SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT

INDIVIDUAL FACTORS IN THE LEARNER'S DEVELOPMENT

NAME AND SURNAME:

GLORIA MARTINEZ ESCOBAR

FUNDACION UNIVERSITARIA IBEROAMERICANA

FUNIRER - COLOMBIA
JUNE 20, 2021
 Assignment instructions:

Design a questionnaire to retrieve information on a group of students and their learning

needs.

The assignment has to include the following sections:

a) Description of the context the questionnaire is designed for (institution,
characteristics of the course, number of students, etc.)
b) Questionnaire proposal.
c) Justification of questionnaire design; all the questions included in the
questionnaire must be justified regarding the group of students it is designed for
and the contents covered in "Individual factors in the learner's development".
 INDEX
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 4
CONTEXTUALIZATION............................................................................................................... 5
QUESTIONNAIRE PROPOSAL..................................................................................................5
JUSTIFICATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN...............................................................6
CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................................................... 8
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 9
 INTRODUCTION

The significance of learning english is reflected through success, satisfaction and in life
enrichment, altogether as the most valuable skills in today's world. The majority of universities
require english skills in order to allow students to obtain their college degree and it is also a
common requirement in the labor market. Therefore, english programs are incorporating
functional and recent methods to achieve a high level of proficiency in english as a l2.

We just can't say which methodology is the best, but we have assumed an ecleptic criteria
towards this matter and we just take the best of each. However, as palacios, gasso and ball
have stated "the real value that institutions have provided to teaching of a second language is
conditioned by different variants presented in and by the students (p. 55).

In consequence, it is not easy to give a correct answer and keep teaching the same things to
students is not the best response.

We wonder what teacher should do in order to improve their english lessons and make sure
their student’s intentions for the language are covered. To begin with, english level needs to be
sort out, we must face that learners won't be equally placed in the language proficiency, but
some differences in language proficiency might be one of the troublesome tasks to deal with.

Classrooms present a permanent challenge on how to give into in a way that is not easy for
slow learners. Input must be used in a way that aim at a correct level for all learners such as
suggests by stephen krashen (1985). It should be kept at a level of input +1, in which the info
presents a challenge, but it is not in any way too abstract or hard for the students to acquire it.

Following this thinking, it is hard to provide input to classes that are quite different. So things, we
must work on a placement test. Those tests allow to classify learners based on the syllabus and
the study materials that will be used in the program. There is another option stated by jeremy
harmer (2015, p. 367) which is the usage of diagnostic tests; they will show de issues leaners
may have, so that teachers can track them. According to what is explained above, the
questionnaire we are going to present was made for a group of pupils which belong to the
same english lever, (a1) and who have already taken a placement test to know whether they are
well placed or not.
After putting the students in the correct language level it is fundamental to collect data in order
to find out about their language expectations and needs. To do so, a brief introduction of the
contextual background must be provided.

CONTEXTUALIZATION
I am working with a small group of pupils who study in a non-bilingual school in cali colombia.
This kind of educational institution is private, so they can afford to have 18-20 students' group in
a classroom, by the sole fact of working with small number of learners the lessons are actually
customized and manageable in terms of discipline and language production. The present group
of study is in sixth grade (first year of high school in colombia) of secondary school and as it
was aforementioned they all have been placed in a1 english level.
Some students are new in the institution, but the others come from elementary school of the
same educational institution. Furthermore, most of the pupils already have basic english skills
but some others come with learning difficulties or just require a little more attention from
teachers.
The school councelor and homeroom teacher work together in order to help what we call "slow
learners and students with learning disabilities”.
Even though teacher don't work with crowded classrooms, they all must be prepared to take
care for the students requirements
Following the aforementioned the teacher will hand out the students a questionnaire during the
first lesson in order to get acquainted with his/her pupils.

QUESTIONNAIRE PROPOSAL
Answer the following questions about you:
1. What is your name?
2. Are you new at this school?
3. What topics do you remember having learnt in english on the previous school year?
4. What do you plan to study the present school year?
5. What are your favorite past times?
6. What do you need from the teacher to be successful this year?
7. What do you want to be good at?
 8. Do you have a playlist?
9. What do you want me to know about you?
10. How can we make the most of technology in the classroom?
11. Can you access on line platforms with no problems at all?
12. How do you feel about on line english platforms?
13. Do you think series and videos on youtube are a cool way to practice english?
14. What kind of videos do you watch on line?

JUSTIFICATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

West, r (1994) stated the importance of a need analysis which is a collected info that we can
use as a tool. It was firstly designed in india, but it had its golden years in usa during the 1990's
when schools were in need to identify students' need with the final goal of justifying their budget.
West also added that another motive was the behavioral objective movement which claimed
accountability in the education system and demanded to obtain objectives that were measure.
As it is shown the need analysis have proved to be fundamental working tools for curriculum
plans.
Researches has shown that "need analysis” works out better every time they are linked to a
descrete set of communicative situations (tudor, 1996, p. 70)
Moreover, richards (1990. P.2) refers to the following benefits for needs analysis:
1. It provides teachers with input to contextualized in students learning process.
2. It helps setting objectives and content into specific language need making learning more
meaningful.
3. Needs analysis are a source of collected data that will permit the evaluation of an
existing program.
4. It also aids teachers make wise decisions because it offers insight into local needs.
Back to the questions contained in such a questionnaire they have been well chosen
considering many factors involved in particular the pupils’ background and their ages.

