Written Assignment 2 / ( 950 words)

GROUP BACKGROUND
The Pre-Intermediate group in question is a fairly diverse one. The age
ranges from 30 to 60 years old and their main interests are sports, arts, and
travelling, in accordance with their motivations: planning to live or work
abroad, in some cases as a bonus to being closer to family, in others just as
a new experience. Thus, we see a group mostly composed by intrinsic
learners with integrative motivations although some have instrumental ones
(i.e. English as platform to succeed at work). Most of them started learning
English in school but did not continue until 5-10 years ago. The majority of
the students is fond of speaking activities that involve moving around the
room, although there is a few percentage that enjoys well-structured
grammar exercises. Kinaesthetic activities are extremely popular among
students. They also enjoy learning through visual and auditory practices,
though.
GROUPS COMMUNICATIVE ABILITY
Generally speaking, all students are able to communicate well in familiar
situations, although their level of proficiency varies. Only a few students are
willing to communicate and take risks in specific or challenging contexts by
using varied resources. Others need more support and encouragement and
are less likely to share ideas in open class feedback.
When it comes to productive skills, speaking and writing, they all have
transmitted their interest in improving them as their priority. However, it is
common for them to struggle with both accuracy and fluency in speaking as
well as cohesion in writing. With the proper support they have been able to
carry out these types of activities effectively though.
As to receptive skills, listening and reading, there seems to be an
imbalance between the two. Listening is definitely one of the weak skills.
Students seem to feel comfortable with gist tasks, but not with detail ones.
The audio is often re-played and the teacher needs to mediate. On the other
hand, reading is arguably the strongest skill. Students frequently do the task
in less time and work well with both gist and detail activities.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

GRAMMAR
Success: Shakira has a baby with a French man who is a football player.
(using a subordinate clause to add complexity to the idea) (Written)
Error
What the student said: but he is more better than any person.
What is wrong? Incorrect use of the comparative form of good (better)
Why did the student make the mistake? The student was trying to use
the comparative form for good. He knew the irregular comparative form of

good but also added more because he over-applied the rule to create
comparative structures with adjectives.
VOCABULARY
Success: The title of the movie is not translated. (Oral)
Error
What the student said: We did a lot of investigation on the topic.
What is wrong? It should have been research
Why did the student make the mistake? The student made a direct
transfer from her mother tongue. She used investigation (kutats, vizsglat
in Hungarian) thinking it would be used in the same context as it is in L1.
PRONUNCIATION
Success: It is more spiritual. (as a derivative of spirit)
/ /
Error
What the student said: I worked as a butcher.
/d/
What is wrong? The suffix ed should have been pronounced /t/ and then
linked to as
Why did the student make the mistake? The student knows that the
past is indicated with ed and that it demands a different pronunciation. He
made a slip trying to pronounce what he read. The final cluster /kt/ is a
difficult one for the student to pronounce, as well as the linking done to as
(wrkt z/

HELPING THE LEARNER

Grammar exercise
Exercise 1 (see appendix) can be used to provide practice with the
comparative structures morethan / -er than. Although students have
seen the structure in the past, they can benefit from a comprehensive
exercise since it is not uncommon for students at this level, or even higher,
to make mistakes similar to the one analyzed above (more better).
There could be different mistakes made on this area though. Knowing when
to double a consonant when adding er is an example. Perhaps the general
one is understanding when to use more and when er since the rules are not
always clear. Using a thorough exercise like this could fill any existing gaps
as well as illustrate some other examples never seen by students.

Using a text-based presentation is one of the ways in which this exercise

could work. The exercise not only tests the students understanding of the
comparative structure of adjectives but also requires that students identify
the adjective that serves as criterion for the comparison of two nouns
(Exercise 1). This level of complexity makes this a suitable example of
controlled practice, where students work with the target language.
Vocabulary exercise
The aim in Exercise 2 is to enable students to understand the difference in
usage between several pairs of words, taking into account the context. The
exercise could serve as a good diagnostic practice so that the teacher can
address the slight differences in meaning and context that they sometimes
have.
Intermediate students often find these words confusing and think they are
interchangeable. Poor word choice could even in some cases prevent
communication, making exercises like this useful for this level. The task has
no extra challenges in its structure so that the results of this Test 1 are not
permeated by superfluous difficulties.
Approaching the target language with a TTT focus seems appropriate since
the lexical items in question differ from each other thus being unlikely to be
found in a single text.
Since some students mentioned their predilection for well-structured
grammar exercises, the exercise could work as a multiple choice exercise to
get a real sample of students understanding of meaning, and a bit of form.

CHOOSE THE WORD TO MATCH THE SENTENCE.

a) research

b) investigation

The police needs to finish the _________________ to know if Gary is the killer
or not.
Scientists need to do more _______________ to find the cure for cancer.
c) effect

d) affect

We have to think about how these pills _______________ our patients.

The new law goes into _____________ next year.
e) argue

f) discuss

I hate people who cant listen to other; all they do is ______________.

In the meeting we will ________________ the plans for the new project.
f) sensible

g) sensitive

She always cries after watching a movie. She is so ___________________.

The most ________________ way to resolve a problem is by talking to each
other.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
(2005) Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman
Forsyth, W. (1994) Grammar Activities. Heinemann Teacher Resources
Scrivener, J. (1994) Learning Teaching. MacMillan Books for Teachers
Swan, M. (2005) Practical English Usage. Oxford University Press