Case Study of a Non-native English Speaker
Vanderbilt University
Peabody
Cuilu Shi
Case Study of a Non-native English Speaker
Introduction to my Learner
My learner is a 21 years old female. Her name is Hannah. She came from northeast of
China and she arrived in America in August this year. She is now a graduate student major in
HR management. Before she came to America, she had never been abroad. This is her first
time to expose herself to a native English speaking country. Her native language is Mandarin
Chinese and she does not speak other dialects. She began to learn English in her 3rd Grade in
elementary school. Both of her parents do not speak English or other languages and she
seldom had opportunities to communicate with native English speakers. Basically, Hannah
learned her English in the classroom with her Chinese English teachers. After she entered
into college, her English teachers encouraged her to watch English movies and English TV
shows, since then she began to learn her English by imitating the native speakers. She spent 2
years to learn Spanish as her second foreign language in her college in China. Even though
she forget most of her Spanish, she thought that her English benefits her a lot when she tried
to acquire Spanish because the two languages share so many similarities.
Hannah is an outgoing girl and optimistic. She likes to imitate the words she heard
from the TV series she watched. She enjoys sharing her experience in America. Even though
we talked very much, still we tend to have topic limitations when communicate in English.
Sometimes we might still need to continue our conversations in Chinese. While I began to
lead her to use more English, she became more cooperative, but sometimes she still need to
look the words in the dictionary. Instead of giving me the exact noun words of the name of
certain things, she often gave me details to describe the things, because she did not know the
exact name of those things.
Description of my Learner’s Oral and Written Language Abilities
Generally speaking, my learner’s English is at a high level. Hannah makes
unconscious mistakes in her oral English. But I can easily follow her ideas, because I think
she values meaning more than grammar. During our conversation, she always tried to correct
herself if she noticed her mistakes. She is very carefully with her written English. She uses
academic writing style in her papers, which is different from the way she expresses herself in
oral English.
In terms of phonetic and phonology, even though Hannah pronounce English with
Chinese accent, her pronunciation is generally well, especially for vowels. I noticed that she
has some problems with consonants. First, she pronounces /θ/ as /s/ when “th” is at the end of
a word. The pronunciations for th has been normal problems for Chinese English learners,
because in Chinese pronunciation they only have similar sounds such as /s/ and /z/, instead of
having voiced and voiceless dental fricative/ð/ and /θ/. Hannah told me that she had an
English teacher taught her pronunciation in her college. Her teacher recognized that “th” is a
regular problem for Chinese students, so the teacher paid special attention on “th” and trained
them to speak “think about this thing, that thing, these things and those things”, in order to
distinguish between /ð/ and /θ/. I think her teacher’s method truly helped Hannah with the “th”
sound, especially with words begin with “th”. But I noticed that she unconsciously pronounce
/ θ / as /s/ especially when “th” is at the end of a word. For example, she spoke with as /wis/
and faith as /fes/. Second, she makes mistakes in labiodental fricative consonant /v/. Hannah
often pronounces /v/ as /w/ without using her upper teeth to touch the bottom lip. But when I
asked her whether she knew how to pronounce /v/, she gave me the right labiodental fricative
sound. I noticed that she knows exactly how to pronounce /v/ sound, but when “v” is put into
a word or even a sentence, she would unconsciously forgot to touch the bottom lip. She told
me that she can easily pronounce /v/ sound without vowels, while she felt it is difficult for
her to combine /v/ sound with vowels. For examples, words like visit, vocabulary and wolves.
Every time I asked her “how are you”, she would answered “very well” sounded like /wɛri,
wɛl/.
Besides her errors in consonants, Hannah also has problems with words stress,
especially with compound words stress. Hannah knows to stress on different words in certain
sentences can express different meanings. She is able to express herself with different tones
to show her interest, anxiety and happiness. But she has problems with stress in the words.
Hannah tends to always stress on the second word when she pronounces compound words.
When I asked her what her feeling of being away from her family members, she told me that
she missed her grandfather’s birthday and her mother send her a video recording the birthday
party, which made she felt homesick. She pronounced grandfather and homesick as
/græn’fɑðə/ and /hom’sɪk/ stressing on the second words (see Appendix A, line 116-120). I
consider that her mistakes on stress may because even though she knows these are compound
words, she tends to pronounce the two parts separately.
In terms of morphology and morphophonology, she made unconscious mistakes in
plurals and verb past tense in her oral English. For example, she frequently omits “s” when
inflecting for plurals and “ed” when inflecting for past tense. However, she seldom makes
such mistakes in her written English. But she has errors both in her oral and written English
when referring to preposition, and subject-verb agreement. Sometimes she may get confused
with irregular simple past and past participle word forms. For example, she texted me by
saying, “I found my computer was broke.” Another time she also said “Did he mean my
phone was broke? (see Appendix A, line 140)” I think she might have problems with past
participles when they are working as adjectives.
