CELTA Focus on the Learner Assignment
Of the four assignments that you need to write for CELTA, the focus on the learner assignment tends to require the most planning. Typically, this assignment consists of finding out about the background and needs of one or more students, identifying problems they have and suggesting relevant activities to help these students. As with other CELTA assignments, the exact details of the assignment will depend upon the course provider.
What do you have to do?
- focusing on one particular learner;
- focusing on a pair of learners;
- focusing on a group of learners.
| Learner background and needs | 250-35 words |
| Learner problems | 250-35 words |
| Suggested activities | 250-35 words |
Focus on one Learner
If you have to focus on one learner (as I had to), you will be expected to meet up with the student and collect data about their background and needs. However, before you do that, you may have the option to choose your victim… sorry, I mean learner!
Assuming you have the choice, you want to pick wisely. I would advise picking a student who:
- speaks a major international language (e.g. Arabic, Spanish, Korean, etc.), and
- you have already noted has specific problems.
The reason for picking a student who speaks a major international language is that the problems these students have with English are often well documented. I am however assuming that your students are not a monolingual group. It is not necessary that you know the first language, and actually, if it is obvious that you have picked a learner because you know their language, the CELTA tutors might take a dim view of this.
Once you have chosen your learner, don’t delay to set up an interview with them. You will want to plan out what you will ask them about (look at the background and needs section for ideas). Make sure you record the interview so you can listen back to it later (you should be able to use your phone if it is face to face, or a platform like Zoom if it is online). Do take the time to make sure whatever you are using is recording.
You should also aim to get a writing sample from the student at the interview. You could ask them to do it ahead of the interview by asking them to write a letter telling you about their experience of learning English and what they would like to do with their English in the future.
As the practice students attend CELTA lessons for free, they are usually very amenable to being interviewed. However, if they are not so thrilled at the prospect of free speaking practice, you can generally sway them by telling them they will get feedback. If you promise this, do make sure you follow through. These students often come back again and again and so another CELTA trainee will probably use them in their assignment in the future.
You should also get the student’s permission to use their name in the assignment. Your centre may provide you with a form that you should ask them to sign.
As well as interviewing the learner, you can also make notes when you are observing the group and when you are teaching. Note anything you hear them say wrongly (you can always analyse this later) and difficulties they have with skills.
Focus on a a Pair of Learners
As with focusing on one learner, if you have a choice, try to choose students who speak major international first languages. You will still want to set up your interview as soon as possible and prepare your list of questions.
Having a pair of learners gives you an opportunity that you don’t get with just one student. Since you have two learners, give them a task to complete together in the interview. This gives you a more accurate idea of what they actually struggle with.
In lessons, you still need to note the errors you hear them make and issues that they have with skills. Remember, you are also comparing the students, so you should consider whether these issues are common to both or only relevant to one student.
Focus on a Group
If you are told to focus on a group, you probably won’t get to interview the whole group. Certainly, if you do get any time when you can do this, it won’t be long. Instead you might be told to conduct a survey on the group to get this information. This is something that your teaching practice group will need to do together.
Background and Needs
The first section of your assignment deals with the learners’ background and needs. This can include (this is not an exhaustive list):
- age
- country of origin
- occupation
- first language
- other languages and level
- how long they have been learning English and how
- level of education
- experience of general and language education
- why they are learning English
- what they use English for
- what they would like to use English for
- what they find easy
- what they find difficult
- what activities they like
- what activities they don’t like
- their attitude to correction
It is fairly easy to phrases questions that get answers to these points in an interview or on a survey. However, remember that if the students are low level, you may need to word questions in a way that they can response easily. With higher level students, you may want to ask these questions in a more open ended way to get them to talk more. You may want to script your questions to save time rephrasing them in an interview.
Once you have obtained this information, you can begin writing it up.
Problems
The book Learner English by Smith and Swan is invaluable here. This book looks at the problems that speakers of certain languages have when learning English. Reading the section that relates to your student(s) therefore will give you plenty of issues to write about.
Your centre will tell you how many issues you need to write about. It may specify that you need to write about issues related to each of the three knowledge areas (grammar, lexis and pronunciation) and the four skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). Alternatively, it might tell you to pick two key problems that the student should work on. Obviously, the more areas you are required to provide problems for, the less you are required to write for each problem.
If you are only required to choose a couple of problems you will need to:
- pick problems from different knowledge areas or skills (i.e. don’t have two grammar problems)
- explain why you believe this problem is particularly important. This is easy if you can link it to something in their needs – for example, you can just working on spelling errors if they have told you that professional writing is high on their priorities.
Solutions
This can be the trickiest part of the assignment. You know a couple of problems that they have and now you must suggest solutions that will help them to overcome these. You may need to use activities or exercises from a published source.
To pass this part, you should ensure that your solutions are sufficiently clear, relate to the problem mentioned and state why they will help the student and why they will enjoy this activity. For example:
Problem: Student confuses /b/ and /p/ phonemes in speech and writing e.g. I bark my car. This is a common problem for Arabic speakers as the two sounds are allophonic in Arabic.
Solution: A list of minimum pairs containing /b/ and /p/ is included in the appendix, e.g. beach and peach. I would use these to test if the student can actually hear the difference between the two sounds by saying one of the words and having students raise their left or right hand accordingly. Through regular testing, the student should get better at hearing the difference. When the student can do this, I would use these words to drill the student in producing these sounds. The student would enjoy this activity as it involves movement, and I have noticed that they tend to respond well to kinaesthetic exercises.
Assessment Criteria
To pass this assignment, you need to do the following:
- show you are aware how a student’s background, learning experience and preferences affect learning;
- identify the student’s needs;
- correctly use terminology;
- select appropriate material and resources;
- provide a rationale for using these activities;
- find, select and reference information.
Passing the Assignment
If you want to pass the focus on the learner assignment first time, follow these tips:
- As soon as you meet the students, not all the errors they make or problems they have that you can.
- Share your notes with your teaching practice group and they will likely do the same.
- Choose a student quickly, otherwise someone else might choose the one you want.
- As soon as you can set up the interview with the student.
- Record the interview (ask the student for permission).
- Write up the background as soon as possible.
- Read the section in Learner English about your student’s first language. This will help you to notice the errors that student has.
- Make sure you have two sufficiently different problems i.e. not two grammar or two pronunciation problems.
- Talk to your colleagues when devising solutions. They may be able to suggest some good resources.
- Include the activities in an appendix with a clear reference of where you got them from.
- You don’t need to say how you will perform the task if it is the same as the instructions supplied with the task.
- Saying that the task will help the student is not enough justification for the task. You need to say why that matches their learning preferences.
- Keep a close eye on the word count.
- If you can, have someone you know proofread your assignment.
