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Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción

Facultad de Educacion

Pedagogia en Media en Ingles

Language Learner Profile

English Methodology II

Name: Víctor González

Juan Rosales

Prof: Roxana Correa

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Language Learning Strategies framework

It is well-known that the teaching and learning of a second language is a quite complex process. Thus, it has to be monitored throughout the whole teaching process. It is complex because it attends a series of different skills. Four skills that need to be cover in different ways, approaches and strategies.

These strategies are proposed by Oxford and Chamot. These two important authors give teachers and students the appropriate tools to teach English in the best way possible.

We think that these two strategies are quite important because they cover every area or field when a student is learning. Within the strategies we have those who cover the way that a student should study, proposing different techniques that can be useful for every type of student and store information in the best possible way. We also have those who give teachers proper ways to deliver the knowledge to the students. There are strategies that help the students when receiving knowledge, how he/she should act and pay attention to what the teacher is transmitting.

But we think that the most important strategies that Oxford proposes are the ones that are call “effective strategies”. To us, these are the most important strategies because they cover the self-esteem and the student’s personal issues when learning. One of the most common problems among students is anxiety and the feeling of failure. These strategies help the student to control these issues and make the student take control on his/her own personal feelings and makes the students to encourage themselves.

Learner’s Background

The interviewee is twenty years old. He from “Chuquicamata” located in the second region of Chile and now he lives in Concepcion. He is a first year student at university. The interviewee’s level of English is quite good; despite he is studding to be a lawyer. When he was in high school, he had three hours of English per week. But he has not taken any extra English course, such as classes in institutes, mini-courses, etc. when he entered to study law; he enrolled in a complementary English course. But the course lasted only one semester, thus the level of English did not improve so much. He mentioned that he likes English due to video games and music that he likes.

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Typed Interview

I: Is recording, my name is victor Gonzalez, and I am here with a first year student university student, so tell me where are you from?

S: Well, I am from Chuquicamata, is the second… in the north of Chile, but now I am in Concepcion

I: So you live in Concepcion right now?

S: Yes

I: You lived in Chuquicamata, right?

S: I born in Chuquicamata, and now I live in Concepcion

I: Oh, you were born in Chuquicamata?

S: Yes

I: So, when is your birthday?

S: My birthday is in 29 of july and I born in 1993

I: So, where do you live in Concepcion?

S: In Concepcion I live we could say in the center of Concepcion in Chillancito in apartment in Lorenzo Arenas street in the Perello Puig intersection

I: Those are the streets?

S: Yes

I: Ok, so in this department you live with your mom?

S: I live with my mother and my brother

I: Ok, three of you

S: Yes

I: And, what’s your mother’s name?

S: My mothers name is Marcela Estela Fuentes Gaultier

I: Ok, can you spell the names?

S: The names: m-a-r-c-e-l-a y e-s-t-e-l-a

I: Ok, so you are at the university, right? First year, and what are you studding there?

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S: I’m study law in the university, catolica university

I: And why are you studying, why you decided to study that mayor?

S: First I, I like and I am good in social science, so seem/since the different carreer of this area I decided by law for “reun” the characteristic of the all of the carrers of this area, and so I can help people with my carreer, so I like this plus is for the money

I: Ok, money, I understand. And do you feel comfortable studying to be a lawyer?

S: Yes yes, very much, like I say I good in this area and I like reading a lot an essential part of this carreer, so I like doing this, it’s not difficult for me

I: Ok, so it’s kind of easy for you, right?

S: Like easy easy not, but it’s not difficult for me

I: So let’s move on to another field, what do you like to do on the weekends?

S: In the weekends, normally I work in the weekends, but when I… I like spend my time with my girlfriend and my son, be in family, go to shop or walk

I: Ok, so you have a son

S: Yes, a seven months son

I: So, do you like sports?

S: Yes, not I’m not a great fan but I like what some sports

I: So, what is your favorite sport?

S: My favourite sport like the favourite sport of the many is the football because is entertaining sport, I can play, also I like the teams like for example in Chile the colocolo or national selection, I like is a very dynamic sport

I: So, football is the key sport for you, and the last question, do you like pets?

S: Yes I like to very much

I: What is your favorite pet among all the other all the pets domestic pets that everyone can have?

S: My favourite pet I have to say cats, I always love cats, right now I have one they name is steve is very scaring cat I have to say he don’t like people, but like very much

I: So he is afraid of people?

S: Yes, where a people come in to our home is hide, never come out

I: So, he is kind of shy?

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S: Yes

I: So, thank you for your time, this is all the interview, thank you

S: Thank you

Phonetic transcription (Three consecutive lines)

/fɪrst aɪ aɪ laɪk ənd aɪm gʊd ɪn ˈsɒcɪʌl ˈsaɪens sɒʊ si:m ðə ˈdɪfrənt kʌri:r ɒv ðɪs ˈʌrɪa aɪ dɪˈsaɪ baɪ lɒ fɒr e ri:un ðə ˌkʌrʌkteˈrɪstɪk ɒv ðe ɒl ɒv ðe kʌri:rs ɒv ði:s ˈʌrɪa ʌn sɒʊ aɪ kæn help ˈpiːpl wɪð maɪ kʌri:r sɒʊ aɪ laɪk ðɪs plʌs ɪs fɒr ðə ˈmɒnɪ/

Analysis (Phonetics and phonology)

The first problem, in line 12, that I noticed was the pronunciation of numbers. He states the year when he was born, he says /ˈnaɪˈtiːn ˈnaɪtɪ tri/. In this case the student has problems with the pronunciation of these numbers, number nine and three. The correct pronunciation is /ˈnaɪnˈtiːn ˈnaɪntɪ θriː/.

