Celta Pre-Course Task

CELTA – Pre-course Task Section 1: Learners and Teachers, and the Teaching and Learning Context Task 1 1. Lessons in groups, multilingual groups, open groups, full time or part-time courses, learners with little or no previous formal education, mixed or similar ability groups, mixed gender groups, large or smaller classes, day or evening classes, teachers with English-speaking or non English-speaking background. 2. In any of the aforementioned in the pre-course task sheet contexts. Task 2 1.

The main reason that I decided to teach adults is that adults have made a conscious decision to learn a new language and they are not forced, compared to young learners, to do so. Thus they really want to learn the new language, whatever their motivation or personal reasons are, and they are determined to do their best. 2. •My previous experience of teaching to adults. •My previous experience of learning as an adult (university studies). •Awareness that each individual has his/her own learning style. . Adult learners are self-disciplined, motivated and determined to do their best. They also have their own learning style as well as experience they bring with them from previous learning. Finally they have their own specific goals and reasons for learning. Task 3 1. I would want to find out the reason they want to learn English (their motivation), their language level, as well as their interests and hobbies. 2. By asking them or giving them a questionnaire that I had prepared to fill out. Task 4

I believe that the most challenging learners would be the ones that their motivations for learning English involve gaining access to employment, studying and researching in English, passing public exams in an English-speaking country, living in an English-speaking country, career, status or job prospects and gaining citizenship. Task 5 I think that learners most often rate in the top five the following qualities: •has a sense of humor •is patient •gives clear information and feedback •inspires confidence / is enthusiastic and inspires enthusiasm •paces lessons to match the learners Section 2: Language Analysis and Awareness

Task 6 Associations with the word “Grammar”: system, language, every-day use, writing, speaking, analysis, complex, difficult, boring, essential, necessary, syntax, meaning. Task 7 1. Correct. 2. Incorrect. ? I went to the movies last night. 3. Incorrect. ? He often comes late. 4. Correct. 5. Incorrect. ? Can I have a black coffee, please? 6. Correct. Task 8 Teachers need to be able to help learners with their language and having explicit knowledge of language is necessary to do so. Knowing English Grammar is somehow a must. Through English Grammar, we can understand and be understood when speaking.

Using English correctly means that you can help the others understand you in a better way. If a learner produces an incorrect utterance, a teacher not only needs to give a correct model, but should also be able to say why the learner’s version was incorrect. So a teacher who does not know grammar would not be able to answer most of his students' questions. Task 9 (1)? pronoun (2)? indefinite article (3)? conjunction/linker (4)? adverb (5)? adjective (6)? (modal) verb (7)? pronoun (8)? preposition (9)? verb (10)? noun Task 10 1. Lexical 2. Lexical 3. Auxiliary 4. Auxiliary 5. Auxiliary 6.

Lexical Task 11 1. Lexical 2. Auxiliary 3. Auxiliary 4. Lexical 5. Lexical 6. Lexical 7. Auxiliary 8. Lexical Task 12 1.? C. 2.? E. 3.? B. 4.? A. 5.? D. Task 13 1. worked ? past tense form 2. seeing ? -ing form 3. lives ? 3rd person – present simple tense 4. try ? base form 5. handed ? past participle form Task 14 1. hear (heard – heard) ? irregular 2. think (thought – thought) ? irregular 3. go (went – gone) ? irregular 4. do (did – done) ? irregular 5. take (took – taken) ? irregular 6. drink (drank – drunk) ? irregular 7. help (helped – helped) ? regular 8. steal (stole – stolen) ? rregular 9. arrive (arrived – arrived) ? regular Task 15 1. past, progressive 2. modal, perfect 3. present, perfect 4. past, progressive, passive 5. past 6. future/(modal), progressive Task 16 1. Present Progressive 2. Past Simple 3. Present Simple 4. Past Perfect Simple 5. Present Simple, Passive Voice 6. Future Perfect 7. Past Simple / Past Progressive 8. Present Perfect Progressive Task 17 1. Time reference: past 2. Time reference: future (something that will be complete before a specific time in the future) 3. Time reference: past (emphasise the duration of an action, not the results) 4.

