CELTA Assignment Cover Sheet

To be completed by CELTA candidate

Submitted by: MARIA VICTORIA MERMOZ___________________________________

Assignment title: FOCUS ON THE

Assignment number: 1______________________________

Number of words: 1200______________________________

Submitted on (date): 1st May 2019______________________________

This assignment is my original work and I have acknowledged all sources.

Full name: MARIA VICTORIA MERMOZ PACI________________

To be completed by CELTA tutor

Overall grade: PASS on first submission

General comments:

A very solid assignment, Vicky. You have clearly spent time interviewing and observing your
learner. You provide useful background information in your profile fo Nerea and clear reference to
her extrinsic motiviation. You show good awareness of her learning preferences and provide a
balanced evaluation of her strengths and weaknesses backed up by your observations and examples
from the classroom. The language problems you have chosen to focus on are fairly typical of
Spanish speakers at this level and the solutions you provide are appropriate. You include useful
reference to your background reading throughout the assignment to support your points. Overall, a
thorough and well-organised assignment which meets the pass criteria. Well done!

International House London Teacher Training

A M E M B E R O F T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L H O U S E W O R L D O R G A N I S AT I O N
Part A: Learner’s profile

Background
Nerea is a Spanish student with an A2 level (pre intermediate) of English. Her mother tongue is
Spanish. She is attending English classes on Saturdays and shows a real interest in learning the
language. She is a young student currently working in a company, in the HR department. She holds
a degree in Business Administration. Although she is not using English in her present position, she
admits learning this language is important for future positions and promotions. Her learning
experience reduces to some years of secondary school and some attempts to attend academies,
which made it difficult for her to continue due to different reasons; Lack of motivation –according
to her- from the teacher’s side is one of them. She also attended an English course for a week
when she was unemployed. However, she had to withdraw from it since she started to work. She
started studying English as an obligation and in her teens. According to Harmer- The practice of
English language teaching- we must take into account that “learning success is closely bound up
with both the method of teaching and, more crucially, the personality and age of the learner”.
Apart from working reasons, Nerea finds it fascinating to learn English because she loves travelling
(extrinsic motivation). This motivates her to continue trying with her learning process. She
considers herself to be having a real problem with vocabulary and oral skills. Her problem, she
admits, is that she wants to express some ideas but she lacks proper lexis. Sometimes, she
watches series in English, subtitles in Spanish, but she even finds it difficult to follow the plot. Her
contact with this language on a daily basis is scarce.
Thorough section with good detail on her previous language learning experience and good
reference of her extrinsic motivation to learn for work and travel.

Learning preferences
With regards to this point, Nerea is a student who prefers to listen. Do you think she is an auditory
learner? She answers if and only if she is requested to. This could be because of her lack of self
confidence motivated by the problem mentioned above – lack of proper lexis and difficulty in
expressing her ideas. She does not like to work in small groups so much. Whole-class discussion is
preferable. Teacher collaboration makes her feel slightly more confident, which may explain the
reason why she is not so keen on working with her peers. She likes the teacher to ask her
questions and when she is asked to repeat language. She has little time to reinforce her learning
process with homework, so this option is not the best one for her. This student engages with the
class when the teacher manages to create a dynamic atmosphere. She loves games and activities
and shows real interest in getting involved. Course books give her a feeling of “knowing where she
is going to”, a sense of direction. However, she also appreciates the use of extra material that can
make her feel she is broadening her vocabulary.
You’ve clearly spent time observing and interviewing Nerea and are aware of her learning
preferences. You could comment on what you think her learning style is e.g. visual, auditory,
kinesthetic
Strengths and weaknesses
Below is a list of Nerea’s strengths and weaknesses based upon observation and her interview.