In terms of syntax, Hannah uses different types of sentences in different situations.
She uses more simple sentences in her oral English. When she uses complex sentences, she
often makes mistakes in subject-verb agreement. In her written English, she uses more
coordinate sentences and complex-coordinate sentences. I noticed that Hannah tends to
overuse conjunctions, such as however and therefore, in her written English (see Appendix B,
line 154-158 and line 173-174). She always uses therefore and however, which may lead to
misunderstanding for the readers to get her main ideas.
As for determiners, she knows when to use “a” and “an”. She also knows that “the”
works as definite article, which refers to special things or things mentioned before. She told
me that she used to make mistakes with “every” and “each”, now she knows that it should be
“every DOG HAS his day” and “each of us IS girl”.
In terms of semantics and pragmatics, her vocabulary is above Tier 2 level. She
knows academic words and phrases especially those concerning her major fields. But when
regarding to describe her daily life in America, she has limitations in giving the name of
certain things. She often comes up with Chinese words when we are talking about American
products which both of us are unfamiliar with. For example, she used “the notebooks with
dates inside, so that you can write down your schedule” to describe the calendar notebooks,
when she tried to complain with me about the expensive commodities’ prices for our
international students (see Appendix A, line 111-114).
Word choice is also a problem for her. Hannah noticed that sometimes she come out
with words based on their Chinese meanings instead of considering the words have different
usages in English. Hannah shared with me two interesting stories about her choosing the
wrong words to express herself, which leads to misunderstanding with native Americas. She
told me, “I remember the first time I arrived at America, there is a American guys who pick
me up to the university. During the travel, he asked me several questions. One of the question
is,” are you the only children… only child in your family.” I said ” yes”. And then I also said
I am single (see Appendix A, line 53-59).” After she said ”I am single”, she felt the silence in
the car and noticed that she choose the wrong words to express herself. She wanted to express
that she is the only child in her family, but forgot that single also means unmarried. But in
Chinese, single and only share similar meanings, while in English one word may have several
different meanings. Another story is about she tried to tell an American guy that she cannot
turn on her phone to save his phone number. “I kept saying my cell phone is out of power. It
is power off. I cannot open it. That guy just didn’t understand what I am talking about. After I
showed him my phone, he finally understand and said ‘oh! Your phone’s battery is dead.’
(see Appendix A, line 130-142 )” Hannah simply used power to describe the energy of her
phone’s battery, without considering that “out of power” means people in charge lose their
authority. Different from the first story that she actually know single also means unmarried,
before she came to America, she did not even know that people should say the battery is dead
to describe that you cannot turn on your phone. Because the first story happened when she
first arrived, she felt really embarrassed about that mistake and she told her to speak less and
listen more. But after the second story, she noticed that if she never tries to speak out and
makes errors, she would never know the correct expression of those words.
From these two stories, I recognized the limitation for students to learn English based
on their native languages, because languages lose their true meanings during translation. You
cannot simply explain a word in English by finding a word in another language. Word choice
is a great challenge for non-native English speakers, because meanings for a word vary in
different situations.
Assessment of my Learner’s Current Stage
Generally speaking, Hannah already went through Brown’s five stages of
development. Now she is at the stage of productive use. Her oral English contains Chinese
accents with some errors in English pronunciation, but she is understandable in social
communications. In her major field, especially regarding to her written English, Hannah
acknowledges academic words and phrases, she also makes few errors in her writing.
Hannah has fully developed her acquirement of grammatical morphemes. She told me
that her teacher used to teach her using prefix and suffix to build her vocabulary. Each time
she learned a new verb, she would looked up into the dictionary by adding “-ment”, “-tion”,
“tive”, etc., to extend her vocabulary. She knows exactly when to use past tense. Besides her
knowledge for adding “ed” to regular past tense verbs, she also knows irregular simple past
and past participle word forms. But sometimes she may misuse them.
She is sensitive with articles. She can easily distinguish the usage of “a” and “an”.
Occasionally, she would overuse “the” to replace the using of these and those. As I have
mentioned, she is sensitive with the usages of “each” and “every”. But regarding possessive
determiners, Hannah is at the stage of post-emergence (Lightbrown and Spada, 2013).
Hannah often makes mistakes in her oral English when regarding he and she. She made
mistakes when refer to the gender, but frequently she would correct herself quickly. Hannah
tends to use too many pronouns when she tries to tell me a story about things happen to other
people. Her misusing of “he” and “she” or “his” and “her” sometimes makes cannot follow
her (see Appendix A, line 95-98).
Regarding to sentences and clauses, Hannah seldom uses complex sentences and
clauses in her oral English. She tries to avoid using complex sentences with relative clauses,
because she does not want the tense that used in the clauses being not consistent. She pays
attention on tense, number and person in her written English to make sure that she can correct
her mistakes before finishing her papers.
