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Language Learner Profile

Students: Carolina Rodríguez G.

Geraldine Torres C.

Course: Learning and Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language

Professor: Mg. Roxanna Correa P.

Sección: ED1110C-1_197500

Concepción, 17th June. 2014

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Index

Index Page 2

Learner’s English Background Page 3

Typed Interview Page 4

Learner’s Answer Transcription Page 5

Phonetic Transcription Page 6

General Analysis Page 7

Phonetics and Phonology: Analysis Pages 8 - 9

Grammar: Analysis Pages 10 – 11 – 12

Vocabulary Item Page 13

Proposal Page 14

Conclusions Page 15

References Page 16

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Learner’s English Background

The subject of this research has been study English for at least twelve years. Currently,

he/she is a first year student of English Pedagogy at the Catholic University of the Holy

Conception (UCSC) in Concepción.

During primary education at Colegio Adventista from Talcahuano, the learner marks on

English were at average level, and he/she had to study in order to obtain good marks in

the foreign language course. The English subject was in charge of two teachers.

In 7th and secondary school (four years), the student was part of Liceo Jorge Sánchez

Ugarte from Concepción. In this place the subject discovered his/her abilities to speak in

English; in relation to this, the learner states that he/she does not need to study to obtain

good marks.

The learner also expressed that he/she did not take private lessons for English as a second

language, and according to him/her it has been useful during his/her university studies at

the Catholic University of the Holy Conception.

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Typed Interview

The following dialogue occurred between the learner and one of the teachers, who are

carried out this research

Teacher (T): Ah… Ok, Mario. How old are you? (Line 1)

Student (St): I am 19 years old. (Line 2)

T: Where do you live? (Line 3)

St: I live in Concepción. Barrio Norte. (Line 4)

T: How long have you been living in Concepción? (Line 5)

St: Uhmmm… my whole life, I think. (Line 6)

T: Who do you live with? (Line 7)

St: with my parents. (Line 8)

T: Both of them? (Line 9)

St: Yes (Line 10)

T: Do you have any pet? (Line 11)

St: Yes, two dogs and one cat. (Line 12)

T: Do you have any hobby? (Line 13)

St: Yes, I am a rapper. (Line 14)

T: Yes? Do you have any album? Do you… a… apart from rap, what else do you like, what

kind of music? (Line 15)

St: Rap, dance hall, reggae. I prefer that music… like with some culture… and I don’t have

al… album yet, but I am working in that. (Line 16)

T: Aha, ok. Do you… what do you expect from your future? (Line 17)

St: My expect to be a teacher and never leave the music, I think. I would like to be like

that… (Line 18)

T: Why did you decide to study English pedagogy? (Line 19)

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St: Because… ehm the English for me is like funny. (Line 20) I enjoyed talking with English

people or Britain… Britanish people, and I don’t know, I think that I can be a nice teacher; I

can make a nice job working in the education of… Chile. (Line 21)

Phonological Transcription of the Learner’s Answer

ǀ aı am nаınti:n ȷeаrs əʊƖd ǁ (Line 2)

ǀ аı Ɩıv ın Concepción ǀ Barrio Norte ǁ (Line 4)

ǀɑmm ǀ mаı hoʊƖ Ɩаıf ǀ аı Ɵıŋĸ ǁ (Line 6)

ǀ wıð mаı pаrents ǁ (Line 8)

ǀ ȷes ǁ (Line 10)

ǀ ȷes ǀ аı hаv tu: dɔ:ɡs ənd wʌn kаt ǁ (Line 12)

ǀ ȷes ǀ аı аm а rӕper ǁ (Line 14)

ǀrӕp ǀ dɑ:ns hɑ:Ɩ ǀ regeı ǀ аı prefɜ:r ðаt mȷu:sik ǀ Ɩаık wið sʌm kuƖʧɔ:r ǀ аnd аı dɔ:nt hаv ɑƖ ǀ ɑƖbu:m

ȷet ǀ bаt аı аm wɔ:rkiŋ ın ðаt ǁ (Line 16)

ǀ mаı ekspek tu bi а ti:ʧer ǀ аnd never Ɩi:v ðe mȷu:sık ǀ аı wʊƖd Ɩаık tu bi Ɩаık ðаt ǁ (Line 18)

ǀ bikᴐ:s ǀ emm ǀ ðe ıngƖıʃ fᴐ:r mı ıs Ɩаık fаni: (Line 20) ǀ аı enʤᴐ:i tᴐ:kiŋ wıð ıngƖıʃ pi:pu:Ɩ ᴐ:r brıtаın ǀ

brıtаni:ʃ pi:pu:Ɩ ǀ аnd аı dᴐ:nt noʊ ǀ аı Өınk ðаt аı kаn bi а nаıs ti:ʧer ǀ аı kаn meık а nаıs ʤᴐ:b ǀ

wᴐ:rkıŋ ın ðe edȷukeıʃᴐ:n ᴐ:f ʧıɭe ǁ (Line 21)

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Phonetic Transcription

The phonetic transcription of a passage correspond to lines 20 and 21

“Because… ehm the English for me is like funny. I enjoyed talking with English people or

Britain… Britanish people, and I don’t know, I think that I can be a nice teacher; I can make

a nice job working in the education of… Chile.

