Focus On The Learner

Assignment 2

Resubmission Due Date: 14/09/2019

Word Count:850
1:The Learner.

Abdul is an Arabic speaker from Sudan and has been living in the UK for the past two
years. He's been educated to high school level and although he'd managed to learn a few
English words at home in Sudan, he didn't begin studying English formally until he arrived
here.
He has no additional experience of learning a foreign language, either in his home country
or here in the UK and Arabic is his only native tongue.
His main aim in learning English is to be able to communicate well on a day to day basis
but he also mentions that he'd like to continue studying English at college with the
intention of reaching, in his words," high level, like native speaker." His current level is
Entry Level 2 which is equivalent to CEFR A2.
When he's in the classroom he particularly likes reading and speaking activities but doesn't
enjoy writing tasks as much as he finds these quite difficult.
He mentions that he finds the use of visuals in the classroom very helpful and when he's at
home he watches TV and movies as an aid to learning, using subtitles when available.

2: Analysis of The Student's English.

In analysing Abdul's command of English, I'd say firstly that his listening skills are
noticeably more developed than his speaking skills. He was able to understand all the
questions put to him without my repeating anything and although his answers were not
particularly expansive in terms of the amount of information provided and the vocabulary
used, he did provide me with some basic information relating to his nationality, language
learning background, educational history and his reasons for wanting to learn English.
He seemed comfortable being interviewed and appeared confident in his ability to engage
in conversation with a native speaker. He was most expansive when talking about his
reasons for wanting to learn English and this is clearly something he takes very seriously.

2:1 Grammar.

Grammatically, there are several obvious areas which are in need of some development.
Firstly, there was some incorrect usage of tense forms when asked whether he began
learning English in Sudan. These relate specifically to the use of present tenses in place of
the past simple tense.
In the first example, the present perfect negative 1 and present simple negative2 were used
in place of the past simple negative and a clause which should have been expressed in
the past simple negative used the first personal singular form of to be.3 These mistakes in
tense formation are extremely prevalent amongst Arabic speaking learners and are a
direct result of L1 interference (Swan and Smith, 1987).
The student also demonstrates an inconsistent use of the preposition 'to' 4 omitting this on
two separate occasions although using it correctly elsewhere, sometimes in the same

1
See line 4 Appendix 1
2
See line 4 Appendix 1
3
See line 5 Appendix 1
4
See lines 7 & 9 Appendix !
sentence. Arabic has many prepositions and particles although a lot of these don't directly
correspond with their English translations and this fact is most likely the source of the
inconsistency (Swan and Smith, 1987).
The final point is the omission of the indefinite article 'a', which is demonstrated in several
areas throughout the interview.5 There is no indefinite article in Arabic and as with the
issues mentioned above, is a direct result of L1 interference and is a commonly found
error amongst Arabic learners.

2:2 Pronunciation

The student's pronunciation is generally quite good overall, however, there are two
prominent areas where errors are made consistently.
The first concerns the addition of extra vowel sounds and the related effect this has on
stress patterns. We see the repeated addition of /ə/ to render 'English' and 'England'
as /ɪŋgəlɪʃ/6 and /ɪŋgəlænd/7. Arabic learners will usually add these extra vowel sounds to
consonant clusters which don't occur in their own language (Swan and Smith, 1987)
The student also mispronounces /ðə/8 on each occasion this phoneme is used,
producing /zə/ for 'the' and although I only have the one repeated example of this
particular error I can assume that the mispronunciation would also occur in words like 'this'
and 'them'.
:
3: Suggested Remedial Activities and Materials.
3:1 Grammar.

Error 1: Failure to identify the correct use of past simple negative.

Material and Tasks:

1. Essential Grammar in Use, Unit 12, pp 32-33.
2. Education First: Simple Past Tense (online)
https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/simple-past-tense/

Rationale:
1. The material illustrates the correct use of the past simple negative and
provides explanations with accompanying exercises and an answer key. The
content is clear, simple and designed for self reference.
2. Clear, simple reference material showing meaning and form of the target
language.

Error 2: Omission of indirect article.

Material and tasks:

1. Essential Grammar in Use, Unit 64, pp 136-137.

Rationale:
 The material illustrates the correct use of a/an and as with the above
selection is accessible and designed for self study.

5
Lines 4 and 14 Appendix 1
6
Lines 4,5,7,9 and 12 Appendix 1
7
Lines 7 and 9 Appendix 1
8
Lines 8 and 13 Appendix 1
3:2 Pronunciation

Error: Mispronunciation of /ð/

Materials and tasks:

1. BBC Learning English. Pronunciation Tips 44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhYGp6mhuh8&t=2s

Rationale:
 The video demonstrates the correct pronunciation of /ð/ clearly indicating the
proper positioning of the lips and tongue. The presenter clarifies that /ð/ is a
voiced consonant and demonstrates the phoneme using then, they, there, that,
other and smooth as examples.

Bibliography

Murphy, R.(2012) Essential Grammar in Use. Cambridge. CUP

Swan, M. and Smith, B. (1987) Learner English. CUP.

The ESL Dept. Blog: Problems Arabic Students Have in English (online) Available at:
https://eslatpalomar.blogspot.com/2012/11/problems-arabic-students-have-in-english.html
(Accessed 05.05.2019

Tips for Teaching English to Arabic Speakers(online) Available at:

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/tips-teaching-english-arabic-speakers
(Accessed 22.04.2019)

Harvard System (online) Available at:https://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm

(Accessed 07/07/2019)

Pronunciation Problems Native Arabic Speakers Have With Spoken English (online)
Available at:https://blog.talk.edu/grammar/pronunciation-problems-2/ (Accessed 04.05.2019)

English First: Simple Past Tense (online) Available at:

https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/simple-past-tense/
(Accessed 06.05.2019)

SenjuDan, 2010. BBC Learning English Pronunciation tips 44(video online) Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhYGp6mhuh8&t=12s (Accessed 22.04.2019)