M01 — Understand the learner
Understand learners
Module outcome: identify a teachable goal from a learner profile. Diagnose one adult learner’s reading and writing needs, identify access barriers, and turn what you observe into goals you can verify. Every later module assumes you know your learner’s real barrier because you observed it here, not because a test printed a number.
Prerequisites: none. This is the entry point. Planned module budget: about 16 of the 200 activity hours. Built today: two complete sample units, versions 0.1.0, pending educator review.
M01-U01 · Diagnose reading needs
Complete sample, version 0.1.0. Open the unit.
Run a 15-minute reading diagnosis with one adult. Separate decoding, vocabulary, comprehension and print literacy, then name the single barrier that explains the results, supported by at least two observations.
Evidence to keep: a learner profile with observed evidence.
M01-U02 · Diagnose writing needs
Specification. The unit page does not exist yet.
Planned content: compare planning, sentence formation, spelling and communication using a short written message, and ask the learner about purposes and previous schooling. Evidence to keep: a writing sample annotated by difficulty.
M01-U03 · Identify access barriers
Specification. The unit page does not exist yet.
Planned content: test keyboard, screen, print and audio routes to the same task, ask about preferences, and do not infer disability or attention from age. Evidence to keep: an access plan that preserves the outcome.
M01-U04 · Set learning goals
Complete sample, version 0.1.0. Open the unit.
Turn one observed difficulty into two goals your learner can act on and you can verify, each with a baseline task. Write goals as tasks, not as levels.
Evidence to keep: two goals and a baseline task.
Game · Guess my English
Needs analysis as a game, playable in 10 minutes with one printed sheet. Pairs. Each player writes six predictions about their partner’s English life: where the partner reads English, who they write to, what they last said at work, what they avoid. Then each asks the six questions and records the real answers. One point per correct prediction.
The trainee’s job is not the score. It is the answer column. Each real answer is a piece of needs evidence: the receptionist who reads booking confirmations weekly but never speaks has a different first goal from the colleague who takes calls all day. Run the game in French or Creole if the learner’s English is too low. The information matters more than the language of the interview.
Format adapted from the quiz-and-questionnaire genre in Speaking Personally: Quizzes and Questionnaires.
Play it now: guess my English
Three real profiles from R\u00e9union workplaces. Before each reveal, six predictions: how much English does this person need, where, with whom, and what breaks first? Guess, then see the actual needs summary. The score matters less than the pattern in your wrong guesses. No timer.
The classroom version with profile cards is above.
Interactive version built for this course; original design, as stated on this page.
How to work through this module
Do U01 first and keep the completed profile. It gives you the observed difficulty that U04 turns into goals. Use the U02 and U03 specifications as evidence checklists until those units are built: they tell you what to collect, not yet how to teach it.
Sources and review status
Source anchors C1, D2 and R9 in the evidence register. No source certifies this module as a validated assessment. Educator review pending. Found an error? Use the contact page; corrections are logged publicly.
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