In sum, even though Hannah unconsciously makes mistakes, she can recognize her
problems and often tries to correct herself. A week after we discussed about the /v/ sound,
she told me that she started to focus on using her teeth to touch bottom lip. Every time she
wants to say a word with a “v”, she will give herself one second to think before she speak out.
Through our interview, she had a comprehensive and objective review of her English and she
started to pay attention to her unconscious mistakes.
Discussion of an SLA Theoretical Framework
Through my interview with Hannah, I noticed that her English acquisition began with
mimicry and memorization (Lightbrown and Spada, 2013). Hannah started to learn English
as a foreign language in China when she was 9 years old in her third Grade. Her English
teacher started to teach her English by exposing her to the 24 English letters. Since she is
already nine years old, her knowledge of Chinese phonetic alphabet influenced her
acquisition of English pronunciation. She told me that her teacher wrote both uppercase and
lowercase letters down on the blackboard and spoke them loudly. Her teacher also asked the
students to write each letter on their notebooks and read those letters after the teacher. She
began learning English by imitate her teacher’s pronunciation of letters and simple words
before she learned phonetics. Through mimicry and memorization, Hannah started to acquire
English as a foreign language.
I consider that her Chinese accent is one of the results of her imitation from her
English teacher. Because Hannah’s teacher may also contains accent when speaking English,
her accent can greatly affect beginners like Hannah. In her initial stages of learning English,
Hannah did not have the opportunities to expose herself to native speakers and environment
to learn English, which lead to her accent in English speaking and errors in English
pronunciation.
As I mentioned before, Hannah told me she remembered her Chinese English teacher
trained the students “th” sounds by asking the students to speak “think about this thing, that
thing, these things and those things”. I believe that because the teacher also learned English
as a foreign language, which means she could recognize similar problems Chinese students
might encounter during their English learning. By pointing out the difficulties for Chinese
students of their acquisition of English phonetics, the teacher let the students notice the
differences between the two languages, which contribute to their further understanding of
English acquisition.
Hannah’s native language can explain her mistakes in stress, possessive determiners
and plurals. English is an intonation language, while Chinese is a tone language with four
distinguish tones, which makes Chinese students not sensitive enough for English stress. She
knows to stress on different words in certain sentences can create different tones to make her
point. But she fails to be sensitive with the stresses inside the words. As I have mentioned,
Hannah also have problems of misusing “he” and “she” when referring to the gender of the
possessors. This is because, in Chinese, the pronunciations of “he” and “she” or “his” and
“her” are same even though their written forms are different. But from my observation I
noticed that even though she made mistakes of possessive determiners, she did not have a
preference for “he” or “she”. For plurals, in Chinese, in order to express plural forms of the
nouns, you only need to add words like many, several or numbers before the noun without
furthering adding “s” at the end of the noun. Such differences between English and Chinese
lead to Hannah’s unconscious mistakes. The influence of the learner’s first language may not
simply be a matter of habits, but a more subtle and complex process of identifying points of
similarity, weighing the evidence in support of some particular feature, and even reflecting
about whether certain feature seems to ‘belong’ in the target language (Lightbrown and
Spada, 2013).
For the further development of Hannah’s English acquisition, cognitive perspective
can explain her achievement in English learning. “Drawing on J. R. Anderson’s (1995) work,
Robert DeKeyser (1998, 2001, 2007) and others have investigated second language
acquisition as ‘skill learning’. They suggest that most learning, including language learning,
started with declarative knowledge. Then through practice, declarative knowledge may
become procedural knowledge, or the ability to use the knowledge (Lightbrown and Spada,
2013).” In Hannah’s process of learning English, her teacher paid special attention on
grammar teaching. Her Chinese English teacher encouraged the students to do a lot of
exercises on grammatical training. Besides the grammar instructions in the classes, she also
had tests focusing on English grammar. For example, the tests contained single-choice
questions concerning the usage of plurals, auxiliaries, tense, etc. I believe such instructions
and tests on grammar make learners be familiar with the rules of a foreign language. Through
the repeated practices, the declarative rules become part of the learners’ language skills. The
declarative knowledge then turns into procedural knowledge that the learners can
automatically apply the rules they have learned.
For example, Hannah also learned Spanish for two years in her college in China. She
told me that her English knowledge benefits her study of Spanish because the two languages
share a lot of similarities. Instead of applying her native language skills, she automatically
applied her English skills to her Spanish study. I consider this is because, through years of
learning English, those English rules already become parts of her language acquisition skills.
When she started to learn another foreign language, she would automatically apply her prior
knowledge to help her acquisition of a new language.
