This document contains the following parts: 1) Profile 2) Pronunciation problem and suggested activity 3) Activities 4) bibliography 5) Appendices P.S. PASSED WITHOUT RESUBMISSION
Assignment 1: Focus on the Learner
Part 1: Profile (Write a group profile for the group of learners you teach in weeks 1 and 2 of
the course. In this profile, mention):
● Background: our upper-intermediate group contains 10 learners (1 male and 9
females). All of them are Ukrainian and Russian native speakers, a quite various age
range 15-49 years old. Concerning their professional backgrounds, 8 of them are
employed/self-employed people, 1 house made and 1 teenager is a student. Their
hobbies are various: cycling, travelling, reading, making natural cosmetics, languages,
etc. Previous experience: that is obvious all of them have got previous learning
experience. Most of the learners studied English at schools and other educational
foundations.
● Motivation. Most of the students have intrinsic motivation (what helps a lot during
teaching) because of their reasons for learning/improving English. Some of them want
to improve English for reading, self-improvement, travelling, promotions, some
students do not want to forget the language, and some of them just want to see what
actually language courses are.
● Learning preferences: majority of the students prefer visual and kinesthetic learning
styles. They are more engaged if they have a visual support of the target language on
the whiteboard or handouts. They do not mind to change their places for pair work and
mingle around the classroom.
● Skills (very important!) - as they prefer natural learning styles, they are always
willing for speaking activities (in groups, pair work discussions). However, there are a
few students, who do not want to single themselves out and prefer reading/listening to
speaking. I assume that is because of lack of systematic use of English. Concerning
writing, they are not big fans of that. Probably because of bad memories from school.
Part Two: Pronunciation Problem and suggested activity:
1. Fill in the grid:
Student 1:
Helen said, It should be,
‘His wife [‘vaif] has the last word ‘His wife [‘waif] has the
[‘vɜ:d] in their family’ last word [‘wɜ:d] in their
family’
Students replace the
sounds [w] by [v]
Student 2:
Nataly said, It should be,
‘I do not drink alcohol, but sometimes ‘I do not drink alcohol,
I drink wine [vain]’ but sometimes I drink
wine [wain]’
2. Identify the reasons for making this error. ‘3. The difference between /w/ and /v/ is often
not clearly felt, leading to confusion between, for instance, while and vile, west and vest’.
(1:147)
3. Provide the rationale
, As far as we know, there is no /w/ sound in Ukrainian & Russian languages, therefore,
whenever it appears, often is replaced with the /v/ sound and vice versa. I have chosen an
“Ear-training” activity (2:276), because my learners need to listen and practice saying words
with sounds which seem to them very similar as they are not used to it (Appendix 1).
I decided to adapt the activity, because it combines all three auditory, visual and
kinesthetic elements to get the students engaged, especially practising with new partners.
They will benefit from this because by the end of the activity they will have been more certain
identifying those sounds, hearing and pronouncing them on their own correctly.
4. Briefly describe how you will set up this activity in class. Every student will take a
piece of paper and split that into 2 columns: one with the sound /w/, another with /v/ sound. I
will read out a list of confusing words for them and ask to listen carefully. Students will write
them down into the appropriate column (Appendix 1). After the individual work follows pair
check. Then comes open class feedback, where I will register the same table (Appendix 1).
Make students practice drilling confusing sounds, as it is mentioned in (7:55), ‘/v/ Touch
your top teeth with your bottom lip, and breath out. Do not use your voice. Hold the sound and
add your voice. /w/ Make the sound /u:/, followed by the sound /ə/. Now put them together and
keep the sound short.’
After the drilling split up the learners into 2 teams. Ask a student from each team to
stand at the WB with the written table of minimal pairs on it. When 1 of the minimal pairs is
called out by me, they have to touch the correct word on the board & speak it out. The first
student will get a point for his/her team. Students from the winning team will have a turn at
calling the words for others by the WB.
Part Three:
1. Fill in the grid:
Student 3: It should be.
Nataly 2 said,
‘He don’t want to do his homework’ He doesn’t want to do his
homework’ Students forgot about
Student 4: It should be. the negative form of the
Lyudmyla said, 3rd person singular in
‘We doesn’t know about Cecelia We don’t know about Present Simple
Ahern anything’ Cecelia Ahern anything
2. Identify the reasons for making this error. ‘2. Do is often confused with does and vice
versa’ (1:151). Students are familiar with the 3rd person form but make mistakes during
speaking. Thus, only the third person is not formed with “doesn’t”/ “don’t”, but in general the
auxiliary verb for Present Simple is correct, the students have overused the rule.
