Shakthi's Portfolio Home

Portfolio

Name: Marcia Jane
Student Number: 828919

Learner’s Profile Shakti
Seven years old
Name Male
Age

Grade Standard One

This learner, who I was chose to include in this portfolio, is a remarkable little boy at Sinar
Cahaya Home. He has been a resident at this facility for quite some time. Shakti is the goddess of
power (Note: name has been changed, private and confidential). He is now seven years old and
appears to be a quiet boy at first glance, but when you get to know him better, he becomes a chatty
one. This learner was picked for this portfolio description because he gets along well with the other
members of the home. In addition, when compared to the other youngsters, this learner has stayed
in the home the longest. Shakti attends a school located close to the one at home at a walking
distance. When asked if he enjoys attending school, he claims that he wants to be a doctor and
therefore is excited to go to school to learn.

Background Information

Shakti was born on the 23rd of November 2015 at Hospital Seberang Jaya. However, he
was sent to the orphanage at the age of three years old. Unfortunately, he has no siblings according
to the caretaker at the home. His mother had passed away after losing to cancer and his father’s
whereabout is unknown. Therefore, the case of Shakti is an unfortunate one compared to other
children who at least have a single parent visiting. Many of these children placed here come from
broken families and separated or missing one of the parents. Shakti, is the longest staying of the
cohort of children who has been residing in the home since 2018. Shakti has a unique narrative
since he spends most time growing up in the orphanage. Madam Muny (pseudonym) is the
caretaker of the entire home with 20 children. She has been working in this home ever since it was
established in 2004. His caretaker mainly spoke to him in Tamil, and she has completed her
education in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). She is able to speak in Tamil, English and Bahasa
Melayu. She went to Sekolah Menegah Kebangsaan Butterworth. When asked about prior working
experiences, she has worked in non-profit organisations for many years. She has also worked as
telephone operator and cashier in different supermarkets. Due to difficult family circumstances,
she has not been unable to pursue further education.

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Therefore, Shakti picked up mostly Tamil as his L1 and interacted with the rest of the
children effortlessly. He became fluent in the Tamil language although he has not been taught the
language through formal instruction. His exposure to L2 mainly English and Malay languages are
through classroom instruction at school. When asked about his ability and ease of using English,
Shakti stated that he is able to understand English when someone speaks to him using English, but
he has to think and takes time to reply in both the written and verbal forms. His contact and learning
hours outside school is limited as most of his interactions are only initiated during school hours
and during English classes for that week for English.

Personal Information

Generally, Shakti is a cheerful and positive learner. From my observation, it was found that
Shakti participated actively in class, he is willing to make mistakes and learn from his mistakes
from the worksheets given. He would complete his corrections without being told. This is evident
in his writing practices where he does amazingly well when he has the right drive and the topic is
something he is interested. Shakti is highly motivated when positive reinforcements are given such
as “this is a good sentence that you have here, good job, well done”. His motivation is further
enhanced with tangible activity such as allowing him to do some coloring and art work. Anxiety
has been linked to language learning in a variety of studies. Language learners may experience
anxiety as a result of their sense of "self," cultural disparities with the target language's culture,
and the fear of losing self-identity. This is a similar situation that Shakti faces. When asked, Shakti
mentioned been teased in school for using English, thus resulting the learner having self- imposed
inhibitions in using English when among his peers. Moreover, constant exposure to such
interactions has made Shakti think that English is cumbersome and not practical.

I always admired the sparkle in is eyes when he knows we are goig to do some physical
activities. It is because Shakti is a kinesthetic learner. He responds well to hands on activities such
as writing, role playing and outdoor activities. For instance, when teaching the basic components
of sentence building, he was taught writing not only using works sheets but was placed in a group
to create a fun fact flash cards which was then used in sentence construction. Also, being a
kinesthetic learner, one of the learning strategies would require him to actually being part of the
activity where he actually has to be active and involved. Usually kinesthetic learners struggle with
writing, this is also apparent in Shakti’s case where Shakti can get demotivated and hesitant. When
he feels disappointed that he is unable to understand and keep up with the rest of the students, I
will have him do trace writing or arts and crafts related to the topic. I would also instruct the
students to to pair up so they could brainstorm ideas and Shakti could write or draw the ideas on
paper via simple mind maps. In short, coloring, art and craft helped Shakti to relax and concentrate
better in his practices.

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Strategies

1. He has not been able to concentrate for a long period of time, therefore Shakti would need
short periods of break in between his lessons.

2. Also, as a kinesthetic learner, he learns better when incorporating sense of touch into
learning. Therefore, the facilitator has integrated writing and art as strategies of helping
Shakti remember well. As such hand movement involved in writing and drawing help
Shakti to grasp the information taught effectively.

