CELTA WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: Focus on the Learner

Candidate name: MINA EXIR Words count:

(in capitals and signed to testify that this is entirely your own work)

Date: 18/08/2021
❑ Pass ❑ Resubmit

Assessment criteria Tutor's comments

show awareness of how a learner's background,
previous learning experience, and learning style
affect learning

identify the learner's language needs

correctly use terminology relating to the

description of language systems

select appropriate material and/or resources to

aid the learner's language development

provide a rationale for using specific activities

with a learner

find, select and reference information from one

or more sources

use written language that is clear, accurate and

appropriate to the task

Tutor name and signature:

Pass (on resubmission) Fail

Tutor comments on resubmission:

Tutor name, signature and date: _______________________ ____________________

Tutor 2: I have read the assignment and agree with the grade.

Signature: _____________________________ Date: _______________________

 Instructions: Handbook, page 41
Length: 750-1000 words
Aim
To investigate the learning context and assess the needs of a group of learners, and to act on this
data by finding appropriate language support material which correlates to their needs.

Part 1: Background (the group and the chosen learner)

The group of the Elementary level consists of 12 students. All of them are Iranian native
speakers,2 men, and 8 women, aged 18-40 (usually 6-10 students present). All students
have previous learning experience – most of them studied English at school and
universities. Some of them started learning English recently. The level of knowledge isn’t
equal. There are stronger and weaker students.
Students of the group represent the most active layer of society: high school and university
students. The students’ interests are varied (sport and fitness, traveling, reading, music).
All of them have the integrative motivation to learn English mainly with the purpose of work and
traveling. Speaking about students’ learning styles, they proved to be mainly visuals. They are
more successful during the activities if they have visual support of the target language on the
board. There are also auditory students, thus it is important to cater to people with different
learning styles. Students also like listening, writing, and reading. Most of the students don’t like
grammar exercises, but all of them agree that they really need grammar practice.

I have been watching Sam, he is 22 years old Iranian elementary student, his mother tongue is
Persian, he is an engineer student at university. His experiences of learning English was at high
school about four years and he didn’t value his experience because there was no focus on
communication practice of the language beyond his textbook. So the main goal for him was to
pass the course without any motivation to perform language outside of the class.
Right now, he is driven by her intrinsic motivation to achieve her goal of speaking
with others fluently and accurately. he is according to Harmer “motivated by the
enjoyment of the learning process itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better”
(2007:98). So, he devoted his time to practice his English language every day by
watching YouTube learning English channels or reading short stories in English.
On account of my evidence he seems to be quite content with group lessons and working in pairs
he also prefers learning lesson by the teacher rather than her own. As a result he is an
interpersonal learner he believes that in group lessons everyone can learn more than individual.
he is also confident with visual learning style as Jeremy Harmer explains: "success is bound up
with learner styles and preferences." (Harmer, 2015.86).Sam considers speaking her main
strength and believes that speaking is much more important than other skills and people need to
improve their speaking skills to communicate all around the world.so he tends to improve his
vocabularies to be able to speak English more fluently. he points out grammar as his weakness
and thinks that it is difficult and boring.

(300 words approx.)

Part 2: Strengths and Weaknesses of your learner

Grammar

Successful language use:

I like cooking (the correct use of like + ing form)
I cook everyday (the correct use of everyday activities)

Error: (Provide at least 3 examples of the error)

What the student said What is wrong Why did the student
(wrote): make the mistake?
You may refer
to M. Swan
“Learner English” here
I yesterday visited him Wrong usage of word in Farsi word order in sentences usually
I saw a girl beautiful order. the student should follows the pattern: subject,object, verb.
I went late home wrote: (I visited him This may lead to confusion. Moreover,
yesterday). adjectives normally follow the noun they
modify, which may lead Farsi speakers to
produce:*I girl young saw. )for I saw a
young girl.) 187.
Furthermore, in Farsi adverbs of time are
usually placed between subject and object,
which could lead to confusion when writing
in English. to M. Swan
“Learner English” here page 188.

Lexis

Successful language use:

I’m an electronical and power engineer student.
(The student uses a special vocabulary item to speak about his profession.
Usually elementary students use the word “engineer”.

Error: (Provide at least 3 examples of the error)

What the student said What is wrong? Why did the student make
(wrote): the mistake?
You may refer
to M. Swan “Learner English” here
 Womans like buying
clothes and mans like
buying cars
Wrong form of of plural The student knows how
noun which are expectation to produce the plural
form of regular English nouns,
he uses suffix -
s. The student has
over-generalized the rule.

Pronunciation

Successful language use:

I have breakfast / ˈbrɛkf [ə] st/ not /ˈbrɛkf [a] st/ . he pronounced correctly.

Error: (Provide at least 3 examples of the error)

What the student said: What is wrong? Why did the student
make the mistake?
You may refer to
M. Swan “Learner English” here

“They /teɪ/ are my parents.
I think /tɪŋk/ I can.
My brother /ˈbrʌdə/ is here
Student replaces sounds [θ] and[ð] tend to be confused
[ð] by /t/. or pronounced as /t/: ten for then;
tinker for thinker.
M. Swan “Learner English”page
181).

(250 words approx.)

Part 3: Helping the Learner:

Problem 1:
Not being able to pronounce th
Aim:
To help student distinguish between two sounds /d/ and /ð/ and provide him to practice with
them

Solutions:
I will provide the students with the right model of the sound /ð/ Appendix1. Then, I will point to
the differences in pronunciation between the sounds/d/ and /ð/. It’s a challenging consonant for
him I give him some tips to pronounce it correctly. First off you want the tip of your tongue
between your teeth. You don’t need to bite the tongue. you also don’t need to push a lot of the
tongue out.it can just be very tip of the tongue, that’s enough. another tip I have for him that the
consonant /ð/ is very gentle sound. and it takes a bit of relaxation to find it. you don’t have to ant
tension anywhere in your face for this sound. Then I give the students practice the students listen
and repeat. I will give them activities to do in pairs and individual. (the procedure in detail in
Appendix 2).
Rationale:
The student will be able to physically discern the difference between the two sounds. The next
exercise will help her develop the ability to distinguish between /d/ and / ð / both perceptively
(listening to the audio; to her partner) and productively (repeating the words; they,this,think with
the partner). Sam is a visual learner, so he will benefit from the clear model of the position of the
lips and tongue depicted in the pictures. Moreover, the pictures will facilitate her remembering
the difference between words in minimal pairs.

Problem 2:

Solutions:

Rationale:

(350 words approx.)

Appendices (attach the material you use in part 3)

English pronunciation in use/elementary/Jonathan Marks, Cambridge university press.

Appendix1
Appendix2