Celta Assignment 2

Focus on the Learners

The learners in the group come from several countries inclusive of Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Sudan and Vietnam. The students have varied experience of learning English with some students having been learning the language for as little as three months, since recently moving to Scotland, whilst others began learning it in schools in their own countries, as much as 14 years ago. Many of the students who learnt English in school or college in their native countries encountered similar problems with having no practice with native speakers and therefor struggle with pronunciation. Others who began learning in Scotland have faced difficulties in not receiving enough learning hours a week. As all of the students live in Glasgow they all share a mutual reason for wanting to learn English, which is that it will help them to communicate with the local community. Some of them want to communicate better in order to make friends whilst others want to improve their communication skills in order to get better jobs or to go on to study at university.

The students are all very disciplined and have a strong desire to learn English and therefore participate in all activities as fully as they are able. As the class level is Pre-Intermediate, and most of the students have at least some background in learning the language, their ability to participate is quite high. The students are all capable of reading and are most are also able to write answers to questions without assistance although I have noticed problems among a couple of students with writing more detailed answers, notably Natalia who does seem to struggle with written work. This is perhaps because whilst she gets lots of practice speaking English through living in Glasgow she does not practice writing that often. It is helpful for her to be provided with assistance during the monitoring stage but also by getting the students to work in pairs on written work she can receive assistance...