Guided Case Study of an English Language Learner

Better understand how to teach English as an additional language

On this six-week course from Wintec, you’ll be guided through an in-depth case study of a particular learner, giving you insights and helping you to understand your own learners and how best to teach them English as an additional language.

Discover a range of learning strategies to enhance students’ learning

You’ll start this course by exploring the concept and outline of a case study to lay the foundations for the format of the course. By structuring your learning as a case study, you’ll be able to see each strategy, its implementation, and its results through a real-time example.

As you progress through the course, you’ll look at how to determine and adapt to different language proficiency levels as well as how to step back and observe a classroom. You’ll then explore the numerous learning strategies, what types of students each is appropriate for, and which strategies are best for language learning.

Explore the different types of motivation and how to utilise them in teaching

Motivation has been defined in a number of ways. Some believe it is a combination of a learner’s attitudes, desires, and willingness to expend effort to learn.

During the final week of this course, you’ll look at the different types of motivation, from instrumental and integrative motivation to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Develop your language teaching skills with the experts at Wintec

The teaching team on the Wintec/Te Pukenga Graduate Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Level 7) has broad and lengthy experience in both teaching English language learners and as language teacher educators.

With their expertise, the educators on this course are uniquely positioned to help you build your skills and become a better language teacher.

This course is designed for anyone currently working with English language learners (either in formal or informal settings), or those who are considering this type of work in the future.

It will be especially useful to teachers or prospective teachers at all levels of education, from pre-primary through to tertiary.

• Using case studies to determine learner characteristics.
• Introduction to this course: Guided Case Study of an English Language Learner
• Preparing to carry out a case study
• Example of a case study proposal
• Introduction to the learner
• Review of Week 1
• Obtaining information about the learner's background and language proficiency.
• Introduction to Week 2
• Language Proficiency Levels
• Language for Social Interaction and Language for Academic Purposes
• Introduction to the Learner
• A Guide to Interview Guides
• Interview with Oksana
• Oksana talks about social and academic English
• Review of Week 2
• Observing the language learner in the classroom
• Introduction to Week 3
• Classroom Observation
• Classroom Observation - Video
• Review of Week 3
• Exploring the process of adjusting to a new culture and the interaction of culture and language learning.
• Introduction to Week 4
• The acculturation process
• Hall's Classification of Cultures (1976)
• Acculturation and 'Distance' theory
• Oksana talks about acculturation
• Review of Week 4
• Investigating individual differences and evaluating their impact on language learning
• Introduction to Week 5
• Introduction to personality factors in language learning
• Take the 16 Personalities Test
• Introduction to learning strategies for language learning
• Oksana talks about her personality and her learning strategies
• Interview with Oksana's teacher
• Review of Week 5
• Looking to the future: Learner motivation and recommendations for Oksana
• Introduction to Week 6
• Different types of motivation
• Oksana talks about motivation
• Looking to the future: Recommendations for Oksana
• Review of this course