3. Provide the rationale. I would like to provide students the activity with some oral practice
of the target language. This activity is mainly focused on grammar. Ss will practice usage of
do & does in Present Simple. The report gives Ss the opportunity to have particular practice of
the form doesn’t: ‘Find someone who …’ (Appendix 2)
4. Briefly describe how you will set up this activity in class.
1) Divide all the Ss into 2 teams, A & B.
2) Give out each group appropriate sets of Qs (Appendix 3)
3) Go through how to construct Present Simple Y/N questions with ‘Do you(pl.)/they …?
from the items from the worksheet
, 4) Elicit the questions from the worksheet & go through possible answers. Example:
- Do you (pl.)/they have a pet?
- No, we/they don’t / Yes, we/they do (1)
5) Have the team A ask chorally appropriate Qs another team, using the TL from the
example (1). (Encoded answers for each team are provided in brackets). Team B
chorally answers, according to the example (1). Then team A registers an answer on
the worksheets. Then vice versa.
6) When Qs are finished, ask each team to giggle about another one, using their
worksheets and the same example.
7) Give each student a copy of the worksheet (cut out a half of Qs from (Appendix 2)
because it is time consuming)
8) Go through how to construct Present Simple Y/N questions with ‘Do you(sing.)…? Does
he/she…?’ from the items from the worksheet
- Do you(sing.) have a pet?
- No, I don’t / Yes, I do (2)
- Does he/she have a pet?
- No, he/she doesn’t / Yes, he/she does (3)
9) Ask the Ss to mingle and talk, using the TL from the example (2).
10) When a S finds a groupmate whose answer matches with an item on the sheet, he/she
notes down a name. Ss have to find as many different partners as possible.
11) After mingling ask the Ss to make groups in two and mingle in groups and talk, using
the TL from the example (3). Before the activity provide a demo, saying, ‘A group of 2 Ss finds
a groupmate from another group, asking one participant about another, using the example (3).
If an answer matches with a name on the sheet, a S circle his/her name.’
12) After the pair mingling Ss report on the facts they have found, using the target
language.
Part Four: Bibliography
1. M. Swan and B. Smith (2001) Learner English (SECOND EDITION), CUP
2. J. Scrivener (2011) Learning Teaching (THIRD EDITION), MACMILLAN
3. Minimal pairs: /v/ & /w/, Exercise 1, Pronunciation Practice,
https://engoo.com/app/lessons/minimal-pairs-v-w/FUSOTDADEeeQ1bc2BHyMHA
last accessed 13.06.2019
4. Magoosh TOEFL BlogOnline, TOEFL Preparation, Tongue-Twisters with “W” and
“V”, Two full-length tongue twisters with “W” and “V”,
https://magoosh.com/toefl/2016/tongue-twisters-w-v/ last accessed 13.06.2019
5. Kraut's English phonetic blog, some tongue twisters with /v/ & /w/,
http://matters-phonetic.blogspot.com/2010/12/some-tongue-twisters-with-v-and-w.html
last accessed 13.06.2019
, 6. TEACH THIS, ESL/EFL RESOURCES, Find someone who …
https://www.teach-this.com/images/resources/find-someone-who-present-simple.pdf
last accessed 13.06.2019
Part 5 and 6: Appendices:
Appendix 1.
W V
whale vale
wet vet
west vest
wine vine
while vile
wary vary
Adapted from (3)
Appendix 1.1.
W/V tongue-twister # 1: She had vicious wishes that the worst would happen to the versed
men; these vicious wishes made the versed men very wary that the worst could happen.
W/V tongue twister # 2: We went to Wally’s volleyball event under the village’s wilted willow,
with victory in mind. Wally would win the volley versus Vinny”.
Adapted from (4)
Appendix 1.2.
1. Wild vines make fine vintage wines.
2. Victor’s friend Vincent rinsed his vests in vinegar.
3. Vivacious Vivian loved to voice vigorous verses vociferously.
4. Stephen vainly viewed vast vales with vacant eyes.
5. Vincent vowed vengeance very vehemently.
6. Woollen vests for wailing wolves are worn in the vast woodlands.
7. For once, weary Wanda's woolgathering lost its vim and vigour.
8. Which witch winds white weasel wool well?
9. Very volatile vets visited several wives.
10. Which is worse verse - Wendy's verse or Wayne's verse?
Adapted from (5)
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