Teacher : Roxanna Correa P.

Author : Claudia Sánchez

Francisca González Morales

Subject : Learning and Acquisition of English as a

Foreign Language

Language Learning

Profile

Concepción, june 17th, 2014

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Index

1. Learner’s Background_________________________________3

2. Interview___________________________________________4

3. Phonetic transcription_________________________________5

4. Analysis____________________________________________6-7-8-9

-Phonetics and phonology -Grammar

5. Proposal___________________________________________10

6. Conclusion_________________________________________11

7. References_________________________________________12

Learner’s Background

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Ignacio is an eighteen-year-old first year university student from Concepción,

Chile. His major course of study is social work. According to Ignacio, English is not only important for his because of the reading involved in his current

studies, but also for future job prospects as well. He is an attentive and sociable student but because of his demanding university studies.

Language learning background

Ignacio began learning English at the age of six while attending a monolingual

school called “Sagrado Corazón Concepción”. In that school the teachers began teaching English from first elementary year. At the age of ten, his mother moved him to another school called “Colegio Salesiano Concepción”, when he

continued studying English as a signature. Both schools where Ignacio studied have a great level of English, not as bilingual schools have, but are better than

some public schools for instance.

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Interview

Interviewer: (C) Claudia Estefanía Sánchez Olivares

Interviewee: (I) Ignacio Tomás Manbran Alegría

Duration of the recording:

1. TAPED INTERVIEW

1. C: What’s your name?

2. I: My name is Ignacio Manbran

3. C:Where do you live?

4. I: I live in Concepción

5. C: Who do you live with?

6. I: I live with my mother, my sister, my brother and my grandfather

7. C: What are you studying and why?

8. I: I’m studying trabajo social in Universidad de Concepción.. emm ehh… I I

9. like I always like liked my major because it’s so atractive for me and and

10. emm my mother its eh trabajadora social and and she ehh she of she I I

11. learned eh some things that eh that eh today I’m I’m really studying and

12. that’s I really like to me

13. C: What are your hobbies?

14. I: Ah I like eh football, I like em watch Europe football and and my team my

15. favorite team of football Universidad catolica but my major eh passion is the

16. music in specially rock music. I play some eh a lot of eh instruments like

17. guitar, bass and eh drums.

18. C: Do you like to live here in Chile, and why?

19. I: Eh yes I like Chile because em have em many places that emm eh all the

20. world ehh know it and and and I don’t know its eh ah eh haven’t war with

21. another countries eh and and it’s it’s easy live here

22. C: Which foreign countries would you like to visit and why?

23. I: I would like to visit Germany because has a very developmental culture

24. and is one of greatest economic countries of the world. I would like eh to

25. know its history and architecture and also I would like to visit brazil cause I

26. love the beaches and this country has the most beautiful beaches and

27. second beautiful women of the world cause Chilean women are most

28. beautiful.

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Phonetics Transcription

What are your hobbies?

Line 14

Line 15

Line 16

Line 17

/em aɪ Iaɪk em 'fʊtbɔ:l | aɪ laɪk em | watʃ ɪʊrɔ:p 'fʊtbɔ:l an |

an maɪ tɪm ma 'favɔ:rıt tım ɒf:ʊtbɒl | em bɅt maɪ maɪjɔ:r|

e 'peɪʃɒn ɪs e ðe mɪʊsɪc | 'speʃalɪ rɔ:k mɪʊsɪc | a pleɪ sɔ:m e

a lɔ: rɔ:f e ɪnstrʊments laɪ gɪ'tar | 'bas an 'trɔ:mps e/

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Analysis

Grammar Analysis

GRAMMAR/ SYNTAX

Form:

Word omission:

- In line 19 the learner replies: “I like Chile because em have em many

places”, Instead of: “I like Chile because it has many places…” There is a

problem related to the form in the sentence, since he omitted the pronoun “it”

which is referring to Chile.

- In line 23 the learner replies: “I would like to visit Germany because

has…” Instead of: “I would like to visit Germany, because it has” There

is a problem related to the form in the sentence, since he omitted the

pronoun “it” which is referring to Germany”

- In line 24 the learner replies: “… and is one of the greatest…” Instead

of: “… and it is one of the greatest…” There is a problem related to the

form in the sentence, since he omitted the pronoun “it” which is

referring to Germany.

- In line 12 the learner replies: “… and that’s I really like to me”. Instead of:

“… and that’s what I really like”. There is a mistake related to the form in the

sentence, since he omitted the pronoun “what” which is referring to the major

that he is studying.

* In Spanish native speakers can produce some sentences without the pronoun

and the listener could understand if he knows the context.

- In line 15 the learner replies: “… my favorite team of football Universidad

Catolica”. Instead of: “… my favorite team of football is Universidad Catolica”.

There is a mistake related to the form in the sentence, since he omitted the

conjugated form of the verb “to be” which is “is”.

Word order:

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In line 15 the learner replies: “… my favorite team of football…” Instead of: “…

my favorite football team…” There is a mistake related to the form in the

sentence, since he had a word order mistake, because in this case the word

“football” is not a noun, it is an adjective, then the correct position of an

adjective in a sentence is before the noun, which it is “team”.

