Case Study: CUP between L1 and L2

Article history Received: 16 July 2019 Revised: 22 July 2019 Accepted: 21 October 2019 Published Online: 31 October 2019 This case study project explores the English language learning process of a student named Abby*(name changed for con dentiality), an adult beginning learner studied at Abram Friedman Occupational Center (AFOC). The paper focuses on analyzing under the theoretical concept of Common Underlying Pro ciency model (CUP), especially the language transfer with the data collected from ten weeks of observation, interview with the case study student and her teacher, the chat with her classmates, and the samples of the student’s work. Data is acquired from the community, school, and classroom, to include all related factor that may in uence and re ect the relationship between the student’s first language (L1) Spanish and her second language (L2) English. The paper intends to analyze the L1 of the case study student plays a positive role during the process of learning English via three sub-claims. Finally, the paper provides recommendations to support the student to use her L1 to promote English learning comprehensively and end with re ections on the case study process.