A second problem was the interference between the mother tongue, Spanish, and the L2, English. The first example in line 19, he says /aɪ lɪv wɪð maɪ ˈmɒðər ʌn maɪ ˈbrɒðər/. Here is typical mistake when students tend to confuse the word “mother” and “brother” and they pronounce them with a /ɒ/ instead of a /ʌ/. Another example is in line 49 when he uses the word “very” as /ˈberɪ/ when the correct form is /ˈverɪ/. A typical error because in Spanish we do not make the difference between the “v” and “b”, thus, the speaker tend to use the same sound for these two consonants.

A third problem was certain confusion when he uses Spanish phonemes when pronouncing English words. One example, in line 39 is the word “to” with the “t” sound as a Spanish pronunciation that means not a plosive sound as it should be. Then, in the same line 39, he uses the wrong sound for “shop” pronouncing as /ʧɒp/ when the correct form is /ʃɒp/.

The last problem that I could identify was when he was explaining why he is studding to be a lawyer, he starts giving the reasons. He says, in line 29 /fi:rst/ and the correct pronunciation is /fɜːrst/. This is a typical confusion and interference between the mother tongue and the L2 because in Spanish we do not have long vowels as in English. Another example, in line 36, is when he says /laɪk ˈizɪ ˈizɪ, nɒt/. Here you can see clearly that the word “easy” is pronounced with a short “I” when it should be pronounced with a long “I”. The correct form should be /ˈiːzɪ/.

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Analysis (Lexis)

The first problem that I could identify in lexical items is an invented word by the student. In line 30, he invented the word “reun” maybe to express that he fulfills all the requirements for studding law.

Another problem that I identified is the wrong use of certain words. In line 31, he uses the word “carreer”, he could have used the word “major” or “degree” to express the same idea. Another example is in line 47, he says “national selection”, he might have used “national team” in order to make reference to the football national team.

Analysis (Grammar)

Our interviewed presented the following errors in terms of grammar:

Use of tenses: during the interview, the interviewer used mainly the present tense for verbs, which provoked that sometimes he made tense errors.

Example in line 8: “I born in Chuquicamata”.

Certainly, the interviewed did not have knowledge about the past tense. The correct way in which he should have expressed that sentence is the following: I was born in Chuquicamata. This tense indicates that something occurred in the past.

Example 2 in line 27: “I’m study law”.

The interviewer should have used the present continuous tense indicating that what he studies is currently happening. Correct way: I am studying law.

Use of prepositions: the interviewer made various mistakes related to the appropriate use of prepositions of place and time.

Example in line 29: “I am good in social sciences”. In this case, the correct way is the following: I am good at social sciences

Example 2 in line 38: “In the weekends”. Correct way: on the weekends

Use of articles: the interviewer presented errors in terms of the correct use of articles by omitting or misusing them.

Example in line 55: “Where a people come into our home”. Correct way: Where people come into our home

Example 2 in line 53: “Steve is very scaring cat”. Correct way: Steve is a very scaring cat

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Example 3 in line 46: “For example, in Chile the Colo-Colo”. Correct way: for example, in Chile Colo-Colo

Students’s writing

The art of coocking

1Coock, sometimes, could be very difficult, choose the right ingredients, the right 2spices, the times of coock, and other thing convers coock in a hard work and not every 3people can do it, someones really fail on the moments of coock. But, may call it an art? 4I think that yes, some people transform his plates in a real master piece, mixed taste, 5ellegance and presentation. This people are called chefs, real masters of coock, they 6studies years and speccialize in a specific tipe of food, mexican, italian, etc. Answering 7the cuestión, when this chefs makes his plates with special form, we definitly could 8say that coock is an art.

Analysis (Grammar)

Use of preposition: our interviewed presented the following mistakes related to the use of prepositions.

Example in line 3: “someones really fail on the moments of coock”

Example 2 in line 6: “speccialize in a specific tipe of food”

Use of agreement: our interviewed clearly presented several errors in terms of agreement.

Example in line 4: “some people transform his plates. He probably tried to say “some people transform their plates”

Example 2 in line 7: “this chefs makes his plates”. The intended message maybe was: “these chefs make their plates”

Morphology: the interviewed made mistakes that have to do with correct spelling.

Example in line 6 and 7: “answering the cuestion”. The interviewed should have written this sentence as the following: “answering the question”

Example 2 in line 7 and 8: “we definitly could say that coock is an art”. The correct form in which the interviewed should have expressed the sentence is the following: “we definitely could say that cook is art”.

Analysis (Lexis)

In the written part, the following lexical mistakes were identified

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Example in line 1: “Coock, sometimes could be very difficult”. In this sentence, two main mistakes can be identified. First, at the beginning of the sentence, he wrote “coock” instead of “cook”, and second, he used the modal verb “could”, however, he should have used the modal verb “can”.

Example 2 in line 2: “and other thing convers coock in a hard work”. In this sentence, the interviewed used the word “other”, but he should have used “another” instead. In addition, he wrote “convers coock in a hard work”; he might have wanted to say “makes cooking a complicated activity”.

Another problem identified was the confusion with articles.

Example in line 5: “this people are called chefs”. In this sentence, he was wrong when using the article “this”, he should have used the article “these” in order to express the plurality intended.

Example in line 7: “when this chefs makes his plates”. In this sentence, the mistake takes place, using incorrectly the article “this” and again he should have used the article “these” in order to express plurality.

A problem with interference between mother tongue and L2 was indentified.

Example in line 7: “the cuestión”. In this part of the text he got confuse and maybe he had some doubts with the spelling of the word “question”. Thus, the student uses the Spanish word to replace the lack of knowledge about spelling.

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