Tenses errors:

-In line 10 the learner replies: “… my mother its trabajadora social” Instead of:

“My mother is a trabajadora social”. There is a mistake related to the form in

the sentence. It is a fact that his mother is a social worker, so the correct word

is the conjugated verb to be in simple present, which is “is”.

- In line14 the learner replies: “I like watch…” Instead of: “I like watching” or

“I like to watch”. There is a mistake related to the form in the sentence. When

we use the auxiliary verb “like” in a sentence, the verb which is after it must

be in gerund or infinitive form.

- In line 20 the learner replies: “… all the world know it…” Instead of: “… all the

world knows it…” There is a mistake related to the form in the sentence.

When we use a noun which is singular, the verb in simple present tense must

have an “s” added.

In line 20 the learner replies: “Its haven’t war” Instead of: “It doesn’t have

wars”. There is a mistake related to the form in the sentence. The learner was

referring to a fact, which is that Chile doesn’t have any wars, then the correct

structure of a negative simple present sentence is in this case: pronoun +

doesn’t / don’t + verb + complement.

Meaning:

- In line 12 the learner replies: “… and that’s I really like to me”. Instead of:

“… and that’s what I really like”. There is a mistake related to the meaning in

the sentence. When you read it at first, you cannot deduce the real meaning of

the sentence, because of the order of the constituents.

Sometimes, when there is a word order mistake, it is not difficult

to deduce the real meaning, but there are some cases that you cannot understand the sentence.

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Phonetics and Phonology Analysis

1. Firstly, we have an omission of the final sound /d/ in the line 14

and 15. Our learner says /an/ instead of say /and/.

2. In the line 15 we found was in the word /ma/ it does not mean anything and he probably wanted to say /maɪ/ according to the

context. Here there is a problem with the diphthong /aɪ/.

3. In the line 15 our learner had was in the word /'favɔ:rıt/. Here

we have problems with the two first phonemes because they are different to the correct way to say this word, which is /ˈfeɪvərɪt/.

The stress is correct.

4. In the line 15 the final letter of the first word and the first letter of the second word are “f” so here we have linking when we have

two identical consonants it is produced only one single elongated articulation, like only one consonant that join the two words. The learner in this case pronounce like this /ɒf:ʊtbɔ:l/.

5. In the line 15 the stress in this word is correct but the phonemes in this word are word because he is associating the word in Spanish with the word in English /'peɪʃɒn/. The correct way to say the word is /ˈpæʃən/.

6. In the line 16 the mistake here is with the phoneme /ʃa/ because

he does not make the difference between /a/ and /ә/, for this reason he say /'speʃalɪ/. Maybe he think that it sound the same.

7. The next mistake in the line 16 that we found was /a/ when the speaker expected to say /aɪ/. The diphthong /aɪ/ was omitted.

8. Thenin the line 17, it is a case of Linking “r” also called “intrusive”. It happen we the final sound of the first word and the first sound

of the second words are like a vowel, in this case you can to put an “r” to join the two words. The learner said /lɒ rɒf/

9. The last mistake in the line 17 is about the stop consonants in these words /k/ and /g/, if when we have this kind of consonants

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we must to pronounce both of them /laɪk gɪtar/. Our

interviewee only pronounced the sound /g/ in the second word, like /laɪ gɪ'tar/

Intonation

It is very difficult for someone who do not the phonetic symbols to do the different sounds in English. It requires to

practice and to have in mind that a sound which is bad pronounced could change the meaning of the sentence or

phrase.

/em aɪ Iaɪk em 'fʊtbɔ:l | aɪ laɪk em | watʃ ɪʊrɔ:p 'fʊtbɔ:l an | an maɪ

tɪm ma 'favɔ:rıt tım ɒf:ʊtbɒl | em bɅt maɪ maɪjɔ:r | e 'peɪʃɒn ɪs e ðe

mɪʊsɪc | 'speʃalɪ rɔ:k mɪʊsɪc | a pleɪ sɔ:m e a lɔ: rɔ:f e ɪnstrʊments laɪ

gɪ'tar | 'bas an 'trɔ:mps e/

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Proposal

In terms of Phonetics and Phonology, our interviewee has

problems with the pronunciation of some words and at the moment to

listen this words they are not correct according to the context and

maybe someone else could not understand the message.

As an advice for this problem, our learner could practice the right

pronunciation of the different sounds in English and it could be very

helpful.

In terms of Grammar and Syntax, our interviewee does not

produce main mistakes. But there are some common mistakes which are

mainly because of the interference between his L1 and English. The

mistake which the learner repeated the most was related to vocabulary.

As a proposal for him, our learner could practice more speaking,

because through the speaking he could solve his problem, which is the

interference. As a proposal for his vocabulary mistakes, it is very easy,

to practice reading and improve his lack of vocabulary.

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Conclusion

As a conclusion, we consider that this kind of tasks are very

relevant for us because it helps us in a deep way when we have to find

and fix the grammar and phonetics issues of the learner. Besides, it is

helpful because we can practice our grammar and phonology and it

allows being better in our future as a teacher. Moreover, checking and

then giving feedback is not as easy as it seems, and it takes us a lot of

time, but it helps us also to improve our language, our knowledge.

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References

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

Grammaring. Thomson Heinle.