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Gianluca is an Italian student who has studied and worked in Italy. He now wants to work for an import/export firm in Spain to interact with people from around the world. His motivation for learning English is that the job requires communicating in English.
Gianluca studied English in college but felt the teaching was not very good as the teachers spoke Italian most of the time. He is currently at a pre-intermediate level. He tries to practice English by talking to people in his work at a bar and reading the newspaper on the bus.
Gianluca believes accuracy is very important when learning English. He wants the teacher to correct his mistakes so he can improve. Specific difficulties for Gian
Gianluca is an Italian student who has studied and worked in Italy. He now wants to work for an import/export firm in Spain to interact with people from around the world. His motivation for learning English is that the job requires communicating in English.
Gianluca studied English in college but felt the teaching was not very good as the teachers spoke Italian most of the time. He is currently at a pre-intermediate level. He tries to practice English by talking to people in his work at a bar and reading the newspaper on the bus.
Gianluca believes accuracy is very important when learning English. He wants the teacher to correct his mistakes so he can improve. Specific difficulties for Gian
Gianluca is an Italian student who has studied and worked in Italy. He now wants to work for an import/export firm in Spain to interact with people from around the world. His motivation for learning English is that the job requires communicating in English.
Gianluca studied English in college but felt the teaching was not very good as the teachers spoke Italian most of the time. He is currently at a pre-intermediate level. He tries to practice English by talking to people in his work at a bar and reading the newspaper on the bus.
Gianluca believes accuracy is very important when learning English. He wants the teacher to correct his mistakes so he can improve. Specific difficulties for Gian
Gianluca is an Italian student, who has lived in Catania, Sicily for most of his life. He completed school and studied Electronics and Telecommunication at a hiher education collee. !urin and since this time, he has held many different "o#s, the most recent of which involved doin administrative wor$ for a lare, international shippin company. He en"oyed wor$in in this industry and now has am#itions of wor$in in Spain for an import%e&port firm. Gianluca revealed that this is his motivation for learnin Enlish, as dealin with international traders re'uires the a#ility to communicate in Enlish. The reason that he finds this field of wor$ appealin is that it provides plenty of opportunity to tal$ with people from around the world. In the interview, he ave the impression that he felt confined and unfulfilled in Italy and that he wants to #ecome part of the lo#al community. Therefore it would seem that his am#ition is #ein a#le to interact with people from all over the world and wor$in in Spain for an import%e&port firm would ena#le him to do realise this. Previous learning experience Gianluca had to study Enlish alonside his course of Electronics and Telecommunication at collee. This was over a five year period #ut in his opinion the teachin was not very ood, as the teachers mainly spo$e Italian and the students were not iven much opportunity to practise spea$in. He is currently at pre(intermediate level. English outside the classroom Gianluca has #een livin with other Italians, #ut he is a#out to move into a new flat sharin with one Italian and one Spaniard. He is pleased that he is to live with some#ody who isn)t Italian, as it will force him to use Enlish more fre'uently. Gianluca is currently wor$in in a #ar and says that he tries to tal$ to as many different people as possi#le, as often as possi#le. He also reads the local newspaper when he is travellin on the #us. Expectations of the teacher Gianluca #elieves that it is important for a teacher to spea$ slowly and clearly. He li$es when instructions are repeated so that he $nows e&actly what he has to do. Havin 'uestioned him a#out the importance of accuracy compared to fluency, he stronly #elieves that accuracy is important. He #elieves that a teacher should always correct his mista$es, so that he can improve, reardless of whether he has #een a#le to communicate his ideas. This is consistent with an attitude that Swan *2001+ identified as common with Italian learners. He writes that the insistence on )correct Italian) that is common in mother(tonue teachin leads to concern over rammatical accuracy when learnin Enlish *p. 73+. Behaviour in class and attitude to learning Gianluca)s #ody lanuae suests that he is e&tremely rela&ed in lessons. He is enaed and li$es to ta$e notes from the white#oard. In whole(class feed#ac$, he does not volunteer answers, #ut has always #een confident to share answers when invited. He has wor$ed well in all