Time reference: present (emphasise the idea of hyposthesis) 5. Time reference: present (state) Task 18 •The auxiliary verb that is used to create the Present Progressive is the verb “be” (am, is, are). •The form of the lexical verb is the base form of the lexical verb plus the suffix –ing (lexical verb + -ing). Task 19 •Dialogue 1: future arrangement. •Dialogue 2: annoying action that happens very often. •Dialogue 3: although it is past, the present progressive is used as if the action is happening around the time of speaking (as part of a narration of a story). Task 20

The verbs in the examples are all (or have the meaning of) Stative Verbs. These verbs are not used in the continuous/progressive form because they describe states, not actions. So, all the examples are not correct. Task 21 Dictionaries can provide us with a lot of useful information such as: •Pronunciation •Stressing •Word Class •Regular or Irregular Verbs •Countable or Uncountable nouns •Examples of how the word is used in a sentence (context) •Derivatives Task 22 In the first sentence the error is the word “highest”. We do not use “high” to describe people, animals or plants.

So, the word “highest” must be replaced with the word “tallest”. In the second sentence the error is the word “enervated”. The register of the word “enervated” is highly elevated (formal) and cannot be used in an every-day, casual talk as the one in the example. Instead a more informal word such as “tired” should be used. In the third sentence the error is the word “pretentious”. The word “pretentious” has a negative connotation, so, it should not be used when we want to praise someone. Instead a more possitive word such as “impressive” should be used. In the fourth sentence the error is the word “slap”.

The word “slap” is not used in the correct context. It has a negative meaning so it cannot be used with the word “loving”. It should be replaced with the word “touch”. In the fifth sentence the error is the word “footing”. The semantic meaning is wrong. It should be replaced with any of the words: “walking”, “jogging”, “running”. Task 23 1. Not only was he nice, but he was also strikingly handsome. (Adverb – Adjective Collocation) 2. After he got up, he made his bed (Verb – Noun Collocation) and did some housework. (Verb – Noun Collocation) 3. It was absolutely fabulous! (Adverb – Adjective Collocation) 4.

They both really depend on each other. (Verb – Preposition Collocation) 5. Their farewell at the airport was highly emotional. (Adverb – Adjective Collocation) 6. She was caught in a vicious circle. (Adjective – Noun Collocation) Task 24 1. Stress ? B. giving emphasis to one syllable 2. Phoneme ? C. an individual sound 3. Intonation ? A. the music of our voices Task 25 1.? B. 2.? C. 3.? A. Task 26 1. There 2. South 3. Language 4. Peaceful 5. Young 6. Call 7. Search 8. Equation 9. Sugar Task 27 1. Guarantee 2. cavalry 3. Mechanisation 4. Language 5. Retreat 6. Speculative 7. Success 8. Balance 9.

Identity 10. Articulate Task 28 1. Photograph, photography, photographer, photographic Non-native speakers may experience problems with this “word family” because the stress changes syllable depending on the word and so the meaning of the word changes. 2. to record / a record to present / a present to increase / an increase to import / an import The verbs are stressed on the last syllable while the nouns are stressed on the first syllable. Task 29 Mother forget announce tonight notable mention patrol indicative Section 3: Language Skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing A. READING Task 30

Bus timetable: Read for specific information (bus stoppings) ? Scan Reading. Literature book: Intensive/detailed reading. Reading to infer. Newspaper: I read some articles to get the overall idea of the text (skim/gist reading) while some other articles that seemed more interesting I read them in detail (intensive/detailed reading). Task 31 1. An academic article we need to read for an essay we are writing. ? Reading to infer / Intensive/detailed reading 2. A telephone directory. ? Scan reading 3. The editorial of a newspaper on a topic we really care about a lot. ? intensive/detailed reading 4.

An advertisement for a job that might be suitable. ? Skim/gist reading Task 32 When people read in a language that is not their native they don’t feel confident and are afraid that they might miss a lot of important information if they don’t understand every single word in a text. The problem with this way of reading is first of all that it is tiring and time consuming. Secondly they don’t read in context but they just read words, so, the reading process and concentration is constantly interrupted since the urge of finding the unkown word overcomes the need of understanding the text as a whole.