ǀ bikᴐ:s ǀ ehm ǀ ðe ıngƖıʃ fᴐ:r mı ıs Ɩаık fаni: ǀ аı enʤᴐ:i tᴐ:kiŋ wıð ıngƖıʃ pi:pu:Ɩ ᴐ:r brıtаın ǀ

brıtаni:ʃ pi:pu:Ɩ ǀ аnd аı dᴐ:nt noʊ ǀ аı Өınk ðаt аı kаn bi а nаıs ti:ʧer ǀ аı kаn meık а nаıs

ʤᴐ:b ǀ wᴐ:rkıŋ ın ðe edȷukeıʃᴐ:n ᴐ:f ʧıɭe ǁ

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General analysis

In terms of phonetics and phonology, the learner tried to speak clearly. Issues related to

intonation and connective speech was identified.

Those elements are very important to build a meaningful and understandable sentence in

the English language, in which the student failed; even though he/she was giving answers.

We would like to emphasize the fact that this student sounds clear enough to be

understood, and he shows confidence in him/herself during the whole interview, which

was helpful in order to transcribe the interview.

On the grammar field, the learner presents issues related mainly to use, following by form

and meaning. And additional categories referring to Vocabulary was added to address

findings which do not belong to the previous categories.

Fillers and word choice aspects were covered in the vocabulary item and were analyze in

the same form that were applied for grammar and phonology.

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Phonetics and Phonology: Analysis

In the interview, there is a segmental feature issue in which the learner does not make

any different between /s/ and /z/ as final sounds. Any different is notice, within learners’

speech, between the pronunciation of certain final /s/and /z/ as pluralization and as

proper pronunciation of words.

E.g. …dogs… ǀdɔ:ɡsǀ /dɒɡz/ ; …years…ǀ ȷeаrs ǀ /jıəz/

One of the possible reasons for this type of errors may occur, it should be that Spanish

speakers do not make any different between those types of sounds. Any kind of

distinctions exist between final sounds in Spanish. In our mother tongue language, it does

not exist any type of different between voiced and voice and voiceless consonants.

Then, there is another segmental feature phenomenon, in which the learner tends to

pronounce some words as the way that he reads them. And, again he does not make any

sort of distinction between monophthongs and diphthongs, and how they should sound

when a person have to pronounce this word in English.

E.g. …parents…ǀ pаrents ǀ /peɘrənts/; …culture…ǀ kuƖʧɔ:r ǀ /kʌɭʧəʳ/

It is probably an effect that, in some way, many second language learners tend to react

about. The manner of how we read a word in Spanish, it does not be much related with

how we pronounce words. On top of that, these words are cognates; so, the tendency is

pronounce them as they are read it. Not forget that some of the sounds in English do not

even exist in Spanish, and for a L2 learner it takes time to be aware of that, and realize it

in a successful term of use.

However, there is a matter that is positive to point out about our learner´s LLP. The

student emits Fricatives (manner of articulation) Dental (place of articulation) consonants

sound in a proper way.

E.g. …think…|θɪŋk | /θɪŋk/; …that...|ðаt | /ðæt/

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At the moment of listen the interviewee, these types of consonants sound can be

distinguished into what he is answering. This occurs because some of the students have a

really good perception of sounds. Probably, as he listen music, and he have ability with

music, these types of sounds were easy to get when he learnt them.

Moreover, there are other assertive aspects in the learner´s pronunciation details. In

English, there are consonants sound called Affricates (manner of articulation) Palato-

alveolar (place of articulation) consonants /ʧ / and /ʤ/. These sounds were emitted by

the learner in a correct way, and they are very perceptibly at the moment of hear it.

E.g. …teacher… | ti:ʧer | / ti:ʧer/ ; …job… |ʤᴐ:b| /ʤɒb/

A reason for that, it is probably these words are sort of easy to catch in terms of sound.

They are not much difficult to understand in terms of meaning either. These are words,

and sounds, which a learner, at his level could acquire. An observation, it should be that

these sounds are very uncommon in the Spanish language; which makes them kind of

peculiar.

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Grammar: Analysis

The following analysis comprises the positive and negative findings in relation to grammar

aspects of the answers provided by the learner. The grammatical aspects to be considered

are: form, meaning and use.

Form

Line 18:

Teacher’s question: Aha, ok. Do you… what do you expect from your future? (Line 17)

Student’s answer: My expect to be a teacher and never leave the music, I think. I would

like to be like that… (Line 18)”

The usage of the word “expect” is related to the word “expectation (s)”. This may occur

because the learner does not know the correct word needed to build the full expression

he/she was trying to form, thus the learner copied what was said by the teacher without

hesitation.

