Language Learning Profile Framework

For the past several years, there has been a concern to know how learners acquire a second language and what methods they use to deal with specific problems. For that reason, it might be helpful to analyse someone’s perspective in different areas, so we can identify their mistakes and infer what may happened. It has been known that in order to solve these problems, learning strategies is a useful tool that helps learners to overcome difficult situations during the process of learning another language. Therefore, applying the correct strategy to students is a way to facilitate a learning task.

At the same time, as teachers we gain the experience to have an overview into the student’s cognitive processes, by taking into account both Oxford and Chamot’s strategies. These two educators believe in the assumption that actually all students can learn.

In addition, these two researchers applied their strategies with the idea to help students to become proficient English language users, and to improve their own learning. On one hand, teachers help student to understand themselves the way they learn. On the other hand, students realized on their own processes by using metacognition, which at the end they become more independent learners.

Eventually, as previously mentioned, coping with strategies encourage students to recognize their own thinking processes. It is necessary to apply these strategies in order to make them develop productive or receptive skills.

Language Learner Profile

Learner’s Background:

The learner is 21 years old; he is in his second year of Culinary Arts in “Universidad Tecnológica INACAP”. Academically, in terms of English proficiency, he started in 2001 at “Instituto de Humanidades San Francisco de Asis – Lota”. After this, he attended “Liceo Industrial F.F Schwager”, from 1° grade to 4 °year. During high school he used to spend two hours per week of English classes, in which he obtained sufficient marks.

Since 11 years old approximately, he started to listen to music in English, from one of his favorite bands called “Linkin Park”. This was one of the main reasons why he thought in studying English pedagogy; however, he did not get the necessary score to get to the university. Finally, he took an optional course on cooking, so he decided to study something related to gastronomy.

In his daily routine, he stated that he continues loving English despite studying other type of courses such as French, which can generate some kind of interference in learning English. At the university, he has 4 hours of English during the week, and two hours of French. It is relevant to mention that, since he is really interesting in learning more about English, he spends most of the day listening to different groups of music and watching TV in English.

Taped Interview

Interviewer: (T) Nataly Muñoz

Interviewee: (S) Francisco Muñoz

1 T: Hi

2 S: Hi

3 T: Ok. What’s your name?

4 S: My name is Francisco Muñoz

5 T: How old are you?

6 S: Ehmmm. I’m twenty one years old

7 T: Ok. Can you spell your name?

8 S: Ehmmm yeap, ehmm F- R ehmm, A-N- C ehhh A-S-C-O.

9 T: And what is your favorite type of music?

10 S: I like rock music

11 T: And who is your favourite singer?

12 S: Ahmmm, my favourite singer is mmmmmm, tiriririri Janis Joplin

13 T: Could you describe yourself in terms of personality?

14 S: Ehmm I’m very ehm quite and shy ehmm…….eso

15 T: Ok. What do you do in your free time?

16 S: Ehm, I like cook, cooking ehh I like listen music and emm mmm.. and playing music

17 T: What did you do in your last winter holidays?

18 S: Ehmm, I ….. I go to the ehmm, Sur de Chile ehmm mmm….Punta Arenas ehmm,

19 visit many cities ehhh mmm… and many people.

20 T: Ok. Could you tell me a happy moment of your life?

21 S: Ehhhh, when ehhh.. I go to my first concert in my life ehmm.. in Santiago ehm capital 22 of my country Chile ehmm, I go with a fried emm, the name of the band is Iron Maiden 23 emm.. is a popular band of emm.. Heavy metal music emm of England emm,, this night 24 they are playing emm one of my favorites song emm.. call “Children of dammed” this 25 song emm.. is very amazing emm.. the concert finish emm amm.. 11 pm. Mmm.. we go 26 to the bus emmm when the concert finish, the concert reunit mmm.. more of sententa 27 mil personas. Ok, you can say it in Spanish. This night I’m very very happy.

28 T: Ok. What are you going to do for Independence day?

29 S: Ehmm.. I go to the mmm…. fondas emmm.and dancing cueca emm.drink mote con 30huesillo ehh chicha em..eat many emm..food emm..pajaritos mm..asados ehmm...cosas 31como esas.

32 T: Ok. Thank you very much

33 S: Ok.

Interview Analysis: Systems of the Language.

The learner’s interview will be analyzed in three important areas of language, which are: grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.

1. Grammar:

a) Inappropriate use of tenses (past and future):

For learners, sometimes is complicated to make use of the correct tense for a given context, for example:

- I go to the (18).

