________________________ 3
Phonetic Transcription____________________________________________ 4
General Analysis ________________________________________________4
Phonetics/Phonology_____________________________________________4
Grammar/Syntax_________________________________________________5
Proposal_______________________________________________________6
Conclusions____________________________________________________7
References_____________________________________________________7
















1.-Learners Background
The learner is 22 years old, he is a 4rd year student of Psychology at Santo
Tomas University and she is from Contulmo a rural area on the 7th region. The
participant had her first formal instruction on English in first year of elementary
school, and then since 5th grade until second year of University.
The participant had an experience on a native English country on Australia in
2013 for about three months.
2.-Interview
1. What is your favourite thing to do?
2. I really love cooking cupcakes but I'm a mess of cook! And I love sing
3. too, its my guilty pleasure.

4. Do you like English?
5. Yes! I like it, very much, but is a little bit difficult to me .

6. Which is the most difficult skill for you considering speaking, listening,
7. writing and reading?
8. WellSpeaking, definitely, because the pronunciation is very different
9. between Spanish and English

10. Have you ever been abroad?
11. Yes, I been on Australia the last summer.

12. How many did it take you to be able to understand the language?
13. Well... I thing (sic) so like a couple of weeks.

14. What was your favourite thing about this experience?
15. Can I say everything? it was amazing experience, people are very
16. friendly, more than here.

17. Would you like to live in another country? Why?
18. Yes, I would like to live in Australia one day, because people are very
19. friendly, the culture is interesting and I really love animals like koalas and
20. kangaroos.





3.- Phonetic Transcription
In this section we are going to analyze extracts of the interview and then
transcribe it phonetically in order to observe the learners pronunciation and
identify the mistakes made by the participant.
Line number 8:
WellSpeaking, definitely, because the pronunciation is very different
| wel | spik |defntli |bkz | prnnsen | z veri dfernt |
Line number 13:
Well... I thing so like a couple of weeks
| wel | a s lak kpl v wiks |
Line number 18
Yes, I would like to live in Australia one day, because people are very [...]
| jes | a wd lak t lav n astreli wn de | bkz pipl veri |

Identification of Linguistic Needs
4.- General Analysis
In this section of our Language Learner Profile the mistakes made by our
interviewee will be analyzed in detail. These mistakes would be divided in two
categories, the first one pointing the phonetics and phonology mistakes and the
other one pointing the grammar and syntax mistakes
5.- Phonetics/ Phonology
In this category, pronunciation mistakes and intonation problems will be
analyzed.
Word Learners pronunciation Correct Pronuncitation
(RP)
Pronunciation prnnsen | | prnnsen |

Use of the phoneme || instead of ||. Use of the phoneme || instead of|| and
addition of the phoneme || in the last syllable. We assume that the interviewee
was talking following how the word is written rather than how the word is
pronounced.

Word Learners Pronunciation Correct Pronunciation
(RP)
Different |dfernt| | dfrnt |

Addition of the phoneme |e|. Here we can observe a negative transfer example
from the L1 to the L2, because the English word different is similar to the
Spanish word diferente. In the Spanish word the phoneme |e| is pronounced,
but in English it is not.
Word Learners pronunciation Correct Pronunciation
Think || | k |

Omission of the phoneme |k|. That change the meaning of the word that the
interviewee was trying to say. In this case we can observe that the first
language, in this case Spanish, interfere in the second language, because in
Spanish we do not have words with more than 2 consonants sounds in the
same syllable, in contrast in English there a lot of words with more than 3
consonants sounds in the same syllable.

Word Interviewees
pronunciation
Correct Pronunciation
(RP)
Australia |astreli| | streli |

Use of the diphthong |a| instead ||. Here we have an example of a negative
transfer, because in the learners first language, in this case Spanish, the word
Australia begins with the diphthong | a|, but in his second language, in this
case English, the word Australia begins with the phoneme ||

6.- Grammar/ Syntax
Most of the problems related with grammar were related to the use of tenses
and misuse of prepositions.
2-I really love cooking cupcakes but I'm a mess of cook
This is a problem of form, but the meaning and the use are not incorrect. Maybe
the learner was trying to say but Im a mess as a cook instead but Im a mess
of cook. The participant omitted the use of the adverb as in the sentence, that
situation creates a problem in the form of it.



2.- And I love sing
3- too, its my guilty pleasure.

Here we have a problem of form, because what the learner was trying to say
was that he loves to sing, but he omitted the preposition to, maybe he thought
that if he uses the adverb too at the end, the sound was too redundant.


5- Yes! I like it, very much, but is a little bit difficult to me.
Here we have two problems of form, first we can see that we have a misuse of
the preposition to instead for. Also we have the omission of the subject in the
second clause but is a little bit difficult to me, we can observe that in this
sentence we need the pronoun it and the sentence should be but it is a little
bit difficult for me.

11- Yes, I been on Australia the last summer.
In this sentence we have a problem of form because the bad use of the
preposition on instead of in, and also we can observe that the learner adds the
article the, so the sentence should be Yes, I been in Australia last summer.
The learner was trying to say that he had been in Australia once and wanted to
emphasizes that it was the last summer, and the use of the article the was
used to express that he was talking about that specific summer, that was the
last, as we tend to say in Spanish.

15-Can I say everything? it was amazing experience, people are very
This is a problem in form, because here we have an omission of the article an
before the adjective amazing. Maybe the learner omits the article because of
the beginning of the word amazing.

7.-Proposal
During the analysis we were able to identify the learners linguistic needs, which
we classified related with grammar use of tenses and misuse of prepositions
and problems of fluency.
The fluency and pronunciation issues that are mainly caused for the lack of
exposure to the language, can be fixed for example by listening podcasts every,
basically by increasing the input of the second language English, because as
we know we acquire speaking through Listening, Imitation and Immersion, as
the immersion in the present context of the learner is not possible, we propose
to improve the different English sources through listening in order to encourage
the imitation of the learner, and the development of the right pronunciation.

Related with the problems of grammar, the only way to learn about tenses in
English is by memorizing and practicing them; once the structure is understood
practice it again and again in order to acquire it. Another strategy is through
reading, because as we read we embrace the language on a unconscious way.
The proposal for our interviewee will be to basically improve his input through
listening and reading, in order to increase his vocabulary, grammar,
pronunciation and fluency, and to be able to show these improvements through
his productive skills or output, speaking and writing.
8.- Conclusion
Trough this analysis we have appreciated the level of a basic second language
learner of English and we can conclude several things. First of all, we can point
out that the most common mistakes made by learners are in pronunciation.
Most of time, these kinds of errors occur because of the influence of learners
first language on learners second language. There are a lot of words in
Spanish that are common to the spelling or pronunciation of English words and
that affects directly on the learning and on the correct use of the English
language.
9.- References
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring.
Thomson Heinle.