What’s more, social-cultural factors also contribute to the formation of my learner’s
acquisition of English. Through the interaction with other speakers, second language learners
acquire knowledge through their collaboration from their communication with other speakers
(Lightbrown and Spada, 2013). Hannah told me that even though the grammar instructions in
the classes laid firm foundation for her future study, her teachers focused too much on
reading and writing. Students in the classroom were able to speak English when they were
told to. Before she can speak whole sentences, she often kept silence and did not confident
enough to speak English. After she arrived in America, she forced herself to communicate
with native speakers. She found she often made funny conversations with native Americas, as
I mentioned in the word choice part about the two stories Hannah shared with me. Even
though she felt embarrassed of making those mistakes at first, she collaborate English
speaking skills through the conversations and by imitating their oral English, she created her
own understanding of linguistic rules besides her teacher’s instruction in the classroom.
Description of a Specific Instructional Plan
I will let Hannah recognize her unconscious pronunciation mistakes and form her
habits to overcome her errors. For example, her errors in pronunciations of “v” and “th” can
be overcome through exercises. Through my observation, I noticed Hannah could pronounce
/v/ sound, she just not get used to combine /v/ sound with vowels. We together figured out a
way to help her overcome this problem, which is to give herself one second before she speak
out a word with a /v/ sound. For the pronunciation of th, she knows how to pronounce /θ/
when the th is at the beginning of a certain word. In order to help her overcome this mistake,
she needs to form her habit of sticking her tongue outside her teeth. Through practices, I
believe she can overcome such errors.
I will encourage Hannah to communicate with native speakers and learn from their
way of oral expression. Through the communication with native speakers, Hannah can test
her own expression while learn from native speakers about how they express themselves.
Hannah also lacks conceptual knowledge. I will encourage her to be aware of the details
around her and ask native speakers about the names and certain expressions of certain
phenomena.
I will also encourage her to ask for feedbacks from her teachers and peers. Teachers
tend to ignore the mistakes she made and value more on the meanings she give. Asking the
teachers for feedbacks and let them be her guidance to overcome her mistakes and misusing
of English. Through sharing experience with her peers, Hannah can find peers with similar
mistakes in their process of English acquisition. They may give her suggestions of how to
overcome her own errors.
I noticed that Hannah enjoys watching TV series and movies. I will encourage her to
watch them without watching Chinese subtitles and learn from the shows through imitation
and memorization.
Critical Reflection on What I Have Learned
Through my interview with my learner Hannah, I noticed that it is important to learn
my learner’s personality and characteristic before I study her process of English acquisition.
At the beginning of our conversations, she tended to be not comfortable of speaking English
with me. I tried to encourage her through topics she might be familiar with and I also share
my own experience in America to inspire her to be more involved into our conversations.
While she started to talk with me in English, she tended to be nervous because she knew I
was recording our conversations and trying to find her grammar mistakes. I told her that the
mistakes she made not only would help me to finish my observation, she would also got the
chance to be aware of her own mistakes. After several interviews, Hannah became more
cooperative and even started to share with her top embarrass moments in her life in America.
I also consider it is important to know my learner’s motivation of studying English.
She told me that because her English teachers in her elementary school and high schools
emphasis too much on grammar studying in order to get high scores in the exams. At that
time, she found it is really boring to learn another language. Sometimes she found that even
though she can read materials and articles, she noticed it was difficult for her to express
herself. But after she entered into college, the teachers started to draw their attention on the
speaking and listening skills of English. The teacher introduced video resources such as
Discovery and movies, such as “American Beauty” and “English Patient” to their class. The
teacher let her watch the videos and talk about what they learned from those materials. She
became obsessed to the shows and the American culture that presented to her. “The more I
watch, the more I want to learn (see Appendix, line 76-98).” After that she began to watch
TV shows in different languages and she even started to learn Spanish as her second foreign
language. The grammar study of a foreign language can be complicated and tedious, but the
combination of showing them the attractiveness of the language can encourage the students to
use the language. Through recognizing the motivation of my learner, I had a thoroughly
understanding of how she collaborate her English.
Another significant part of study a non-native English speaker is to have certain
background knowledge of the learner’s native language. Learners’ English acquisition is a
result of L1 transfer (Lightbrown and Spada, 2013). Because my learner and I shared same
native language, it made me be able to connect the similarities and differences between the
two languages when referring to the explanation of her mistakes. I noticed that even though
Chinese students tend to make similar mistakes, such as plural mistakes, past tense mistakes
and determiner mistakes, some mistakes could be eliminated through the individual
differences and even the influence of different teachers. For example, the pronunciations for
th has been normal problems for Chinese English learners, because in Chinese pronunciation
they do not have voiced and voiceless dental fricative/ð/ and /θ/. However, Hannah’s teacher
recognized that “th” is a regular problem for Chinese students and she trained her students to
speak “think about this thing, that thing, these things and those things”. A non-native English
learner will unconsciously apply his prior knowledge to his second language acquisition. In
order to fully study a non-native English speaker, one should also pay attention to the
speaker’s native language level. In my case, my learner started to learn English at 9 years old.