It is also known that in a learning process there must be at least two unknown words every two sentences. Learners must try to understand the meaning of the unkown words from the context and use bilingual dictionaries only when the meaning of the unkown word is not obvious from the context. B. LISTENING Task 33 Non-native speakers might find listening more challenging than reading because: •They have problems with different accents, speech rhythm and the fast pace of native speakers’ talking •They try to understand every single word They get left behind trying to work out what a previous word meant •They don’t know important or key words •They don’t regognise the words they know •They are distracted by background noise Task 34 1. I was on a bus listening to two people talking about their flatmate. At first I tuned in and out of the conversation because it was funny but then I ignored it all together. 2. I listened to a talk show on TV. It was Stephen Fry’s show and because he is one of my favourite comedians I listened intensively. 3. I listened to a weather forecast. I wanted to find out what the weather would be in London.

I didn’t pay attention to most of it, I just concentrated and listened intensively when London weather came up. Task 35 1. A lecture for a course you are taking at university. ? Intensive Listening 2. A sales pitch for a computer that doesn’t really interest you. However, you are at work and you can’t just walk out. ? Skim/gist Listening 3. Announcements at a train station when you are waiting to to hear the time of the next train to your destination. ?Scan Listening 4. Instructions from your boss for a new task that is critical for your job. ? Intensive Listening 5.

An interview with someone who is famous and whose political opinion you would like to find out about. ? Listening to infer meaning 6. A radio programme on a topic that is mildly interesting for you. ? Skim/gist Listening. C. SPEAKING Task 36 I believe that this happens because learners are not exposed to an English-speaking environment. They only speak English at their foreign language schools and the rest of the time they speak at all occasions in their mother tongue. The more exposed learners are to the foreign language “input”, the more likely they are to produce the foreign language “output”.

Task 37 1. Could I please have a…? ? The student has not managed to communicate successfully. 2. You come my house tonight? ? The student has managed to communicate successfully. 3. Yesterday good time. Next week we see, no? ? The student has managed to communicate successfully. 4. A: How long have you been in New Zealand? B: I stay here 5 weeks. ? The student has not managed to communicate successfully. Task 38 1. You ask a colleague if s/he would mind helping you with something. ? Transactional 2. You offer to collect your neighbour’s mail while s/he is away on holiday. ? Transactional 3.

You comment on the weather on an acquaintance at a bus stop. ? Interactional 4. You visit a friend and spend time admiring and talking about his/her garden. ? Interactional 5. You participate in a university group tutorial that is useful for an essay you are writing. ? Transactional 6. You go out with your boss and other colleagues for a drink and a chat after work. ? Interactional Task 39 Speaking fluency practice could help learners’ language development. People should practise what they have learnt and not be afraid of making mistakes because mistakes is an integral part of the learning process. . Learning language items from other participants. Students learn through making mistakes. Some of the mistakes (the most important ones) must be monitored by the teacher and given as a later feedback. These mistakes should be initially corrected by the learners themselves and then by the teacher when/if needed. 2. The more students practise, the more fluent they get. 3. The more students practise and learn how to use new communication strategies, the better they can communicate and express their ideas. 4. Through speaking fluency practice students use grammar rules and new vocabulary.

D. WRITING Task 40 1. Includes gesture and facial expression to back up the message. (S) 2. Uses punctuation to make the content easier to understand. (W) 3. Includes hesitation devicesand fillers such as “yeah”, “umm”, “ah”, etc. (S) 4. The communicator usually gets immediate feedback from the person they are communicating eith. (S) 5. Is usually pre-prepared, although e-mailand text messages often are not. (W) 6. Uses pauses, stress and intonation to show where ideas begin and end. (S) 7. Is spontaneous and planning usually takes place in the moment of communicating. (S) 8.

Suggests that meaning is static in the communication, although open to interpretation. 9. The communicator may never find out what the person he is communicating with thinks of his message. (W) 10. Includes headlines, different type sizes and colours to enhance the content. (W) 11. Is usually smooth-flowing. (W) 12. Involves negotiation of meaning between the communicator and the person they are communicating with. (S) Task 41 1. She through the ball hard so it hurt when I court it. ? Spelling errors because of similar sounding words (threw – through). ? She threw the ball hard so it hurt when I caught it. . My brther livs in Swedn. ? The student has omitted the vowels. S/He has written the words as s/he hears them. Confusion about vowel sounds (maybe missing in L1). ? My brother lives in Sweden. 3. However, hard I try it never works. ? Wrong punctuation. The student confused however (adverb of manner) with however (conjunction/linker). ? However hard I try, it never works. 4. first of all he invited me to sit down after that he offered me a coffee I was very surprised by his politeness ? Lack of punctuation and use of capital letters. ? First of all, he invited me to sit down.

