Focus on the learner: Case study

Background on the learner

Rania is a 30 year old Egyptian learner. She speaks Arabic fluently and some
English. She is a housewife with two children. Her level of English is intermediate.
When she told me she is a housewife, I assumed that she is learning English to boost
her employment opportunities. However, she is not in the least concerned about
learning English for work; she learns English to have fun, to help her children in their
study, to travel and to get to know people. The social aspect of language learning is
very important for Rania. She has been learning English since she was 10 years old.
She has completed two courses at a center near her house. She enjoys her time
attending English courses as she needs to improve her reading skills. She cannot
understand the general gist of what she reads in class. In addition, she finds some
difficulties in grammar. She is aware that grammar is an important aspect of improving
her English language.

Analysis of pronunciation problems

Rania’s main problem in fluency speaking is hesitation, something which she is fully
aware of. She takes time to work things out in her mind before speaking, and this pause
is evident in class and in the interview. She has very few opportunities to speak English
outside the classroom, and this lack of practice contributes to her hesitation.

Rania seems to make pronunciation errors when pronouncing words with vowels. For
example, She pronounced the diphthong in the word hope /həʊp/ rather short as hop
/hɒp/. The verb learn /lɜːn/ is pronounced as /leirn/. She pronounced the word good
/ɡʊd/ as if it was god /ɡɒd/. According to Bernard Smith, the Arabic and English
phonological systems are very different, not only in the range of sounds used, but in the
emphasis placed on vowels and consonant in expressing meaning ( page 195-196).He
adds that all vowels may cause problems. He states that diphthongs /eɪ/ and /əʊ/ are
usually pronounced rather short and are confused with /e/ and /ɒ/ (page 196).
Rania over-pronounced the /r/ in different words, e.g. /leirn/ instead of /lɜːn/, /senter/
instead of /ˈsen.tər/. This is a very common error that Arabic speakers usually make
and Bernard Smith states that Arabic speakers commonly over-pronounce the post-
vocalic r, as in car park (page 197).

Rania has a problem concerning word stress. She pronounced the word children
/tʃɪl.dr’ən/ instead of /ˈtʃɪl.drən/. Also the word language /ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪdʒ/ was pronounced
/læŋ.ɡw’ɪdʒ/. Bernard Smith says that Arabic is a stress-timed language, and word
stress in particular is predictable and regular. Arabic speakers, therefore, have
problems grasping the unpredictable nature of English language word stress ( page
197).

In addition, she hardly ever used connected speech. For example, she pronounced
I’m /aɪ æm/ instead of connecting them together /aɪm/.

Analysis of spoken grammatical problems

Smith states that there is no verb to be in Arabic in the present tense. The copula
(am, is, are) is not expressed. It is, therefore, commonly omitted in English by Arabic
speakers, particularly in the present progressive verb forms (page 201). An example of
this was when Rania said: “I learning English to help my children in their study”, instead
of I am learning English to help my children in their study.

Rania said “I like learn English to have fun.” This is a clear example of a problem noted
by Smith who states that the gerund does not exist in Arabic. Its functions are
performed by verbal nouns of separate patterns, or by regular verb forms (page 204).

Another frequent error that Rania made was using the wrong preposition. An example of
this was when she said “I had two courses in a center near from my house.”, instead of
saying I had two courses at a center near my house. This is a clear example of a
problem noted by Smith who states that Arabic has a wealth of fixed prepositions and
particles, used with both verbs and adjectives. Many of these do not coincide with their
direct English translation (page 206).

The learner’s writing

Rania showed significant errors in her writing. One of these errors was the
misusing of the correct verb form. An example of this was when she used the present
participle form “talking, playing, having, thanking” to refer to past actions, instead of
using the past form of these verbs (talked, played, had, thanked).

Another clear error was that she added “ing” to a past form of some verbs. She wrote
“are diding” which is a strange error that she used a progressive form using are and a
past form verb with “ing” which is very wrong. She also wrote “hading”. Moreover, she
used a strange form of the past by adding verb to be before it “the night is came”
instead of the night came. All these errors show that she is confused with the correct
form of the past simple tense.

The misspelling of some vocabulary is one of her errors. She misspelled the words
“finised, untes, cuosin, verey, becuse, there”, instead of writing them in a correct
spelling way (finished, aunts, cousin, very, because, their). Another (less frequent) error
that Rania made is that she misused the appropriate verb to express her concept. She
wrote “turn of”, instead of took off “and my children turn of there clothes”. She needs to
focus on learning vocabulary and phrasal verbs as well. According to Martin Parrott,
many learners fail to understand the meaning of phrasal (or ‘multiword’) verbs, and
often avoid using phrasal verbs and phrases. This is a coping strategy for some
learners, and Parrott states that we should respect this, whilst helping and encouraging
others to use these verbs. Some learners prefer to analyse phrasal verbs and learn the
according to type, whilst others prefer to learn them as individual vocabulary items.

Smith states that the use of full stops and commas is much freer in Arabic punctuation
than in English, and it is common to begin each new sentence with the equivalent of
And or So. Connected writing in English tends therefore to contain long, loose
sentences, linked by commas and ands (page 200). An example of this was in Rania’s
writing. She rarely used commas and full stops in their correct positions. Moreover, she
used a lot of and in her writing.

Two key areas of weakness

I will now focus on an area that is problematic for Rania, namely the past simple
form. I have chosen this particular area as she told me that she found some difficulties
in grammar and this was apparent in her speaking and writing as well. There are
exercises inside English grammar in use for intermediate students of English (page 11)
that I would use with her (unit 5). Rania has problems with the form of the past simple
tense, and these exercises would be suitable as they focus on this aspect. These
exercises are different and graded to increase the student progress. I believe that this
gradual process would allow Rania to start overcoming this problem. I would tell Rania
about some activities that I did the day before focusing on the verb form and using my
fingers to consolidate the word order and then I would ask her to tell me some of hers
as well. This would be important to set the context. Pair work is very important after that
to better enable students to get the target language and practice it. I would use the
white board analysis to clarify the form. I would model the positive, negative and
interrogative forms. Students would drill focusing on the connected forms and word
stress of the marker sentences as an approach to solve some pronunciation problems.
Then, I would invite students to answer those exercises above mentioned. They would
work individually and then check their answers in pairs or work in pairs to discuss the
answers and help each other. I would monitor them and then give them feedback.
Moreover, in their freer practice they would use the target language a lot and that would
help to me to achieve my aim.
Bibliography