Grammar
Nerea uses the present continuous appropriately. However she misuses the present simple tense.
She often omits the use of verbs (probably she does not know the verb in English, so she prefers
not to use them) and forgets the right conjugation for 3 rd person singular. Example: “He have a
box”, “They not the passage” (they don’t buy the ticket)

Vocabulary
In general she uses vocabulary appropriate for her level, but most of the time she forgets the word
in English. In consequence, she transfers from her mother tongue to English (resaltar - stand out,
forofa – big fan, the passage – the ticket, etc)

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Pronunciation
Nerea can easily be understood. Her pronunciation in general terms matches her level. However,
she has problems with the vowel endings, such as: married, she pronounces /maried/ instead
of /mærɪd/
She also has problems when pronouncing the u sound, to be pronounced /ʌ/. Example: customer,
she pronounces: /kustəmər/ instead of /kʌstəmər/

Speaking
Nerea find it really difficult to express her ideas. She prefers not to speak, but when she is
encouraged to do so, she responds according to her level, lexis limitations taken into account. Due
to this lack of vocabulary, she invents words such as forofa, instead of fan, or she even struggles
with false friends, such as passage instead of ticket. Although her sentences are short and
incomplete, she manages to get the message across.

Writing
Nerea’s writing skills match her level. She tends to write complex sentences, which is a common
error made by Spanish learners. She also tends to write sentences translated straight away from
Spanish. Examples:
“I have that get a new news” (have that: tengo que, a new news: nueva noticia), trying to give
some good news.

Reading
This student finds it difficult to understand texts at the moment of interpreting information.
Example A
Teacher: Is X taking Y to a restaurant?
Nerea: yes (wrong answer)
Example B
Teacher: Is the email from A to B or from B to A?
Nerea: from A to B (wrong answer)

Listening

In general Nerea’s comprehension of listening activities is according to her level, but needs to
listen to the audio more than twice. She is able to understand gist. However, she struggles to get
specific information. She often need support from peers or even the teacher to find the right
answer.
You show good awareness of Nerea’s strengths and weaknesses, and support this well with
examples from your observation of her in class.

Part B: Language problems and activities suggested

1. Pronunciation
As Nerea is a Spanish learner, her pronunciation mistakes are typical. According to Norman Coe in
his chapter: “spelling and pronunciation are very closely-and simply- related in Spanish, so
beginner learners tend to pronounce English words letter by letter”. She pronounces ed endings
letter by letter, hearing from her words such as: married /maried/ instead of /mærɪd/. This mistake
extends to the rest of the past regular verbs, so I have decided to work on this area because it is a
mistake she constantly repeats and this may lead to misunderstandings in her discourse. Very
typical error for Spanish speakers at this level and a useful one to focus on.
The activity I have chosen covers the listening, writing and oral practice. It also provides the
student with enough practice by listening and drilling. Reading different past regular verbs and
practicing their pronunciation will enable Nerea to raise awareness of the written and
phonological difference of each word.
Clear rationale and your chosen published material works well as a solution.

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Grammar

Nerea often omits the s of third person singular for the verbs in present simple tense. This may
occur because of the differences in inflections between Spanish and English. As Spanish is a highly
inflected language compared with English –with hardly any inflections- Spanish learners tend to
omit the s of third person singular in present simple.
I have chosen this activity to reinforce her knowledge of present simple conjugation because it
provides with controlled practice of the conjugation in this tense. In the second exercise Nerea will
be able to make sentences focusing on the differences between third person singular and third
person plural . This will help her to reinforce the sentence structure paying special attention to the
verb and its conjugation.
The problem is a very common one and the material you have chosen relates well to the problem
area though I’m not convinced that written practice here will have much impact on her spoken
English as this seems to be something that takes students a long time to acquire (despite being
very aware of the rules). It might be useful to include some focus of negative forms as you had an
example of an error she makes with this and I think that would have more impact. That said, your
solution does address the problem you have identified and is appropriate for the level.
Word count: 1200

See activities below

Bibliography

Coe, N. ‘Speakers of Spanish and Catalan’ in Swan, M. and Smith, B. (Eds.) (2001
Jeremy Harmer.The Practice of English Language Teaching 4 th Edition. Longman

Bill Bowler and Sue Parminter. New Headway pronunciation course pre intermediate. Oxford
University Press
Raymond Murphy. Essential grammar in use. Second edition. Cambridge University Press

PRONUNCIATION

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Taken from: Bill Bowler and Sue Parminter. New Headway pronunciation course pre intermediate.
Oxford University Press

GRAMMAR

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Taken from: Raymond Murphy. Essential grammar in use. Second edition. Cambridge University
Press

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