After that, he offered me a coffee. I was very surprised by his politeness. Task 42 1. The learners face difficulties such as : write from left to right, punctuation, capital-small letters, writing on the line, paragraphing. 2. I would organise writing workshops once a week for learners with writing difficulties, where we would concentrate on the practical issues of writing, such as: spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, etc, as well as on the creative part of writing. There would also be time for learners to receive responses to their writing from the teacher and their classmates.

Section 4: Planning and Resources A. Planning and Preparation Task 43 a. I’d like to smile more and create a btter rapport today. ? Personal aim b. Students _ Students in pairs. ? Interaction pattern c. By the end of the lesson students will be able to use a range of adjectives to describe someone’s personality. ? Lesson aims/learning outcomes d. Teacher hands out text and gives a different set of questions to each group. ? Procedure e. Some students may find the pronunciation of several words quite difficult. I must make sure I use a lot of repetition. Anticipated problems and solutions f. To get students interested in the topic of the listening text. ? Stage aim Task 44 Resource Can be used for 1. ? f. 2. ? g. 3. ? b. 4. ? e. 5. ? i. 6. ? h. 7. ? d. 8. ? c. 9. ? a. Section 5: Developing Teaching Skills and Professionalism A. Developing Teaching Skills Task 45 1. Jot that down. ? I believe that the difficulty occurred from the word “jot”. It is a word that may be unknown or cofusing. “Write that/it down” would be more appropriate. 2.

I wonder if you’d mind just looking at question number 4 and then if you could just answer it. ? Too “wordy”. Classroom language when giving instructions must be simple and accurate. “Look at question number 4 and answer it” or “Answer question number 4” would be more appropriate. 3. I’d like you to read the text on page 4 and answer the first three, then compare your answers with the persons next to you. After that, write a short summary of the story and discuss this with your partner. ? Too complicated and confusing. Learners must have had great difficulty in remembering what they had to do.

The instructions should be given one by one: Step 1: “Read the text on page 4 and answer the first three questions” (wait until they finish), Step 2: “Now compare your answers with the persons next to you” (wait until they finish), Step 3: “Write a short summary of the story”, (wait until they finish) Step 4: “Now, discuss the story/summary with your partner”. 4. Look at the question at the bottom of the page and think about an answer. ? Should the learners just “think” about the answer or actually answer the question? Task 46 1. “I don’t want to work in a group because I will only learn mistakes from other students. Group work is very important when you are learning a foreign language. You are using all the things you have learnt throughout the lesson and you are forced to speak in the language you are learning, even if you make mistakes. Mistakes are very important. We all make mistakes and we learn through them. The important thing is to be able to identify your mistakes or your classmates’ mistakes and correct them. How are you going to learn if you don’t make mistakes, identify mistakes, be exposed to group work and cooperate in the language learning? 2. “I wish you could translate more words into my language. I wish I could translate more words into your language too. But since I don’t speak your language you can look up the words you don’t know in the dictionary. 3. “Please don’t ask me to work with that student. I don’t like people from her country. ” That’s not a nice thing to say. There are good and bad people from every county in the world. You should not judge people by their race or their colour or their cultural background. You should only judge people by the content of their character. Go talk to her, try to get to know her better and you may find that you sympathise with her and have some things in common.

If you don’t like her character, that’s another thing. We don’t have to like all the people we meet. But at least you would have made an effort to cooperate with her and that’s really important because we are working as a group here, we have to help each other and work with each other. 4. “Could we just talk in class and not use any books? ” Of course we will talk in class and we will discuss lots of important and interesting things, but books are equally important. Books give us guidance of what we will learn, provide you with vocabulary and grammar rules and allow you to review at home. Without books learning would be impossible.