- I go to my first concert (21)

- I go with a friend (22).

He is willing to describe actions that he did in a certain period of time; nonetheless, it would have been appropriate to use past tense in order to recognize when those actions happened: I went to the - I went to my first concert - I went with a friend…

- They are playing (24).

He attempts to select the correct past tense; however, it would have been more suitable to use past continuous to refer to: They were playing …

-“I go to the fondas” (29)

Once more, he makes use of the incorrect tense to express a future action that has been planned; according to the example above the correct form it would have been “I will go to the fondas”

b) Omission of a preposition To:

The use of prepositions in English in most of the cases creates problems for the learners; due to the negative transfer form their native mother tongue. Eventually, the student learns to use them just by memorizing and in many times as chunks of words. See examples below:

- “…dancing cueca drink mote con huesillo chicha. eat many food” (29) - (30), instead “ to dance cueca, to drink huesillo and to eat many food”

c) Parallel structure:

The learner tries to clarify his hobbies by using sometimes ing- form; however, it might have been precise to use the same structure during the whole sentence.

-“I like cook, cooking I like listen music and playing music” (16) instead, “I like cooking, I like listening music and playing music”

d) Word order :

The student makes efficient use of word order specifically with adjective, a problem that most Spanish speakers have to encounter, as in the following example:

- “Heavy metal music” (23).

2. Pronunciation:

According to the learner’s perspective, a piece of the interview will be exhibited in order to analyze his speech. The aspects to be assessed will be: Stress, intonation, connected speech, and fluency. Therefore, an IPA transcription is provided to understand the student’s ability for speaking.

S: Ehhhh, when ehhh… I go to my first concert in my life ehmmm..in Santiago ehmm capital of my country Chile ehmmm, I go with a friend emmm.. the name of the band is “Iron Maiden” emm..is a popular band of emm..Heavy metal music emm... of England emmm... this night they are playing emm one of my favourites song emm.. call “Children of dammed” this song emm.. is very amazing emm.. the concert finish emm amm 11 pm mmm… we go to the bus emm… when concert finish the concert reunit mmm… more of setenta mil personas. Ok you can say it in Spanish. This night I’m very very happy.

/(E) wen (e) aɪ gəʊ tʊ maɪ ˈfɜrst ˈkɒnsɜrt ɪn maɪ laɪf (em) ɪn Santiago (em) ˈkapɪtal of maɪ ˈkʌntrɪ Chile (em) aɪ gəʊ wɪð ə friend (em) ðɜ neɪm of ðə bænd ɪz ˈaɪrən ˈmeɪdn (em) ɪz əˈ pɒpjələr bænd of (em) ˈHevɪ ˈmetl ˈmjuːzɪk (emm) of ˈIŋglɒnd (em) ðɪs naɪt ðeɪ ʌr ˈpleɪɪŋ (em) wʌn əv maɪ ˈfeɪvərɪts sɒŋ (em) kɒld ˈʧɪldrən of ˈdæmɪd ðɪs sɒŋ (em) ɪz ˈverɪ ʌˈmeɪzɪŋ (emm) ðə ˈkɒnsɜrt ˈfɪnɪʃ (em) (am) 11 ˈpiːˈem (m) wi gəʊ tʊ ðə bʌs (em) wen ˈkɒnsɜrt ˈfɪnɪʃ ðə ˈkɒnsɜrt riunit (m) mɒr of setenta mɪl /ok juː kæn seɪ ɪt ɪn ˈspænɪʃ/ ðɪs naɪt Im ˈverɪ ˈverɪ ˈhæpɪ/

a) Stress:

The Student does not struggle with word stress throughout his speech. In the examples below, he stresses noun, verbs and prepositions as well.

-Noun: /tʊ maɪ ˈfɜrst ˈkɒnsɜrt ɪn maɪ laɪf/ -Preposition: / Im ˈverɪ ˈverɪ ˈhæpɪ/

b) Intonation:

The learner tends to omit intonation, which he uses a falling tone instead of rising it, considering that there are important ideas to emphasize:

- /ðɪs sɒŋ (em) ɪz ˈverɪ əˈmeɪzɪŋ/

- /wʌn əv maɪ ˈfeɪvərɪts sɒŋ/

c) Connected speech:

The student makes use of a linking feature, in this case would be the Linking R:

- “they are” / naɪt ðeɪ ʌrˈpleɪɪŋ/.

d) Fluency:

The student’s speech is impaired by the overuse of fillers, such as “ehmm” – “mm” and “amm”, these are elements that make the leaner’s speech less effective. Moreover, the excessive pauses that he does, at the same time makes the idea to be less understandable.