3. Also, role playing and acting out written descriptions from flash cards help in retaining
information.

4. The incorporation of collaborative learning and fun learning has caused excitement
resulting in Shakti’s concentration improving.

Interests

Shakti’s attention span improved gradually for each lesson. This is reflected in his
interactions with other learners where he seemed to be able to stay engaged longer. Due to his
chatty and active personality, he is unable to sit still so it was challenging to have him around other
learners. He is also called out often when help is required in the home. He is playful and frequently
distracts other learners. From his behavior, it was observed that Shakti enjoyed interacting and
socializing with others particularly when he was given time to complete a task. Based on that
observation, group work and pair work activities were incorporated. The integration of group work
and along with role play activities in writing captured his attention. He became interested in writing
as he discussed and looked to his peers in his group for assistance. Gradually, Shakti was observed
to be more motivated and showed positive responses as he was quick to answer in his lessons
although the answers may not be correct. However, the objective was to allow learners to feel
comfortable learning and not punished when they made a mistake, as mistakes are a natural part
of learning.

Environment

Having an engaging environment helps develop an atmosphere that encourages the use of
visual, auditory and kinesthetic motions which in turns encourages learners to explore their senses.
Environment plays an important role in influencing a learners’ language development, as a
stimulating and positive engagement could influence Shakti’s overall well-being positively. These
children in homes should be raised in a supportive atmosphere. If orphanages do not meet a child's
basic needs, it can have a negative impact on the child's mental and physical health, leading to
psychological issues. The environment in the home is clean and warm. Although, it may not be an
ideal environment for learners, the walls of the common area have been decorated with students’
works and art works and walls painted in white. It causes a dull and inactive atmosphere. On a
positive note, the physical environment is neat where tables and chairs are neatly arranged to fit
the needs of the learners. Shakti knows the environment well, as he is familiar with most of the

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children and the caretaker at the home. In other words, the learning environment is decent and is
at an acceptable level. However, with more support and support from the public, it is hoped that
the environment could be further improved.

Language Skills

Language skill Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Pre-test Vocabulary Nouns Word order Sentence building
Post-test Quizzed on types of Asked to point to Given work sheet Given work sheets
Interlanguage animals nouns as exercise to match the story
(countable)
Communicative Produced a description Given work sheet Given work sheet Rewrite based on a
Competence card on a favourite as exercise as practice story given
animal
• There are • Handsom • Bcet
• This is a buck four duck man, there instead of
instead of duck bat
• There are • Table
• This is a beap three book on • Belloon
instead of beak chicken instead of
Developed balloon
Developed Needs • Learner is
improvement able to • Fork for
• learner corrects order to flag
• Learner words
vocabulary needs to based on Moderately
be aware subject developed
errors by of on word and
various object in a • Learner is
noticing uses of -s sentence able to
and -es • Developed match
differences when the ability pictures
using to order and
between his countable words construct
nouns based on a sentences
usage and of situation based on
• Need the pictures
his peers who more given
practices
usage with for • Able to
drilling create
higher sound
sentence
language using
various
competence expressions

• able to present

and role play

with peers

• Made good

progress

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Factors that Lead to Success and Failures

• Many factors influence Shakthi’s learning of second language and among the notable ones
are namely learner’s strategies. Since Shakti is a kinesthetic learner, he prefers movement
and feel injected in his writing activities.

• Shakti is driven a learner and work better when placed in a group. He prefers discussing
and interacting with his peers. Therefore, when writing tasks are assigned, he is given an
empty sheet of paper, to pen down or draw images. He then is able to focus on his work.

• Learners with bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, in general, can learn more quickly by doing,
exploring, and discovering. Also, interpersonal intelligence also plays an important role in
Shakti’s interaction while learning with others. He is able to work collaboratively by
sensing and responding to other learner's drive and moods.

• The home could only provide a certain amount of support in Shakti’s second language
acquisition. It is because the home face funding difficulty and experience challenges in
providing for all the children in the orphanage in terms of materials and resources.

• Also, space could also pose some challenges as there are limited room and space. Space
design that engages the senses and encourages interaction with the environment is critical
for a child’s well-being. The space or environment in such institutional care lacks touch
appeal, nice odour, and life outside the home gates.

• Shakti faced a similar situation even in school. As such limited exposure and lacking the
opportunity to practice the target language has caused him to be demotivated, unconfident
where he has developed language anxiety.

• In school, Shakti accounts that he faced rejections from his school mates when he attempted
to use English during his interactions. In other words, he may not have a conducive
platform at school or at home due to the nature of interactions.

• He lacks a stimulating environment that could help in enhancing his SLA better.

