Assignment: Focus on the Learner

Candidate Name: Mirzoev Sino

I confirm that this assignment is my own work, that I have avoided collusion, and that I have not copied the work of current or
past CELTA candidates. I confirm that I have not copied directly from any sources and that any sources quoted or paraphrased in
my assignment are included in my bibliography. I confirm that all sources have been acknowledged and referenced according to
the Stafford House Guidelines, including the use of AI tools. I understand that failure to comply with any of the above will result
in this assignment not meeting the criteria for a ‘pass’.

Signed MIrzoev Sino Date _ November 7, 2024

Candidates can demonstrate their learning by: CRITERIA MET CRITERIA NOT
MET
a. showing awareness of how a learner’s/learners’ background(s), previous
learning experience and learning preferences affect learning

b. identifying the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills needs

c. correctly using terminology relating to the description of language systems

and/or language skills

d. selecting appropriate material and/or resources to aid the learner’s/learners’

language and/or skills development

e. providing a rationale for using specific activities with a learner/learners

f. finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using
written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task

OVERALL COMMENT:

SPECIFIC AREAS THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED IN RESUBMISSION (if relevant):

Grade on first submission: PASS RESUBMIT

Marked by:
Double-marked by:

COMMENTS ON RESUBMISSION:
 Grade on resubmission: PASS FAIL
Marked by:
Double-marked by:

1. Please write your assignment here.

2. Add the final word count.
3. Remember to include appendix 1 (grammar task) Appendix 2 (pronunciation task). These should be
in be copy & pasted into this document
4. Email this to us as a word document (not a PDF).
5. Save this assignment as: FOL_Mirzoev Sino_1st submission

Word count: 909

Bibliography:
1. English Grammar in Use, fifth edition, Raymond Murphy, 2019, Cambridge University press.
2. Practical English Usage, Forth edition, Michael Swan, 2016, Oxford University press.

Part A : Class Profile

- Level: Intermediate

- Age range: Students are between 18-60 years old.

- Interests: Reading, doing sports, hiking, cooking, playing piano, watching Formula 1 races, mountains.

- Previous learning experiences: Some students have been learning English for less then a year, for example
Ichraq. He has joined online courses to improve his level of English. Whereas, Alexey, he has been learning
English since his middle school. Some students have been learning with tutors, and some like Altaf has
been continuously learning on his own.

- Reasons for learning English: Ichraq wants to improve his English to continue his studies in Ireland.
However, Igor and Altaf want to improve their English because they need it for their jobs. Some other
students learn English with the purpose of travelling or self improvement, like Tara.

- Learner preferences/preferred activity types: Using computers and technology, watching videos, listening
to songs, speaking in groups, role-plays, repeating new words after the teacher, working independently,
standing up and moving around, games and competitions.

Part B: Skills

This group is a combination of students who are in pre-intermediate and intermediate level. The
students have fairly good, listening and speaking skills. Conversely, for many students reading and writing
is fairly challenging.

There are students who have good speaking and listening skills like Igor, Tara, Victory, Tatyana, and
Altaf and do well in class. They can speak fluently and confidently and don't hesitate to ask questions. They
deal well with misunderstandings when speaking and listening, and ask teachers to repeat the questions
when needed. However, sometimes they struggle with reading and writing.

For example, “Igor responds well to speaking activities, demonstrated by the fact that he can fluently
express his thoughts in whole group discussions and in break out rooms and doesn’t need assistance. ”

However, “Victory struggles with reading, specifically intensive reading evidenced by the fact that she
can’t confidently share her ideas after reading, with whole group.”

On the other hand, there are students who have weak listening and speaking skills like Ishraq, Daniel,
Ayse, Sabrina, and Antonio. They can listen and understand fairly good, but speak hesitantly, and
sometimes need verbal repetition. So the teacher repeats the questions or the CCQs to make it clear for
them to comprehend. To add, they find listening exercises challenging, and sometimes they need to listen
twice to completely understand the content.

For example: “Ayse struggles with speaking skills demonstrated by the fact she speaks hesitantly in
break out rooms and whole group discussions.” Or “Antonio has weak listening and speaking skills
evidenced by the fact that he needs the questions to be repeated often times or he doesn’t speak
confidently in group discussions.”
Part C: Language errors

Often times in the lessons I notice it is challenging for some students to comprehend the tenses and
their application, specifically, the present perfect tense, or past perfect tense. Another challenging point
for many students is the pronunciation of particular words and their stressed syllables.

For example, it is challenging for Igor to build present perfect tense sentences, eg: instead
of saying : “We have both written the answers”, he has said “We have both wrote the
answers.” The error in this sentence is the word “write /raɪt/”. It should be written as
“written” in past participle and pronounced as written /ˈrɪtən/. I think if Igor knows the
form of present perfect, which is “verb to be+pp” he would better be able to build
sentences in present perfect tense.

Another grammar error that I have noticed was made by Alexsey. Instead of saying, “We can't find the
right word”. He has said: “We can't to find the right word.” I think the error he has made here is, he used
the preposition “to” where it was not necessary. Because, we usually don't put prepositions after modal
verbs, eg: “I can read Italian, but I can't speak it”(Swan). Or “Do you think you could help me for a few
minutes?” (Swan)

Some students have also made errors related to pronunciation, for example, Altaf has said:
“conversation/ˌkɑ:nvərˈseɪʃʌn/” instead of saying: “conversation /ˌkɑ:nvərˈseɪʃən/”. The problem here is,
Altaf is not very familiar with the transcription and the pronunciation of the word. That is the reason he
added /ʌ/ sound where it was not necessary.

Tatiana has also made a pronunciation error. She has said version /vɜ:rʃɔ:n/ instead of saying
version /ˈvɜ:rʒən/. She, as well, needs to be more familiar with the transcription of the words and their
clear pronunciation in order to read them well and pronounce them correct.

Part D: Helping the learner

In order to help Igor to better understand the present perfect tense, I recommend to do the
exercises on present perfect tense, Unit 7, Grammar in Use, by Raymond Murphy.The reason I have chosen
this exercise for Igor is to give him an opportunity to better understand the present perfect tense through
the controlled practices, the form of the present perfect tense and past participles.
For Altaf, I recommend to write down 5 to 6 words that have the /ʃ/ sound and practice them. For
example, he can write one word on the face of the the card and its transcription behind it. He can start
with five or six cards. He can practice this way: read the word, check if its pronounced correctly. Practice
every word until its done perfectly. He can also visit this page for more information on how to improve the
pronunciation: https://preply.com/en/blog/english-pronunciation-practice/
Appendix 1 (grammar task)

Appendix 2 (pronunciation task).