Task 47 First of all the students must have eye-contact, so, half of the chairs should be in front of the desks (for the students that want to ask information) and the rest should be behind the desks (for the students that play the role of the assistants). This way the arrangement of the chairs and desks would be just like in a real-life situation. Then each student that plays the role of the assistant will be given a photocopy with information about the computer courses, prices, hours and times and each of the students that wants to ask information will be given a photocopy with a different character and his/her needs.

Both will have a pad where they can write down anything that will help them agree a transaction. Additionally, the “assistants” will have a “form” where they will fill in their “clients” personal details if they agree a transaction. Problems that I could anticipate: Some students may come to an agreement and finish the gap role play too soon. Task 48 •Different Meanings 1. Slim/Thin ? Slim means well-figured while thin means not fat. I would also use flashcards or any other visual effects possible like photos from the internet or magazines. 2. To wink/ To blink ? I would mime winking and blinking.

I would also use any other videos found on the internet with people blinking and winking. 3. I used to get up early / I am used to getting up early. ? I used to get up early refers to the past, a habbit I had and don’t have any more. Now, I don’t get up early but as a child I used to get up early to go to school. I am used to getting up early refers to the present. I have the habbit of getting up early. I wake up early every day to go to work so, I am used to getting up early. 4. Nervous/upset. ? Nervous means anxious about something. Upset means sad. e. g. Crossing the street against traffic makes me nervous.

She was upset about her friend’s actions. I would also mime nervous and upset or ask my students to mime. 5. 4 weeks ago / 4 weeks before. ? “Ago” is used when talking about past times from the present moment (NOW). “Before” is used when talking about past timesfrom a time which is NOT the present moment (NOT NOW). e. g. We went to Spain 4 weeks ago. We went to Spain in June and my friend Bob went there 4 weeks before. •Different Pronounciation 6. I do it/ I’ll do it. ? First I would say the words slowly one by one and then I would say them faster and faster stressing the [l] sound in “I’ll do it” and ask my students to do the same.

First all together and then one by one to make sure they are pronouncing the expressions correctly. 7. Read (present tense)/ read (past tense). ? I would explain that we pronounce “read” in the present tense as [ri:d] and in the past tense [red] like the colour “red”, but we write them in the same way. Then, I would ask the students to repeat the sounds first all together, then one by one. 8. Put / putt. ? I would explain that “put” (with one “t”) is pronounced [put] while “putt” (with double “t”) is pronounced [pat]. I would highlight the pronounciation on the board and ask them to repeat the sounds first all together, then one by one. . Record (noun)/record(verb). ? I would write the words on the board and put a stress on the syllable where the word should be stressed if it is a noun or a verb. Then I would read the words beating out stress by clapping. After that I would ask my students to do the same thing first all together and the one by one. 10. Live (verb)/ live (something happening now). ? I would explain and highlight on board that “live” (verb) is pronounced [liv] while “live” (something happening now) is pronounced [laiv]. Then I would ask my students to tell me examples with “live”(verb) and “live”(something happening now). Task 49 1. Reading

I believe that in this activity the pre-reading activity was missing. The teacher merely explained that the text was about looking after the environment and then asked the students to read it out loud. I would add a pre-reading activity. Firstly, I would write all the unkown words on the board or I would make a list with any unknown words, hand it out to the students and briefly study all these words together. Then, I would ask them some questions about looking out the environment (what can we do, what do they do, what society/government should do) and then I would hand out the text and proceed to the rest of the activity. . Speaking Again the pre-speaking activity was missing. The students were not given any ideas beforehand in order to be able to discuss the topic. So, I would add a pre-speaking activity. I would write the topic on the board and then seprate the board in half with a marker and on the one half I would write “prons” and on the other half I would write “cons”. Then I would ask my students to tell me the “prons” and the “cons” of living in the city and I would write them down for all to see.

Alternally, I could bring them a photocopy with all the “prons” and “cons” of “living in the city”, hand it out to them, ask them to study it for a minute and the proceed to the rest of the activity. Task 50 I believe that all of the qualities mentioned in the pre-course task sheet are really important to form a teacher’s professionalism. Teachers work as role models for learners no matter their age, so every single detail matters. On the other hand I heartily believe that teachers should not be “homogenised” and lose themselves in this uniformity that is promoted. They have to be authentic and reflective.