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Krashen’s Input Hypothesis

Stephen Krashen has contributed to the understanding of the language learning process. He
is a proponent of promoting a shift in teaching methods from previous rule-based approaches to
meaning-based approaches, mainly in communicative language teaching (CLT). In this teaching
lessons, the input hypothesis suggests that language is learned by obtaining "comprehensible
information" at a level somewhat higher than one's current level of competence (i+1). By
comprehending input that incorporates structures, we progress along the natural order (hypothesis
2). By comprehending data containing i+1, we move from I our present level, to i+1, to the next
level along the natural order.

For instance, in this lesson on describing on animals, Shakti was given a worksheet on
word puzzle and he was asked to look for words, circle as well as color the words. For a warm up

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session, Shakti and his friends were asked to name animals they liked. Shakti and his friends also
named the pets they would like to have such as cats, peacock, birds and dogs. After having an
icebreaking session, the worksheet was distributed to Shakti so that he could identify the words
given from the list. According to Input Hypothesis, the term i+1 is not given an explicit definition,
therefore it is understood in a different way. He defines I as our current level of ability and i+1 as
the next level along the natural order (Krashen, 1985). He refers to it as to the learner's “degree of
competence”. He then confines this level of expertise to only grammar, referring to i+1 as
"structures at our next stage. The next stage, flash cards were introduced to students and they were
to produce a flash card. This is a work of Shakti and he was also excited to do draw an additional
favorite and drew a shark instead. Shakti described the duck in terms physical description. He was
taught vocabulary and meaning to form basic sentences to describe the duck. The parts of the
animal were explained such as beak, neck, and the length of its physical characteristics as in long
or short neck. Other examples of were also incorporated to allow Shakti grasp the concepts of beak
as he did not understand the meaning of the word.

In the following the lesson, Shakti was given a picture to color on ‘My Farm’ and he was
quizzed to point to the animals once there were called out such as ‘duck’, ‘cow’ and ‘horse’ to
name a few. In this lesson, Shakti was asked to construct simple sentences based on the picture
given. He has to identify the number of animals and build sentence based on the number of objects
shown on the worksheet. He was also taught the plural forms of nouns. From this sheet, it is evident
that Shakti has problems with the plural forms of -s, and -es.

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Although Shakti faced challenges with his nouns, more works sheets and drills were given
to him as input and occasionally and advanced exercise is incorporated to as Krashen defines I as
ones current level of ability" and i+1 as the next level along the natural order. He states that such
an attempt would influence the learner’s ability to learn advanced structures of the lessons. Also,
Shakti was asked to match the pictures with the current sentences to match the story. He was then
asked to rewrite the story in a paragraph and was asked to read aloud. It was noted that Shakti also
has problems with capitalization of letters when beginning a sentence. He was then taught that the
importance of capitalization and when they are used normally for names and at the beginning of a
sentence starting with a ‘big’ letter. He then understood and rewrote the whole paragraph. I would
say that Shakti is a positive learner and requires coaching and support in his SLA particularly in
writing.

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Writing has been regarded as a crucial skill in the study of English. It reinforces
grammatical structures and terminology that teachers seek to teach their learners. It is an area in
which students should be given sufficient opportunity to build their writing skills in both written
and spoken forms. As such the Input Hypothesis "comprehensible" refers to the learner’s
knowledge and their cognitive ability. Even complex structures may be understandable if they
correspond to the learner's knowledge foundation. Teacher talk is also a helpful aspect to help
simplify concepts and explanations. Also, the use of code switching and mixing such as using
Bahasa Melayu and Tamil also helped in Shakti’s second language acquisition.

Professional Growth

As this is my first experience teaching learners from the orphanage such as Shakti. It has
been a different experience. It is because most students in tertiary education are regular students
whose backgrounds are normal homes where resource are usually available. This experience has
allowed me ponder on how filters among these vulnerable groups could be elevated. Based on
Krashen’s Monitor Model, comprehensible input is conditioned by the affective filter; hence SLA
could not solely trace based on comprehensible input alone. The Affective Filter Hypothesis
proposes that the learner's "affective filter," may be turned "up" or "down" to block or enable
comprehensible input. When a learner lacks motivation or is anxious, the filter is "up," however
when he identifies with the target-language community without regard for the possibility of failure
in learning, it is "down." Therefore, as an educator, it is important to know the learners background,
ability, personality as well as they type o leaner to create instruction that accommodates to the

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learners learning. I also realized that there is a need for corrective feedback and the negotiate
meaning in interacting in the context of second language acquisition. In other words, there is a
need to mix and match or blend higher order thinking skills however, it is important to develop
strong foundations in students’ literacy development.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank this opportunity to thank Madam Muny and Sinar Cahaya Home for having
me share my knowledge and understand these learners better, a step forward in enhancing my
career as an educator.
References:

Krashen, S. D. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Addison-Wesley Longman Limited.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition.

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