- “Heavy metal music emm... of England emmm”.- “ when ehhh… I go to my first concert in my life ehmmm”

3. Vocabulary:

From the learner’s interview, it has been possible to analyze some typical mistakes that the majority of second language learners make.

a) Omission of connectors:

The use of words to link ideas was very difficult for the interviewee; therefore it was complicated to follow the interviewee´s speech. It was possible to extract the following examples:

-“I go to the Ehmm, Sur de Chile ehmm mmm….Punta Arenas”(18) instead of “I go to Sur de Chile, and then I went to Punta Arenas”

-“I go to my first concert in my life ehmmm.. in Santiago ehmm capital of my country Chile ehmm” (20 - 21) instead of “I go to my first concert in my life, that was in Santiago city which is the capital of my country, Chile.

b) Cognates:

The interviewee tends to pronounce two words that look the same in Spanish and in English in the same way.

-“…in Santiago ehmm capital of my country Chile ehmmm”(20-21) instead of in Santiago capital ehmm of my country Chili ehmmm.

-“…drink mote con huesillo ehh chicha eat many emm food” (28-29) instead of in “drink mote con huesillo ehh chichi eat a lot of food.”

3. Misspelling of words:

The interviewee has problems pronouncing words which have the similar sounds in English for example:

-“Ehmm I´m very ehmm quite…” (14) Instead of “I´m very quiet”

Writing task

Write a brief paragraph (100 words) answering the following question. If you were a millionaire. What would you do with that money?

1 With my money spend on my family because they loved and buy a place 2 away from the city because system capitalist for my it’s bad in my opinion, 3 my futur house, this house a forest and lakes, for my tranquility, with 4 renewable energy, and inverted a system ecologist for good of the earth, 5 a place tourist where people enjoy the nature and local food, everithing 6 made with valance of humans and nature. Like song “Imagine” of John 7 Lennon. Imagine the people living life in peace..you may say I’m a dreamer 8 but I’m nothing only one.. I hope some day enjoinus, and the world living 9 one’s .

Writing Analysis

The piece of writing will be analyzed in two main categories systems of language, which are: Grammar and Vocabulary. Regarding the previous task, these are the following problems identified:

1. Grammar:

a) Syntax: The learner encounters some difficulties for building sentences with the

appropriate structure, an issue that makes the idea complicated to understand at the beginning, as in these examples:

“With my money spend on my family” - Perhaps he wanted to say “I would spend my money on my family”

“Because they loved” – Maybe he wanted to say “because I love them”.

“Because system capitalist for my it’s bad in my opinion”- Maybe he wanted to say “ Because of the capitalist system, which in my opinion it’s bad”

b) Omission of future tense: The student does not manage future tense, which is an element require for

this task. Most of his sentences are not link with the accurate tense.

“With my money spend” - Instead of “I would spend my money”

“where people enjoy the nature” – Instead of “where people will enjoy the nature”

“and inverted a system ecologist” – Instead of “I will invest in a ecological system”.

c) Omission of punctuation: Punctuation is area in which student do not take too much into account. It is

important to mention, that the student presents problems related to when to start an idea and finish it, in order to make the text coherent.

“With my money spend on my family because they loved and buy a place” – Instead of “I would spend my money on my family, because I love them, and I would buy a place”

“my future house, this house a forest and lakes” – Instead of “ I would buy a house, which will have a forest and lakes”

d) Word order: This is common mistake for Spanish speakers, due to their native language.

The Student tends to literally translate from Spanish into English.

“because system capitalist” – Instead of “because of the capitalist system”

“and inverted a system ecologist” – Instead of “ and I will invest in a ecological system”

“a place tourist” – Instead of “a touristic place”

“everithing made with valance of humans and nature” – Instead of “everything build with balance between humans and nature”

e) Genitive case: The student does not use of genitive case to indicate for possession.

It might be a consequence of his mother tongue.

“Like song Imagine of John Lennon” – Instead of “ such as the John Lennon’s song called IMAGINE”

2. Vocabulary:

a) Lack of conditionals:

The interviewee was not aware of the use of conditionals in the English language so he did not know how to explain a hypothetical situation.