Before her exposure to English, she already developed her Chinese skills. While she learned
English in the classrooms, she spoke Chinese much more than her English speaking, both
academically and socially.
What’s more, to fully observe a non-native English speaker, researchers should not
only pay attention to the learner’s oral skills. Both academic and conceptual knowledge in
written and oral English should be concerned in the studying of English learners. In my case,
Hannah made fewer mistakes in her written English than in her oral English, when referring
to the same problems. While she was sensitive to the knowledge regarding her major field,
she lacks conceptual knowledge.
Implications for my Future Work with ELLs
In my future work with ELL students, I will try to help my students to turn the
declarative rules into part of the ELL students’ language skills so that they can automatically
apply those rules.
In my classroom, I will try to “get it right from the beginning” (Lightbrown and
Spada, 2013). I value the structure-based language teaching. I consider that in order to
acquire a foreign language, one should know the rules of that language. The similarities and
differences between English and my students’ first languages will be my resources to help
them better acquire English. I will firstly recognize the first languages of my ELL students
and the level of their first languages. Regarding on the levels of their first languages, I will
know the depth of the effects of their native language to their foreign language acquisition.
Through the comparison between English and my ELL students’ first languages, I can lead
my students to properly transfer their prior knowledge of L1 to their English acquisition and
arise my students’ attention of the differences between the languages in order to avoiding
certain errors. Since my understanding of my students’ first languages may be limited, I will
also encourage my students to do the comparison by themselves. By doing those comparisons,
students can create their own methods of learning English grammar rules.
I will balance reading, listening, speaking and writing altogether. Language
acquisition takes place when learners are exposed to comprehensible input through listening
and reading (Lightbrown and Spada, 2013). I will choose content-based materials and
resources that related to their lives to enhance their English input. Instead of letting my
students to recite huge number of vocabularies, I will expose them to reading materials. High
levels of vocabulary in an L2 can be achieved by exposure to the L2 vocabulary during
reading (Snow and Kim, 2007). Both academic and conceptual knowledge will be valued in
my classroom. Speaking and writing skills will be tested to determine the ELL students’
English output. I will also encourage my students to do practices in order to help them
solidify their English studying. I will also introduce video resources into the classroom and
encourage my students to watch movies and TV series. For example, the students’
pronunciation skills can be solidified through imitating what they hear in the videos. What’s
more, the students can learn English expression and word choice through watching the video
materials.
Mistakes are allowed in my classroom. I want to make sure my students can express
themselves without being nervous and anxious of making mistakes. But mistakes will not be
ignored in my classroom. I choose not to directly correct their mistakes, but I will provide
feedbacks for my students as references to better develop their English.
What’s more, I encourage my ELL students to learn from their peers. I wish to hear
every student’s sound in my classroom and I value small group discussions to let them
benefit from each other. Students will be encouraged to share their experience of learning
different languages. They can work together to recognize their mistakes and learn from each
other on overcoming their errors.
In my classroom, my ELL students will benefit a lot from my teaching. However, I
will not teach them everything. Many language features, from pronunciation to vocabulary
and grammar, will be acquired naturally if learners have adequate exposure to the language
and a motivation to learn (Lightbrown and Spada, 2013). A teacher can never be able to teach
the students everything in the classroom. However, I will dedicate myself in helping my ELL
students to build their own English learning strategies and motivate my ELL students to learn
English.
References
Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2013). How languages are learned (4th edition). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Snow, C. & Kim, Y. (2007). The challenge of vocabulary for English language learners. In R.
Wagner, A., Muse, & K. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Vocabulary Acquisition: Implications
for Reading Comprehension (pp. 123-139). NY: Guilford.
1
Appendix A
2
3
Lulu: Hannah. How are you?
4
Hannah: Very well.
5
(Chinese ….)
6
Lulu: What is your native language?
7
Hannah: Chinese. Ma..Man.. Mandarin (figuring the stress)
8
Lulu: What about other languages?
9
Hannah: Spanish. Just a little. De.. Au.. (some Spanish words)
10
Lulu: Oh, great. Tell me about something of your Spanish.
11
Hannah: I started to learn Spanish as my second foreign language in my college. I learned 2
12
years. But I can speak very little Spanish right now.
13
Lulu: So do you your English help your Spanish study or has bad influence for your English
14
study?
15
Hannah: Well, I would say English really help my Spanish, because they are similar
16
languages. Some words are similar, but the grammar are different.
17
Lulu: How long have you been exposed to English?
18
Hannah: Maybe three month.
19
Lulu: Three month? I mean how long have you learned English?
