Mariana is a thirty one years-old college graduate with a degree of science.

She is also married

with two children. Mariana started a new job recently, before that while she was still searching
for work she was attending English classes at the Celta center in Tel Aviv. Mariana's previous
job required her to submit certain research results and reports in English. She stated that she
had depended on friends and online translators to fill out her reports. Her struggle at her
previous workplace and her need of a better job or a career in the science field, all were
extrinsic motivations for mariana to improve her productive skills in English.
Mariana's native language is Russian, she is also fluent in Hebrew as she grew up, studied and
graduated college in Israel. Mariana mentioned that she can always practice her Russian
language with family and friends, but rarely has anyone to speak English to. She would like to
attend an intensive English course and hasnt been able to because of her responsibilities and
obligations towards her family and kids.
Most of the schools in Israel teach English as a second language, so Mariana was exposed to the
English language at an early age. She stated that in secondary school she was taught basic
English, the teaching method used included all language skills such as reading, speaking and
listening but never practiced a lot of writing. That was almost the same issue she faced when
taking her English course in college. Mariana specified during our interview that during class
most of the time was spent developing listening skills. As a result of her previous learning
experience, Mariana's learning style is auditory. She claims that it's easier for her to understand
English or certain words by listening. For example; during our interview, there was a part where
the student had to circle what they like when they learn. Mariana asked me to read the options
for her because it's a lot easier for her to understand.
Mariana is one of the upper intermediate students at the Celta center, she shows good
receptive learning skills but she struggles in her productive learning skills. When it comes to the
English language Mariana prefers listening and speaking in English to reading and writing.
Throughout the observation period in class, Mariana showed more interest and was more
comfortable engaging in activities such as topic discussions between students, pronunciation
drills and word games. On the other hand, she struggled with written tasks as well as reading
comprehension. When I conducted my interview with her, she had very little hesitation while
speaking about herself, her family, education and interests. During one lesson at the end of the
class when the teacher was conducting the whole class feedback and corrections, some
sentences were written on the board and repeated, Mariana was able to find and correct the
grammar mistakes. Mariana shows more strength in listening and speaking skills and will need
improvement in reading and writing.
Pronunciation:
Problem and example: phonemes.
Mariana struggles with the pronunciation of the "th" consonant. It is common for Russian and
Hebrew speakers to struggle with the pronunciation of the English "th" most of the
"time "th" sounds more like a "t
For example: ex: "thirty two , two right?
And, " I study you know, science .
Mariana was able to correct her pronunciation once brought to her attention. Pronunciation
activities and practice will help her be more aware of her problem and to self-correct. To help
mariana with the pronunciation problem, Ive chosen an activity from: " Cambridge English
pronunciation in use; intermediate self-study and classroom use, second edition, by Mark
hancock. Page 42.". Exercise C. That page focuses on the pronunciation of "th". Which will
demonstrate the major difference that one phoneme can make in a word. And on the same
page there is also an illustration of the mouth modulation which will help her practice for a
better pronunciation.
I would also use another activity from " Cambridge, tree or three? An elementary pronunciation
course, second edition, by Ann Baker. Unit 5, exercise 1-6 .Another mouth modulation is
illustrated on that page and the exercises are about the pronunciation of th as a voiced and
unvoiced consonant.
In her written assignment Mariana used the verb in the present tense twice instead of the past
simple tense. That indicates a problem with the conjugation of the past tense. When I
mentioned to her that there was something wrong with the sentence, she was able to self
correct. She wrote: he helped me, he write everything in English instead of he wrote. And
me and my family immigrate to Israel instead of me and my family immigrated. Grammar
practice through exercises , repetition and maybe writing short essays about past experiences
would be very helpful for Mariana. I would use the exercises from English grammar in use
unit 5 page 9- 10,the exercises explain the past tense and compare the forms of some verbs in
the present and past tense. Doing the exercises on the two pages and repeating the correct use
of the verb tense, will help Mariana form the habit of using the past tense when talking about
something that happened in the past.

The word count is 835.

References:

Pages 11-12 from tree or three, second edition, cambridge university press. 2006. By Ann

Baker.

Page 42 from English pronunciation in use, second edition, Cambridge university press.
Published in 2012. By Mark Hancock.

Pages 10-11 from English grammar in use, fourth edition, Cambridge university press. 2012.
By Raymond Murphy.