Focus on the Learners

A.
The Intermediate level students have different backgrounds, learning experiences, and learning styles, but they find some common ground in the learning styles preferred, the parts of speech to be corrected, and the skills to be developed. The class is composed of 11 students who fall within the age range of 17 to 43 years. The group diversity also extends to their nationalities: five Thais, two Sri Lankans, two Pakistanis, one Japanese, and one Korean. The students with similar ages and nationalities tend to converse more with each other. Collectively, all of them have mentioned that their primary motivation to learn English is to make them more qualified for a job or a university while five have mentioned a secondary motivation to migrate to a Western country where English is the main language. The Thai students shared positive views of their previous learning experiences of the English language because they encountered native speakers in school, the workplace, or in their social/working lives; most of them show more confidence in communicating their ideas and thoughts. One of the Thai students, Vee, may agree with their views, but she admitted that she has not had enough chance to use the language. Those who shared negative views expressed that there was a lack of speaking activities to incorporate what they learned; the Korean student, Conan, stated that his school focused on writing and tests. Similarly, the Japanese student, Haruna, learned grammar well, but there was rarely any opportunity to use it in speech; she is more receptive to oral instruction in slow repetition. Thai student, Benz, mentioned that there is opportunity to use English with other Thais, but they pick up each other s pronunciation. The refugees, Goby and Adeel, have less exposure to English as a subject in school, so they had no opinion about their previous learning experience. Most of these students try to learn from media, but show more hesitancy to speak. Like the students learning experiences, their learning styles vary because they almost spread evenly across all learning styles with the majority dominating in the following styles: interpersonal and linguistic. They prefer activities that use a combination of kinesthetic, visual, and interpersonal styles in language lessons. Although their specific needs vary, the majority show the need for improvement in grammar and pronunciation. One noticeable error in grammar is incorrect verb form for interrogative and negative statements; for example, the sentences I eat no dinner and Where usually Nan have lunch? are lacking the helping verb do/does in negative form and interrogative form respectively. With pronunciation, some students don t have the phoneme /l/ in their first language, so they use /r/ instead: Engrish for English and jeerious for jealous . Most of the students have shown the need to develop their speaking skills especially Ben and Nan, who have specified that they need to use English for their field of work aviation and finance respectively. The students who need help in speaking more are Fausi, Haruna, Conan, Goby, and Adeel because it has been observed that Azeem, Tre, and Benz dominate during class discussions.

B. Grammar
The language focus for these students will be grammar. Even though most of them have experience in learning grammar in written form, they have not had enough opportunity to become comfortable with it verbally. Although good pronunciation can impress native speakers, the students aims to use English for employment and immigration opportunities require both written and spoken assessments. Addressing grammatical errors communicatively can develop the students understanding and use better than focusing on pronunciation drills. To address the students errors with the forms of interrogative and negative statements, variations of the popular guessing game Twenty Questions can be implemented as (Wright, pp. 157-8). Since the students have prior knowledge of the target language and the responses are limited to use of the target language, the activity is best in the controlled practice stage of a guided discovery lesson. The objective of this activity is to better enable the students to use the correct form of interrogative and negative statements in the context of an investigative interview. Throughout the game, a variety of learning styles are used: the questions are student-generated (intrapersonal and interpersonal), and the answers are discovered through deductive reasoning (logical). Music can be played in the background (auditory) while the game is played in pairs or teams. Also, the students playing the role of question-masters must limit their choices to professions. This ensures the students utilize the target language as much as possible (linguistic). Playing the game in pairs will allow for a more challenging version kinesthetically.

C. Speaking
To give each student equal opportunity to develop their skills in speaking, the activity Lifeswap from Jill Hadfield s Intermediate Communication Games will be used (p. 5). The aim of this activity is to develop students speaking skills for describing lifestyle and habits in the context of negotiating and trading for the lifestyle of their choice. Aside from allowing each student to practice speech, Lifeswap is suitable for the class because it utilizes various learning styles. They have to imagine what the lifestyle in each picture is like (visual and intrapersonal), then go around (kinesthetic) and talk to other students at each time (interpersonal) until they find a lifestyle that they want to trade for. While the activity is going on, music can be played in the background to set the pace (auditory). The activity is best executed in the performance stage of a task-based lesson because the students need to identify the context in each picture prior to exchanging information on each one.

Word count: 928 words

References
1. Scrivener, J. (2011) Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching. (3rd Ed.) Oxford: Macmillan, pp. 176. 2. Wright, A., Betteridge, D. and Buckby, M. (2006) Games for Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, pp. 157-8. 3. Hadenfield, J. (1990) Intermediate Communication Games. Addison Wesley Longman Ltd, 5.

Appendix
Name Conan What student said more better I m going to USA Shell not Engrish What 'cho name? What student should have said best I'm going to the USA shall not English What's your name?

Ben

Where usually Nan have lunch? She always eat takeaway food. jeerious

Where does Nan usually have lunch? She always eats takeaway. jealous It's a noun. in the restaurant near the office. I'm nearer to the river than you. He is something. Sometimes I don't eat dinner. Do you eat rice? Usually I don't eat breakfast. I cut down a little bit. Not the same. I don't believe it/you. tax fish chemical It's like having muscles. It's healthier.

Comment Student self-corrected 'best' to 'more better'. Missing article 'the'. Mispronounced /a/. Mispronounced /l/. Student dropped /s/ and liased 'your' as /t / instead of /j/. Adverb usually is in the wrong order, and the verb does is missing. Subject-verb agreement. Confused pronunciation of 'ea' as /i/ and said /l/ as /r/. Missing article 'a' Article 'the' is missing. Comparative form of near was not used. Liased 'is', but did not contract it with he . Used the incorrect verb form for a negative statement. Used the incorrect helping verb. Used the incorrect verb form for a negative statement. Used noun phrase "a little bit" as an adverb. Missing the article 'the'. Used the incorrect verb form. Can't pronounce /ks/. Added /r/ to /f/. Dropped the last syllable. Used an adjective instead of a noun. Used an adverb instead of an adjective.

Adeel Azeem

Goby Benz

It's noun. in the restaurant near office. I m near the river than you He something. Sometime I eat no dinner. Are you eat rice? Usually I m not eat breakfast I a little bit cut down (coffee) Not same. I m not believe tek frish chemi It's like have muscular. It's healthily.

Haruna

I used to break up with someone Because she work until late, so she doesn t have a time to cook. 1 cups Take some medicines Get on the subway to save the time This is for the old man. Yes, I do.

I broke up with someone.

Confused 'used to' with something that didn't happen regularly in the past. Used redundant wording 'so'. Added 's' to a singular noun. Used 's' with a non-count noun. Used an article with an unspecified amount of time. Student was referring to elderly men in general. Responded incorrectly to the question 'Are you going to eat tonight?' Missing 'to be' verb. Subject-verb agreement. Used present tense 'to be' with another present tense verb 'agree'. Stressed second syllable. Pronounced / / as /t /. Pronounced /r/ as /l/. Stressed second syllable.

Because she works late, she doesn't have time to cook. 1 cup Take some medicine. Get on the subway to save time. This is for old men. Yes, I am.

Wee Tre

I reading something And the bill come I am agree

I am reading something. And the bill comes. I agree.

\ kan-'d \ Am-bich-us Lef-uh-lee \or-'d r\

\ kan-d \ ambitious referee \ or-d r\