Situational Analysis of Esl Student
Integrating into a western society. Katie was chosen in part due to this interesting context, in addition to the following: She was identified at admissions, and during the initial assessment phase during the first week of school, as a student who needed careful monitoring, for two reasons. First, her grades from the previous school were less than the required 5 C-grades (she achieved Cs only in English, Biology, Information and Communication Technologies, and Physical Education), which the school normally uses to accept a child into school, and secondly, because of the unique transitory nature of her recent education.
It is important to hone in on Katie’s particular language and educational needs, as, increasingly, teachers of teenagers at international schools are often given similar assignments in which such student profiling is considered an essential part of the educator’s role (Langford 1998). This case study attempts to describe this particular student in hopes that it will inform the broader theoretical underpinnings of second language acquisition (SLA) and its relationship to affective contexts, particularly to the process of acculturation.
It will also serve to provide the beginning stage of a more comprehensive action research tudy to allow me to meet her needs as best I can, which I will discuss in the conclusion. METHODOLOGY The objective of this case study is to describe, in terms of second language acquisition theory, this student’s language proficiency, especially through the lens of whether she will achieve the expected ‘C grade’ required of her for passing and matriculation. The key research question for this case study is, “What are the specific language-based and affective patterns that identify this child, and can they be described in an inter-related fashion? My hypothesis is that such “thick escription” (Geertz 1994) can be reached through two different but complementary aspects of second language acquisition theory by integrating the discussion along these lines: Learner language analysis.
Features and patterns are identified through a close analysis of Katie’s output: written and oral. This is matched to SLA theory, and ‘gaps’ between the target and achieved language will be identified. Affective factors as revealed from choices in responding to prompts and the content of discussion from three interviews held with Katie.
Situational Analysis of “Katie” ” Adam Morris Page 3 of 16 Although I do speak Chinese and use it with Katie as the need arises, all conversations and course delivery is in English. The discussion focused on a meta- discussion of learning English in a new environment.