20
Hannah: Oh. (then she began to speak Chinese with me) Maybe 10.. 12 years.
21
Lulu: In which grade?
22
Hannah: I think 3rd grade.
23
Lulu: Do you remember how your teacher taught you when you began to learn English?
24
Hannah: In my 3rd grade, the articles like hello..
25
Lulu: with letters first?
26
Hannah: Yes. ABCDEFG..(she began to sing the alphabet song)
27
Lulu: which parts do they value? Like speaking, reading, listening and writing.
28
Hannah: reading and writing. They teach me to pronounce the 24 letters. To read after them.
29
And we had tests focusing on.., like reading comprehension. You know Chinese students do
30
not have the chances to speak English.
31
Lulu: Yes. All those tests focusing on grammar.
32
Hannah: Right. The grammars are really boring. I remember I was really good at memorize
33
the grammars. At that time, I love English because I can remember all of the rules. But then I
34
do.. did not like anymore.
35
Lulu: Oh. Why did you feel so?
36
Hannah: I think it is because at first I just thought if I recite more..that English is about to
37
recite things, like vocabularies, phrases. But when I realized I will never recite all of them.
38
And I also find that.. found that when it comes to speaking and listening. I cannot express
39
myself. I can understand my teachers’ English. But when I listen to the tape, you know we
40
listen to tapes to do English tests, I cannot understand the English.
41
Lulu: So you learned grammar really well.
42
Hannah: Yes. I think that’s the only thing I get from my previous years of learning.
43
Lulu: Ok. What about your parents? Do they speak English or any other languages?
44
Hannah: No, only Chinese.
45
Lulu: What about your relatives or friends that you can speak English with?
46
Hannah: No, no, just teacher.
47
48
Lulu: What about your life in America? I remember you told me you have an America
49
roommate.
50
Hannah: Yes. Three Chinese girl and an American girl.
51
Lulu: Any interesting things happen in your house?
52
Hannah: Nothing special. She doesn’t often talk with us. Oh. I can tell you a really funny
53
story happened on me. I remember the first time I arrived at America, there is a American
54
guys who pick me up to the university. During the travel, he asked me several questions. One
55
of the question is,” are you the only children… only child in your family.” I said ” yes”. And
56
then I also said I am single.
57
Lulu: HAHA. You are single.
58
Hannah: I didn’t noticed that until I felt that suddenly all the people in the car stop talking.
59
They must think I am really weird.
60
Lulu: Hi, Hannah. How are you? How about your campus life?
61
Hannah: Very well. I just had a group discussion. We will have a group presentation next
62
week.
63
Lulu: Do you enjoy working together with your classmates?
64
Hannah: Yes. They are very kind. One of my classmates invited me to pay a visit to her
65
apartment tomorrow. He.. She will pick me up at my home in the morning.
66
She likes to collect tea, and she told me she doesn’t have too many friends to drink tea with
67
her. I brought some tea from China. I want to bring her some.
68
Lulu: Great. I think she will like your original Chinese tea.
69
70
Lulu: Can you share with me some of your experience of learning English? Like a really
71
good teacher with great English pedagogy.
72
Hannah: Yes. Before I went to my college in China, I learn English only in the classroom,
73
follow the teachers’ rules, in order to get a high score in the tests. But in my college, the
74
teachers teach us about the English culture and American culture.
75
Lulu: So you think learning the culture makes you..
76
Hannah: Definitely. I have a teacher who really like to watch videos in her class. Students all
77
love her because we didn’t have homework and we just need to watch videos. I remember we
78
watched some videos about KKK.
79
Lulu: What is KKK?
80
Hannah: The Ku Klux Klan, some mysterious party, like terrorists. I think it is founded in
81
Tennessee in 1800 something.
82
Lulu: Wow. So interesting.
83
Hannah: Yes, the videos are really interesting. Like fraternity in Yale.. or some famous
84
university in America. I do not remember which university it is. Oh, and also a Discovery
85
video about wolf...wolves..wolves. (trying to pronounce correctly) The alpha, omegas wolves
86
and how their hierarchy works for the whole pack.
87
Lulu: All of them are English videos?
88
Hannah: Yes, all of them. Without subtitles. She asked us to watch again and again, and then
89
asked us to talk about what we heard and what we learned from the videos.
90
Lulu: I think she is training both your listening and speaking abilities.
91
Hannah: Yes. She also asked to write essays after we watched movies. I still remember some
92
of the names. “American beauty” , and “English patient”.
93
Lulu: Great. You even remember the names. You really like those movies. I haven’t heard
94
them before.
95
Hannah: These are all old movies. I don’t like them. One of the movies is about some creepy
96
old man fall in love with a little girl. She is her..his daughter’s friend. He tried to find passion
97
in his life. Finally, when she wanted to be with him, he did not accepted her and he even kill
98
himself.