Example:

“With my money spend on my family…” instead of “If I were a

millionaire I would spend my money on my family”

b) Misspelling of words:

The interviewee had problems remembering the writing form of some words. This is a problem suffered by English learners due to the fact that there are not specific rules for the writing form of words.

Examples:

“my futur house” instead of “my future house”

“everithing made with…” instead of “everything made with…”

“…ecologic…” instead of “…ecological…”

c) Cognates:

The interviewee used many wrong words because he had confused the English words with Spanish words with similar sounding.

Examples:

“and inverted…” instead of “and to invest…

“with valance of humans” instead of “with balance of humans”

d) Fixed expressions:

The student tends to use the same structure he uses in Spanish when he writes in English. As it is shown in the following example:

“for good of the earth” instead of “for the earth´s welfare”

e) Lexical problems:

The learner chooses words he thought were more relevant or appropriate to the context even if the words were being misused.

Example:

“I´m nothing only one” instead of “I´m not the only one”

“…enjoin us” instead of “join us”

“and the world living one´s” instead of “and the world will live as one”

Adapted from “Prediction with Story Telling” “The Learning Strategies Handbook..Chamot (1999).

Learning Strategies Lesson Planning Form.

Content area: Grammar Topic: 2nd Conditional

Grade: University, 2nd year

Objectives

Content/knowledge skills: At the end of the class the S will be able to identify the use of 2nd Conditional through a reading comprehension activity, in order to improve his English.

Procedure

Preparation

1. Firstly, it is necessary to ask the student what strategies he uses, that helps him to understand a paragraph or how the story continues. Foster the student to share his strategies and write them on the board.

“When you are reading a story or a paragraph, what sort of things come to your mind that helps yourself to comprehend the story?”

2. Introduce sentences with missing information and ask them to predict the rest of the sentence.

“We are going to read a few sentences, and as we read them we will put in practice a strategy that you can use to complete the sentences with the appropriate structure”. In this moment, think for a while if the story is about a hypothetical context; for example, if you were an animal. What would you be? Or, if you were a magician, what would you do then?

Presentation:

3. Discuss the strategy of prediction, which will be practiced during the task of completing the sentence.

“What are you doing when you complete the sentences? You predict based on what you already know about the information of the sentences or other personal

experiences. Prediction is a useful strategy you can use before and during reading to help you look for and remember information you are expecting. For example, at the beginning you read the sentences first and then you can complete with the missing information with the corresponding structure by remembering what you already know. Predicting based on the patterns in the story helps you check to see if the story makes sense”

Preparation 2:

4. Activate student background knowledge about the use of 2nd Conditional “I would have..”

“We are going to see sentences with the 2nd Conditional structure; do you know what “conditional” means? When do we use this 2nd Conditional? Which is the most typical word use in 2nd conditionals?

Practice:

5. Conduct the completeness task, having the student practice the strategy of prediction. Tell the student that he will practice completing the sentence with the 2nd conditional pattern when you are finished.

“We are going to read and retell the information of the sentences. Before and during the reading, I’m going to remind you to make predictions and check your predictions. I’m also going to ask you why you made the predictions and what information of the sentences helped you made the predictions”.

Evaluation:

6. Help the student to evaluate his use of the strategy prediction. Lead the student in a discussion about how he used the strategy during the replacement and how she could use the same strategy while she completes the sentences.

“While reading the sentences, did you make predictions? When did you make predictions? Why did you make predictions? Unconsciously you made predictions based on what you knew or what you heard. The sentences had a specific pattern, and you used the pattern to help you to complete the sentence. What were some of the patterns? Did the strategy help you to understand and replace the correct word?

Expansion:

7. Have the student apply prediction to a new task of replacement and then report on their experiences.

“Do you ever predict when you read on your own? When you read the sentences, predict what you think come next. Use the information of the sentence and the information you previously know about it. Write down what you predicted and why so that we can discuss it tomorrow. Think about how this helped you to continuing the story by completing the sentences”.

Lesson Plan Evaluation

First of all, we must say that at the beginning it was very complicated to us to find the purpose of our lesson plan because for us the instructions of the teacher were not completely clear and we were sort of lost. Another disadvantage was the fact that the format of the lesson plan was complete unknown for my partner and me; hence, we did not know how to create it. Nevertheless, Chamot´s book was really useful because it helped us to understand how to develop the complete lesson. Then, as we were working in the lesson plan we were able to realize the point of it and how to finish it in order to create and to plan a successful class.