Case Study and History of ESL
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Case Study
Carissa A. Ford
Marshall University
Dr. Nega Debela
CISL 653
Case Study and History of ESL
-2Abstract
For my case study, I worked with a student on her pronunciation of the voiced and
voiceless ‘th’ sound, which is a common problem among ELLs. The pre-assessment was
given in the form of a text, in which the student had to read aloud while I counted the
mistakes in pronunciation of the ‘th’ sound. We then went through a series of practice
exercises each lasting 30-40 minutes, which taught her how to correctly, pronounce the
‘th’, sound. The post-test was the same as the pre-test, which showed much improvement
in her pronunciation, however she read more cautiously than the pre-test. The second
part of this paper explains the history of ESL along with the current practices in TESL.
With the growing number of ELLs in the United States and it’s public schools, several
laws have been put in place in order to protect the freedom of speech as well as advocate
for education equality among all students. In 1791, Amendment I of the Constitution of
the United States protects the freedom of speech, while the most recent, No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 focuses on school reform, parental empowerment as well as equal
educational opportunities for all students. Language learning has come a long way from
the traditional way of learning through memorization and translation. Students are now
being provided with creative ways of learning; whether it is through the Internet, hands
on activities, peer work, or individual work all while using all facets of language.
Case Study and History of ESL
-3Introduction
At my school there are two levels of ESOL; levels 4 and 5. Level 5 is the highest in
the county, which means that by levels 4 and 5 the students are preparing to exit from
ESOL to join English 10. This year, these two levels are in a combined class of 17
students, which is higher than in previous years. I worked with an African student who is
a sophomore in ESOL level 4. This is her first year at my school since we do not offer
ESOL 3. She is adjusting well and had some background knowledge of English before
coming to the United States. Her conversational English is quite fluid but she struggles
with the ‘th’ sound as do many students learning English. The class uses the text, ‘North
Star High Intermediate’ as a supplemental text, which provided me with ideas and
exercises to help her in the pronunciation of the ‘th’ sound.
Discussion
During our first lesson, as a pretest, she read aloud a text from the book about Native
American Indian tribes in North America. I told her that I would be listening to her
pronunciation of the ‘th’ sound and to read as she normally would. This text had 59
voiced and voiceless ‘th’ sounds. While she read, I followed along and circled the ‘th’
sounds that were mispronounced, which turned out to be 51 of the 59. My observation
was that the voiced ‘th’ was pronounced like a ‘d’ and the voiceless ‘th’ was pronounced
like a ‘t’. For our next class together, I prepared a list of common voiced and voiceless
‘th’ words and explained the difference between the two sounds in an exaggerated
manner by showing her how the tongue vibrates between the teeth for the voiced ‘th’
sound. I had her repeat back to me in an exaggerated manner as well. Then on a white
board, I had her make two columns; ‘voiced’ and ‘voiceless’. Of the 13 voiced and 16
Case Study and History of ESL
voiceless ‘th’ words, all were categorized correctly. Only one spelling mistake was made
with the word ‘bathe’, which she spelled ‘baith’. After we went over the answers we
switched roles and she said the words to me and I categorized them based on her
pronunciation. Upon giving her instructions, she asked if she should focus on the
pronunciation or not, to which I replied ‘yes’. She was very careful and took her time
when doing this and because she was so focused she only pronounced one incorrectly.
The word ‘worthy’ was pronounced as a voiceless ‘th’ instead of a voiced ‘th’. Our next
session together focused more on pairs of words that are similar in pronunciation based
on her misconception of the voiced ‘th’ sounding like a ‘d’ and the voiceless ‘th’
sounding like a ‘t’. The following pairs are the words that we worked with: three / tree,
they / day, though / dough, lather / ladder, worthy / wordy, soothe / sued, other / udder,
and then / den. First, I said a word and she had to write the word that she heard on her
white board. The only word missed was ‘ladder’ instead of ‘lather’. Next, we switched
roles again and did the same thing. The words were written back-to-back on note cards
so all she had to do was choose one and read it to me, while I wrote it down. We talked
about her pronunciation based on the ones that I missed, which was only ‘they’, which
she pronounced ‘day’. We then read a list of words to each other to practice the
pronunciation a bit more. Our last exercise before giving the post-test was for me to ask
a series of questions as a way to warm up, to which she had to respond with the correct
answer as well as the correct pronunciation, voiced or voiceless. She was given the
answers on note cards so once she heard the question she had to choose the correct word
and correctly pronounce it. The questions and answers were taken directly from North
Star (pg. 105) and are as follows:
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Case Study and History of ESL
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1. What do you call air in our lungs? (breath)
2. What is another way to say ‘not here’? (there)
3. What is another word for ‘believe’? (think)
4. How else can we say ‘nevertheless’? (though)
5. Which is it if it’s not ‘that’? (this)
6. What’s another word for ‘objects’? (things)
7. What is the name of our planet? (Earth)
8. How else can we say, ‘I appreciate it’? (thanks)
Of the eight questions, she answered all correctly.
Conclusion
Throughout the study, the student had exposure and practice in reading, writing,
listening, and speaking. All of these different opportunities to use the language helped
her improve her pronunciation of the voiced and voiceless ‘th’ sound. For the post-test
she read the same text as for the pretest. This time she was more cautious and took her
time in reading, although the pace was not much slower. She correctly pronounced all of
the ‘th’ sounds, voiced and voiceless. Two additional observations made during the posttest were the over emphasis of the word ‘the’ and occasionally over emphasizing the
word, ‘then’. The other observation I made was that because she was so focused on
pronouncing the ‘th’ correctly, she transferred it to the word ‘fed’ and pronounced it like
‘feth’ and the word ‘night’ was pronounced like ‘nigth’. Her cautious approach as well
as immediately correcting herself proved her to be successful.
Case Study and History of ESL
-6References:
Ariza, E., Morales-Jones, C., Noorchaya, Y., Zainuddin, H. (2006). Why TESOL?:
Theories and Issues in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in K-12
Classrooms. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
Ferree, T., Sanabria, K., (2004). North Star High Intermediate Listening and Speaking.
White Plans, NY: Longman.
Herrell, A., Jordan, M., (2012). 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners.
Boston, MA: Pearson Publishing Company.
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