99
Lulu: How do think these movies or videos help your English learning.
100
Hannah: She taught me English beyond the grammars and vocabularies. Like she asked us to
101
analyze the humanity in the movies. I think there are differences between Chinese and
102
western people. In their thoughts...They talk more about faith, belief.
103
Lulu: She introduced you the cultural differences through watching attractive videos.
104
Hannah: I think it is because of her that I began to be curious about those things.
105
Lulu: Did you go to a church after you arrive in America?
106
Hannah: Yes. I do. But it’s a church for Chinese people. Some Americans, but most of them
107
are Chinese.
108
Lulu: You should really go to a real church for Americas. I’ve been to a church and it was
109
different. They sing songs together and they share some cookies and drinks as Jesus fresh and
110
blood.
111
Hannah: Cute notebooks. Where did you buy those notebooks? I like the notebooks with date
112
inside, so you can write down your schedule.
113
Lulu: You mean calendar notebooks?
114
Hannah: Yes, I think so. I do not know the exact name of them.
115
116
Hannah: I felt really sad that I did not remember my grandfather’s birthday.
117
Lulu: That’s bad. The time difference between China and America makes you cannot figure
118
what day is today.
119
Hannah: Yes. My mother took a video for me, about the birthday party for my grandfather. I
120
feel homesick. I really miss them.
121
122
123
Lulu: Did you go for shopping on black Friday?
124
Hannah: No, I didn’t. I just spend some time with friends during the thanksgiving holiday.
125
Lulu: It is really nice to experience how Americas spend thanksgiving. Have you tried
126
turkeys and pumpkin pies?
127
Hannah: Yes. Another interesting thing happened to me during the holiday and I really want
128
to share it with you.
129
Lulu: Great. Interesting story.
130
Hannah: One of my classmate’s friends drove me back home after a party. We introduced
131
each other and he told me that he knew a great Thailand restaurant. He would like to take me
132
there. So he wanted to give me her number. I tried to tell him that I my cell phone was out of
133
power. He just cannot understand me. He said what do you mean by out of power.
134
Lulu: Out of power.
135
Hannah: Yes. I kept saying my cell phone is out of power. It is power off. I cannot open it.
136
That guy just didn’t understand what I am talking about. After I showed him my phone, he
137
finally understand and said ‘oh! Your phone’s battery is dead.’
138
Lulu: So it should be battery is dead.
139
Hannah: Yes. I didn’t understand him at that time. I heard ‘dead’, but I didn’t understand why
140
he would say my cell phone is dead. Did he mean my phone is broke? After that I asked my
141
roommates, then I realized it should be the cell phone’s battery is dead. Not out of power or
142
power off.
Appendix B
143
Hi Nereyda Gomez,
144
I am Hannah, I have opened a debit card in chase and you are my banker. I have already
145
emailed to you to ask the information about wireless transfer. you said i should know my
146
ckecking account. However, I looked throuhg my package for several times and i did not find
147
such informations, such as saving account and checking account and so on. Maybe, you
148
forgot to give me such information. Because I saw such kind of information in my classmates’
149
package, they are their information. I turned to your help. How to deal with them? It is urgent.
150
Thanks.
151
This case is about Defense Systems, Inc. (DSI). DSI manufactures electronic components and
152
semiconductors used in weapons supplied to the U.S. Air Force as well as in personal and
153
automatic computers. Last year, DSI conducted an aggressive hiring policy at major
154
universities around the United States. However, semiconductor market failed to pick up. Jim
155
Daniels was the vice president of human resources. Therefore, Jim Daniels faces a tough
156
problem and must do some unpleasant alternatives. Jim Daniels refuses to conduct layoff and
157
downsizing, in consideration of their negative effects. Therefore, Jim Daniels should develop
158
other alternatives to avoid large scale layoffs.
159
External and Internal environment:
160
Next, I discuss external and internal environment which affect the company. Such analysis
161
contributes to better understanding the situation of DSI and to generate alternatives. About
162
external environment, first, economic globalization affects the company. US market is a
163
desirable target for foreign competitors, because of its size and wealth. Meanwhile, US
164
market is relatively open to foreign companies. Following globalization, more and more
165
foreign companies come into US market. These foreign companies sell either low cost
166
products or special products which attract customers. Under such circumstance, competition
167
is fierce. Performance of some native US companies will be affected gradually. I think that
168
DSI may be one of these native companies impacted by globalization and competition.