The questions are written in english for 2 reasons. Firstly, as stated by krashen (1981, p.45)
“people learning foreign languages follow the same route as they acquire their mother tongue,
hence the use of the mother tongue in the learning process should be minimized"
So things, we observe that is fundamental to minimized the usage of the student's native tongue
from the right beginning. Second reason refers to the fact that it is not important to give students
the questionnaire in their native language, since such activity may be consider as another way
of practicing the second language.

The first question is only to recognize the learner who took the questionnaire, we should ask the
student's name and make them know that such a questionnaire is not anonymous because the
teacher tries to get along good with all of them and make them feel at ease.
Question 2 is just made for the teacher to find out which pupils come from some other schools
and thus be able to use this information if later on there are some themes that students
understand and know much better than other classmates. Question number 3, the professor
asks it because he/she intends to stimulate the students' schemes and verify whether they
recall some of the themes they have gone through in the english course. Question number four
and five aim at students' expectations. It is necessary to explore what educators can do in order
to ease learning and help learners to achieve their proposed goals. Referring to this matter,
wilkins (1976) declares that "research in different discipline areas has revealed that
expectations are a potential source of student academic achievement and success" (cited by
ketsman, 2012, p. 2). In consequence, it is really important to know exactly what the pupils
would love to learn in the english class and they would need from the teacher to reach their
objectives. Back to questions 6, 7 and 8, they just intend to learn a little more about the students
and such an info may help teachers to organize activities keeping en mind what motivates them.
Nida (1996) observes that " motivation is the most important aspect in a person's learning of a
foreign language” (cited by palacios, gasso and ball, p.32) lots of learners in esl settings have
got an extern motivation to learn and master english which is based on a reward that comes
from the learner's contextual setting like a notorious wish to do well on the test.
Bringing up tesol article published in 2017 on page 11, it is written the following reflexion:
“english teachers should also try to build their students' intrinsic motivation by encouraging them
to consider reward's that come from within themselves" we may mention some examples of this
type of intrinsic rewards like e.g., a sense of accomplishment, or the desire about learning new
things of practical use in their lives.
Regarding question number 9 we think this kind of inquiries help students to comment or be
able to state personal items and also allow teachers to get to know a bit more about his/her
learners. For such a reasoning, in case that the student want to communicate to their teacher
some cultural items involving beliefs, religion, culture, personality matters and so on then
They will feel confident and eager to do so because he is aware that only the teacher will read
the questionnaire.
On the other hand, questions from 10 through 14 are focused on how to make the most of the
new technologies (communication & info technologies -(icts) when dealing and working with
learning english as l2.
Çakici (2016; p. 75) provides the following reflexion: “using technology has positive effects on
teaching and learning english" well, we are quite certain that teachers can use technology to
their pedagogical activities to enhance and ease learning process. However, not all of our
students have a computer unit and full access to internet at home, so it is important to know
more about our students' backgrounds and living conditions. After doing such a research,
teachers can decide whether he/she can provide students school assignment to do on line or
school works taken from the school platform to do at home.
To end the present subject assignment, we must add there are some more questions like
yes/no questions, wh-questions, tag questions, etc. That teachers may give to their students,
but bearing in mind some particular aspects, for example, his/her knowledge of the students'
english level, their age, personal interests, etc. We are quite certain that the aforementioned
questionnaire fits the students’ expectations based on the english level they are placed on.

CONCLUSIONS
After a careful analysis of all the answers to the aforementioned questionnaire, the feathers is
going to be aware of the different profiles, needs and characteristics and needs that his/her
learners may have. Furthermore, as ur (1996) observes, " there is no one right way for teachers
to motivate students" (cited by palacios, grasso & ball (n.d.), p.41) nevertheless, by the fact of
getting more insight on the learner's needs, expectations and likes, the teachers will work on
english lessons according to the information collected and focus on practical results.
To end, we highly suggest to use two questionnaires duuring the school year with the same
group of students placed in the same english level.
They may use one at the beginning of the school year and another one at the middle of the
same school year. In case that the students want to make some suggestions concerning their
engagement with the english program or their expectation, and perspectives they will feel free to
do them and they also will be more confident towards his/her teacher since they know him
better and get along good by then
REFERENCES
 Çakici, D. (2016). The use of ICT in teaching English as a foreign language. Retrieved
from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dilek_Cakici/publication/322294214_The_use_of_I
CT_in_teaching_English_as_a_foreign_language/links/5a6737eba6fdcc72a589d238/Th
e-use-of-ICT-in-teaching-English-as-a-foreign-language.pdf?origin=publication_detail
 Harmer, J. (2015). The practice of English language teaching. Harlow:
Pearson/Longman.
 Ketsman, O. (2012). Expectations in the Foreign Language Classrooms: A Case Study.
The Qualitative Report, 17(53), 1-21. Retrieved from
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tgr/vol17/iss53/2
 Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language acquisition and second language learning.
Oxford: Pergamon
 Palacios, I., Gassò, E., Ball, P. (n.d). Individual Factors in the Learner's Development.
Barcelona: Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana.
 Richards, J.C. (1990). The Language Teaching Matrix. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
 TESOL International Association (2017) Principles of Language Learning and the Role
of the Teacher. Retrieved from: https://www.tesol.org/docs/default-
source/books/14077_sam.pdf?sfvrsn=2&sfvrsn=2
 Tudor, I. (1996). Learner-centredness as language education. Cambridge: Cambridge
Univ. Press.
 West, R. (1994). Needs Analysis in Language Teaching. Language Teaching
Journal.27/1, 1-19