of the pairs that he has #een put in, and always stic$s to the instructions he has #een iven. In controlled tas$s, he prefers to have a o independently #efore wor$in with a partner to chec$ answers. ,hen tas$s have #een iven for pairs to wor$ throuh toether, he has occasionally started independently if wor$in with a less confident partner. Recommendations for later teachers I would recommend that Gianluca is invited to spea$ and that he is put into many different pairs. -s he wants to converse with people from all over the world in his career, it is important that he has discussions with learners from as many different #ac$rounds as possi#le. I would also recommend that he has more practice doin listenin tas$s, as these are what he finds the most difficult to complete. Specific linguistic difficulties .ronunciation Gianluca can #e 'uic$ly identified as an Italian spea$er from the way he ends a lot of words. Swan e&plains that Italian final consonants are rare and this can result in learners ivin a followin vowel sound to Enlish words with final consonants, usually schwa. /or e&le, I have- a small- family. Swan mentions that that voicin the contrast #etween %s % and %z % can cause pro#lems, as these are positional variants in Italian. This was a pro#lem that Gianluca occasionally had, pronouncin words li$e slowly as % zl li: %. Gianluca often pronounced the as %d %. Swan says that it is common for % % and % % to #e mispronounced as %t% and %d%. The e&le that he ives is other #ein pronounced as udder. However, unli$e the theory, Gianluca was a#le to pronounce the % % sound in #rother perfectly. It was only with the word the that he made this mista$e. Swan states that the letter r is always pronounced in Italian *p. 76+ and carryin this into Enlish meant that Gianluca pronounced words li$e person as % pers n %. 0uch of his pronunciation was very accurate and he did not ma$e many of the mista$es that Swan identifies as common with Italian learners. /or e&le, his pronunciation of #us was correct and not said as %bz%. Grammar In #oth his spea$in and writin, Gianluca missed out some articles, #oth definite and indefinite. Swan writes that there is no Italian e'uivalent of the au&iliary do and that this can lead to learners creatin dou#le neatives. Gianluca made an error of this $ind in his writin1 I don't learned nothing. He made a mista$e with neatives in his spea$in too, sayin that, It is no very good. Swan states that in Italian, neatives are always made #y addin the neative particle non, and that this often causes learners to use no instead of not. Swan writes that Italians often find Enlish prepositions ar#itrary and difficult to use. In his spea$in, Gianluca fre'uently left out to when usin the ver# to tal$. /or e&le1 When I tal yo!" instead of, When I tal to yo!. He used apostrophes correctly in words li$e don't and it's, #ut there were two misused apostrophes, where he wrote #ooin' and #l!$$in'. This mista$e may have #een caused #y drillin sentences and him realisin that the sound is often dropped. However, if he is #rinin this into his writin, it will cause many mista$es. It is encourain thouh that he realises that apostrophes are used to denote dropped letters. Gianluca made a mista$e writin, I feel me instead of I feel. Swan notes that refle&ive ver#s are more common in Italian than in Enlish, which is li$ely to have caused this mista$e. 2oca#ulary Gianluca is not afraid to use voca#ulary he has recently learned. He descri#es himself as not #ein a #o!#h potato, which was a term he learned recently. He also attempted to use the phrase last #ut not least, althouh he made a mista$e #y writin, in the last $!t not in the least. This demonstrates a commenda#le confidence to use phrases he has learned. Addressing these difficulties The issue with mi&in up %s % and %z % sounds in words could #e resolved with a #ino e&ercise *Harmer, 3445+. ,ords such as the ones #elow should #e written down and then students tic$ the words once they thin$ they have heard the teacher say them. %low &is &e's &iss 'ose (ags %top )ost *ost This would allow the student to hear the correct pronunciation of the words, #efore em#ar$in upon a follow(up activity. The follow(up activity would involve post(it notes of these *and more+ words, which all contain an s. Students would have a ta#le with two columns, %s % and %z % and decide which sound the s ma$es in each word, movin the post(it notes to the appropriate column. To address Gianluca)s difficulty with usin articles correctly, I would recommend an e&ercise which involves identifyin when it is appropriate to use a+an and when it isn)t *see ,ppendi- ,+. I chose this e&ercise in particular, #ecause the mista$es he made involved omittin articles rather than usin incorrect articles.
Bibliography ! 6eaumont and C Graner, .nglish /rammar, Heinemann 7898 : Harmer, 0he *ra#ti#e of .nglish 'ang!age 0ea#hing, ;onman 3445 0 Swan and 6 Smith, 'earner .nglish, C<. 3447 : =enworthy, 0ea#hing .nglish *rono!n#iation, ;onman 7895 0 Swan and C ,alter, 0he /ood /rammar (oo, >&ford 344?