169
Second, undoubtedly, intangible human asset is important to a company, so labor market
170
conditions determine companies powerfully. As the text book says, U.S. labor market is
171
characterized by skill shortage, whereas some developing countries has high-level skill labor
172
markets. For example, many U.S. employers operate offshore to India due to the prevalence
173
of English language and various technical skills. Meanwhile, compared to other countries’
174
labor market, labor cost in the US is high. Therefore, compared to these companies which
175
conduct operation offshore, some U.S. native companies are disadvantaged. About internal
176
environment, DSI does not rely on subcontractors. This condition resulting in aggressive
177
recruiting in DSI. Meanwhile, DSI has a low degree of training, which is also affects
178
company’s operation.
179
SWOTs Analysis
Strength
Weaknesses
Intangible human asset: DSI conducted
No Subcontractors: Without
an aggressive hiring policy at major
subcontractors, if DSI encounters
universities around the United States.
fluctuated seasons or economic cycle, the
These students have an average GPA of
company should conduct layoff or
3.4.
aggressive hiring.
Extra Capacity: Compared with Jim’s
No training plan: DSI is technology
ex-employer who could produce only 5
oriented. Technology changes and
percent of the parts it purchases, DSI can
updates quickly. Without training which
currently produce 50 percent.
update employees’ talents, DSI is easy to
Technology: With high-level employees,
fall behind.
we own high-level technology.
Opportunities
Threats
Economic cycle: when economy booms,
Foreign companies: Following
household income will increase and
globalization, many foreign companies
people will buy more products.
enter into U.S. Market. There is a fierce
Performance of DSI will elevate.
competition in U.S. Market.
Changes of Technology: Technology
always changes and updates. Some
changes are anticipatory changes, and
others are reactive changes. Due to
changes, DSI must take actions to adapt.
180
Alternatives to Layoff
181
In this case, Jim does not want to do layoff and termination, Jim knows that layoff will
182
impact corporate loyalty. Jim wants to preserve as many jobs as possible and put the right
183
person in right position, because he knows that underutilizing talents will lead to
184
dissatisfaction. Therefor, Jim should come up with some alternatives to layoff. Here, I
185
recommend some alternatives.
186
First, I recommend internal transfer. The case said that DSI had other geographic locations,
187
some in need of additional workers. If internal transfer is conducted, there will be a win-win
188
situation. Therefore, I put this policy in the first place. In the article, Jim faces a dilemma
189
with extra employees, whereas, in other locations, there is a need for employees. Therefore,
190
internal transfer can solve problems for both sides. To finish internal transfer, Jim should do
191
some measures. There have to be a sophisticated career management process so that
192
managers and employees are aware of open positions. Then, Jim should do a career
193
assessment and development activities that allow people to get ready for positions. About
194
selecting employees who go to other locations to work, there are some notices. If a employee
195
has a spouse and children, it may be hard to persuade him/her to go to another location to
196
work. Meanwhile, compensation and benefits should be offered to employees who accept
197
internal transfer.
198
Second, I recommend unpaid leave of absence. Employees are offered a leave of absence
199
without payment for a specified period of time to help an organization recover from a
200
downturn. Currently, DSI has an extra amount of employees due to semiconductor market.
201
However, such surplus is temporary. When market pick up, employees will be need.
202
Therefore, unpaid leave of absence is appropriate. On the one hand, it will save money. DSI
203
do not need to pay the salary to employees who take an unpaid leave. Stagnant business can
204
be alleviated. On the other hand, when business picks up, more talents will be necessary. At
205
that time, these employees who take an unpaid leave will be back and then restore their
206
position to keep business going on. However, some notices should be taken. Choosing
207
appropriate employees who will take unpaid leaves is important. Although, currently,
208
business is stagnant, business is still in process. On the contrary, it is the moment when
209
talented and high qualified employees are required to pull through difficulties. In addition,
210
when Jim persuades employees to take an unpaid leave, Jim should emphasize that
211
employees are certain to be restored after coming back.
212
Third, I think that instituting shorter work weeks can be adopted. DSI can reduce the number
213
of hours employees work and proportionally decrease pay. This is a seasonal arrangement
214
when business is stagnant temporarily. Due to reduced hours to work, payment will be
215
reduced. Under current circumstance, employees are surplus and money is shortage.
216
Therefore, this policy also can result in win-win situation. However, some problems exist.
217
When hours to work are reduced, employees are inclined to be loose. Meanwhile, when
218
payment is reduced, employees are apt to be dissatisfied. Thus, when Jim conducts this policy,
219
Jim has to explain the reasons particularly and carefully. It is the reason why I put this policy
220
in the third order.
221
Besides these policies, there are many other alternatives, too. For example, employers can
222
consider a virtual office to permit employees to work at home. employers can vacate office
223
space to rent to earn some profits. Moreover, employers in DSI can share ownership with
224
employees. Employees should invest their own money on DSI. They will get profits when
225
business is good, but they will lose money when business is bad. This method can mitigate
226
problem of money shortage. Although these two methods benefit DSI and help DSI,
227
problems exist. Employers should use these method appropriately.