Case Study 4 SOLOM Analysis

Comprehension 4

Pom scored a 4 on comprehension because she was able to understand nearly everything I said at normal speed, and she was able to elaborate on most of my questions. However, Pom was a little confused when I asked her "Does anything make you homesick?" Her response was "All the time," which implies that she thought I said "Do you ever get homesick?" Other than this small comprehension error, Pom had great comprehension ability.

Fluency 4

Pom scored a 4 on fluency because her speech was generally fluent with occasional lapses while she searched for the correct expression. When I asked her about her understanding of American music, she became excited, her voice grew louder, and she was briefly at a loss for words. She had a bit of a problem expressing that she has a difficult time understanding the lyrics in hip hop music. I think this was mainly due to her level of excitement, and she probably had too many thoughts to let out at once. Another instance was when I asked her about who she prefers speaking with-English speakers or Thai speakers. Her response was "I don't have much-many chance to choose..." She caught herself using the wrong word and was quickly able to correct herself. With a little more practice, I think Pom could be at a level 5 because she can elaborate on most questions she is asked.

Vocabulary 4.5

I gave Pom a score of 4.5 on vocabulary because she used a nice variety of words throughout our conversation. Some of the words she used were: individualistic, competition, especially, misunderstand, destroy, and prefer. She even used some American slang, like 'hey dude,' 'What's up man?,' and 'kicked-out.' Pom's vocabulary is probably just as good as most college students.

Pronunciation 4

Pom has already admitted she's self conscious about her accent. She isn't able to pronounce every word as well as a native English speaker, but her speech is intelligible most of the time. She has a difficult time pronouncing the 'th' sound in words like 'thirty' and 'three.' She says 'thirty' like 'turdy' and 'three' like 'tree.' She often leaves off the plural 's' on words as well. She said " When his sister come to visit" instead of "comes to visit" and "close to Hollywood movie" instead of "movies." This didn't impede my understanding of what she was saying, but it did affect her pronunciation of the words.

Grammar 4

Although Pom's grammar is not perfect, I was able to understand what she was trying to say. She makes little mistakes in her speech that don't necessarily affect one's understanding of what she's trying to say, but also isn't how a native English speaker would speak. Pom even admits that it isn't very often when someone will correct her mistakes; only her boyfriend will on occasion. Instead of saying "It's the same as here", Pom says "It's same here." Another frequent mistake was she would'nt use the past tense form of verbs. She said "Greg post something" instead of "posted." She also needs to practice contractions. When she was telling me about living at home she said, "Even you married you still live in their house" instead of "Even if you're married..."

Pom's total score was 20.5, which would place her as "limited English proficient."