CAMBRIDGE CELTA

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 2: FOCUS ON THE LEARNER

The profile should consist of the following:

Learning background you should talk to your learner to find out about their educational and language learning
background. Write one paragraph on this and comment on how you think your learner’s background affects their learning.
For example, you could say that because X studied only grammar at school they have little confidence speaking.

Learner style Observe your learner in class and note their reaction to different activities (open class, pair work, group work
etc.) and different lesson types (grammar, speaking reading etc.). Decide what learning style your subject has. (You can
refer to pp. 42 to 44 of The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd edition) by Jeremy Harmer for a description of
different learning styles. Please reference this material, if you use it e.g.
Hedge, T. 2000. Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford University Press.)

Language and skills During the first 10 days, observe your learner in TP and collect information on their English language
learning weaknesses and needs. You should listen for problems with
- grammar
- vocabulary
- pronunciation.

You should also consider your learner’s ability in the following areas:
- reading - listening
- speaking - writing

You need to discuss all of the above areas, backing up your claims with a specific example/examples. For example, “X only
uses the simple present when talking about the future e.g. I buy ticket tomorrow which could be confusing for people she
talks to, particularly if the time marker tomorrow is not included”. Alternatively, “X reads very slowly and seems very
dependent on her dictionary. She needs practice in learning to skim read so she can gain confidence in having understood
the gist of texts before focusing on detail”.

To help you collect more information, you can also ask your learner to write something for you (some biographical
information or a story from their childhood) and you could also record your learner when you speak to er/him individually.
Materials Select an activity (or activities) that will help your learner by meeting some of the language and/or skill needs
identified in the section above. (NB It is highly unlikely that you can find a piece of material that will meet all your learner’s
needs, so you will need to prioritise which are more urgent or critical and find appropriate material.) The material should
come from a course book at the same level as you are using in TP, but not from the TP course book itself. Say why you think
this material would help your learner. Please attach a copy of the material.
Total of 1,000 words maximum

Learning background

This assignment is focused on a young, Korean English language learner. From here onwards this learner shall be referred
to as Student A. Her learning background includes time spent at a language academy in Korea. She also attended free
English language classes in Korea. After this she travelled to a predominantly English speaking country (NZ) for an
immersion experience.