However, there is no problem in meaning or use, since the teacher understood the

message clearly. The solution for this issue is “My expectation is to be a teacher”, using

the proper noun and the corresponding verb “to be” for completing the idea and the

proper grammatical construction.

Meaning

Use of Prepositions

Line 16:

Student’s answer: Rap, dance hall, reggae. I prefer that music… like with some culture…

and I don’t have al… album yet, but I am working in that.

In relation to the preposition “in”, the subject uses it as in Spanish, without the meaning

of “inside something”, but it is expressing the idea of “in relation to this or that”. It is

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obviously influences by the Spanish tendency of the [en] preposition, which can be used

to refer to locations or in relation between to objects.

The correct form for this grammatical construction is “I am working on that.”

Use

Usage of countable and uncountable nouns

Line 16:

Student’s answer: Rap, dance hall, reggae. I prefer that music… like with some culture…

and I don’t have al… album yet, but I am working in that.

The subject declared the idea of “cultural background in music” by using the expression

“some culture”. The use of countable nouns with a non-concrete noun such as “culture”

represents one of the common mistakes during the first stages of acquisition of an L2, in

this case English.

The learner tried to emphasize the importance of the cultural contribution of music, thus

the idea was clear for the interviewer.

One way to solve the wrong use of the uncountable noun can be use the corresponding

adjective for culture, which is “cultural” and a noun that receives the quality expressed by

the adjective. For example: “I prefer that music, with some cultural content”.

Usage of Adjectives

Line 20:

Studet’s answer: Because… ehm the English for me is like funny. (Line 20)

The individual uses the adjective “funny” referring to the noun “fun” in its adjective

function, which is the natural collocation in a sentence that talks about the “enjoyable

state of something”.

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The correct form for this idea is “the English for me is fun”, referring to the study of the

English language or as a second option, the use issue can be solved by adding a noun and

an undefined article, for example: “the English for me is like a funny subject”.

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Vocabulary Items

The following point is made based on in particular issues identified during the interview

and the findings for this section are related to the creation of new words and the use of

fillers within sentences.

Word choice

Line 21:

Student’s answer: Because… ehm the English for me is like funny. (Line 20) I enjoyed

talking with English people or Britain… Britanish people, and I don’t know, I think that I

can be a nice teacher; I can make a nice job working in the education of… Chile. (Line 21)

The word “Britanish” does not exist, even though 18 hits can be found in Google search

service; Urban Dictionary does not registered any word similar to britanish and there is no

possible explanation added for it.

However, a possible explanation for the new word can be the influence of noun

derivation. For example, the adjectives Spanish and English present the ending “ish”, but it

is a rule that has its exception. The correct form for this word should be British, referring

to a nationality.

Use of fillers

The learner expressed his hesitation about the message he wants to communicate by

using the grammatical construction “I think”. He/she uses it regularly through the

interview, either in the middle of a sentence or at the end of an idea.

This construction may influence by the Spanish language and the expression [creo], to

show hesitation or insecurity and to finish an answer in which he/ she does not want to

expand.

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Proposal

As far as we could analyze, the learner presents several problems regarding

pronunciation; even though he tried his best. To solve this matter, in a practical way, and

to reinforce the learner’s performance, it is relevant to highlight the positive aspects.

We would like to suggest some web sites that could be useful for the learner, if he/she is

interested in improving his/her pronunciation and intonation issues.

BBC Learning English

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode61/languagepoint.

shtml

Sentence Stress in English

http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/sentence-stress.htm

In relation to the grammar aspect of the current profile, we suggest to visit online source

focused on word formation in order to familiarize or relate the different structures that

can derive from one word.

Another issue to be addressed is to practice the use of prepositions in context, since

English language differs from the Spanish usage of them. Collocations and word families

are the both points that should be considered by the learner to increase his language

usage and vocabulary.

On word Formation: About.com English as 2nd Language

http://esl.about.com/blvocabquiz_wordform1.htm

Flo-Joe

http://www.flo-joe.com/fce/students/strategy/p3pt5a.htm

On collocation and prepositions: English Practice

http://www.englishpractice.com/vocabulary/collocations-exercise-3/

My English Pages

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-

prepositions.php#.U5_EqHaTJcA

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Conclusions

In order to analyze the student speaking performance, it should be said that this person

has a regular one at PET level of proficiency. Apart from his/her answers, it was quite

understandable during the entire recording. In terms of phonetics, some words did not

suffer important changes. On other hand, his pronunciation was quite acceptable. The

learner made several sounds distinctions at the moment of answers, and the hesitation

and pauses were few.

In relation to grammar, the organization of the sentences was clear, but short. The

student focused mainly on present simple tense, which can be linked to level of

proficiency of the learner.

It is advised to encourage the practice of word formation and grammar in context and

exercises. For a first year student of the UCSC his performance is according to the

expectations of the program.

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References

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring. Thomson

Heinle.

Roach, P. (2003). English Phonetics and Phonology: a practical course (3rd edition).

Cambridge University Press: United Kingdom.