This case study is based on Patricia, a Spanish national in her twenties who is in her last year studying an Economics degree course. She is also a student on the Elementary course at the British Language Centre. Patricia’s started learning English at the bi-lingual school she attended. She learnt English for 3 years but did not take any official examinations, but sees this as a possibility for the future. At school she learnt English because it was obligatory. The only other language she speaks is Spanish. She started attending the British Language Centre (which she still attends) to help her find a job in an international company and to prepare her for her visit to Eastbourne, East Sussex (UK) in July. She will be staying with a
Reading: The student seems to get the general gist of reading as long as she has some guidance and visuals. She is not afraid to ask questions if necessary and hardly ever uses her dictionary in class. Areas she could improve on are her vocabulary range to help her understand texts better and additional reading outside of the class.

Listening: The student understands most of the instructions given out in class and regularly helps her peers when they do not understand something. Her main weaknesses include not being able to follow a native person’s conversation; she has already established learning habits in the classroom that will not be effective when speaking to a native person. She also has poor vocabulary, which will limit her understanding relating to words she does not know.

Writing: Reader – When I left university I wanted to do exactly the same things as you: find a job working for an international company which would allow me to travel around the world and buy a house.

Writing teacher – Overall you did a very good job, things you need to consider next time are using shorter sentences to give more impact and tenses.

Language expert: A good attempt at the set task, you need to think more about the structure of sentences and using the right vocabulary. Also review definite/indefinite articles and propositions.

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