A Thai Learner in the Learning Context Essay

1. IntroductionThe Cambridge Certificate in slope Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), offered by the University of Cambridge (ESOL Examinations), is run in everywhere one hundred twenty centers around the world and it is considered by umteen authorities as the most beta form of training in the TELF (Teaching face as a Foreign Language) industry. betwixt 30th of supercilious and 24th of kinsfolk 2004 I attended the Cambridge CELTA die hard at incline and Computer College (ECC) from Bangkok.Cambridge ESOL is a non-for-profit department of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group, Europes largest assessment agency. Cambridge Assessment was established in 1858 as the University of Cambridge local Examinations Syndicate (UCLESS). Cambridge ESOL provides exams and tests diligence a large put of subjects and levels with to a greater extent than than 8 million assessments examinen each year in over one hundred fifty countries. side of mea t and Computer College was established in 1990 and is the largest private lecture school from Siameseland, with more than 50 branches spread all over the country. It runs a wide variety of courses from worldwide conversation and grammar to specialized test preparation. It besides provides pre-service and in-service teacher training programs for native and non-native speakers of side of meat.During the CELTA course that I attended, the trainers exposed the students (most of them teachers of side themselves) to the principles of effective education while the students acquired a range of practical skills for principle English to swelled learners. The course included theory sessions, teaching practice with real students, observation of undergo teachers and completion of a range of often focus written assignments. The present theme was built upon one of these assignments. It is a fictional character study of a Thai teenaged woman who was a student in my CELTA teaching prac tice lessons. The paper focuses on the learner in the learning mount and identifies precise problems and recommends ways of dealing with the language problems that the interviewed student encountered . The paper ends with the rationalefor the recommended activities and an general conclusion.2. Profile of the learnerThe student I chose to observe and interview was take to the woods P.R. Her sobriquet is Nun, and she comes from Thailand. She was 24 years old at the time of the interview in 2004 and graduate from Busayarat Commercial School from Bangkok, with a distributor point in Computers in 1998. She had been poring over English ever since primary school, when she was taught the basics of the English language. In high school, her English teachers focused mainly on vocabulary work, and during her university studies she had a few classes of English every week. She had been studying English by herself and had taken antithetic language courses intensively since 2003. She joine d the CELTA English classes at English Computer College in Bangkok on the 30th of August 2004. She attended all the classes, joining her 15 classmates five times a week.Miss P.R. had an outgoing personality. She was always willing to take part in the activities that the teachers prepared for the CELTA English lesson at ECC. The materials used by the teachers during the lessons varied, ranging from optical aids to worksheets, tape recorders, books, and game boards. severally lesson she took part in different writing, reading, attending, or speaking activities, but she also play fun games.When asked, she said that she believed the focus of the English lessons was mainly on speaking skills. She considered the lessons at ECC relaxed, and the students had and wanted to turn over a lot of fun. She felt that the foreign teachers were palsy-walsy and that they all had interesting personalities, which were reflected in their teaching styles. She noticed that the teachers have different a ccents too. She confessed that somewhat of the teachers talked too fast, and sometimes she had to translate or explain the activities to her classmates.In her opinion, a ripe teacher should be kind and listen to all the students in the class. She would like teachers to gestate more attention to the weak students and have in mind the fact that Thai students are shy and do not like to express their personal feelings. She cerebration it was a good idea for the teachers to business leader them the students to speak if they the students were reluctant to speak up in English.One of the main reasons why she was so outspoken was the fact that she had the mishap to speak English outside the schoolroom with other foreigners too. Her educational background and her pauperization were also important factors that built up her confidence.3. Specific problemsHer nationality was also important in her English learning context out-of-pocket to the fact that Thais have a specific mind set rega rding languages. During my observations and interview I had noticed that she made frequent mistakes in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.