Assignment 01 samples

06 examples

CELTA Assignment 1 example

I’ve been waiting here for two hours.

1. Meaning

I was waiting here 2 hours ago.

I am still waiting here.

2. Form

Subject + have/has + past participle (been) + present participle

3. Pronunciation

Contraction of I and have. Been has a short /i/. Stress on ‘/Wei/’ in waiting.

4. Eliciting

Show picture 1 of a man standing with a clock above his head. The time is 12pm. 

Show picture 2 of the man still standing but the clock now says 2pm and he looks 

unhappy while looking at his watch. Ask – What is he doing? He’s waiting.

How long for? 2 hours.

Is he still waiting? Yes

To elicit – “so give me a sentence, I....”

5. Concept Questions

Was he waiting 2 hours ago? Yes

Is he still waiting now? Yes

6. Anticipated Difficulties + Solutions

Form: Subject +have/has + past participle (been) + present participle. Students 

might say I has or he have. They may say “I’m waiting for 2 hours”. They may say 

“wait” instead of “waiting”. Solution: Drill. Highlight form on whiteboard.

Phonology: Students might wrongly pronounce been by extending the “ee”. /i:/ rather 

than /i/. Students might not use the contraction I’ve, you’ve, he’s etc. Students might 

put stress on wrong syllables. Solution: Drill and model on fingers, write phonemes 

on whiteboard.

Concept: Students might think “waiting” only refers to something that happens now. 

Solution: Draw timeline on whiteboard

It suits you -versus- It fits you

1. Meaning

Suits:

It looks good on you.

You and the item go well together.

Fits:

It’s not too small for you.

It’s not too big for you

It’s the right size for you.

It’s the right shape for you.

2. Form

(For both) Subject + present simple +s + Object

3. Pronunciation

Fits – Stress on whole word.

Suits – ui sounds like /u:/.

4. Eliciting

Fits:

Show students a picture of a man wearing clothes which are too small for him. Ask –

Are the clothes too big or small for him? Yes

Show students a picture of a man...

CELTA ASSIGNMENT 1

LANGUAGE-RELATED TASK

1st pair of sentences:

1a) She’s lived there for years.

1b) She lived there for years.

Form:

1a)’s conventional grammar term is ‘present perfect’, and its constituent parts are: 

subject + auxiliary verb has (conjugated here for ‘She’ i.e. has) + _____ed (i.e. past 

participle)

1b)’s conventional grammar term is ‘past simple’, and its constituent parts are: 

subject + ______ ed (i.e. past tense)

The meaning of 1a) is that ‘she’ lived ‘there’ in the past, she lives there now, and 

she will presumably be living there for some indeterminable time in the future, 

whereas the meaning of 1b) is that ‘she’ lived ‘there’ in the past, for some years, and 

is not living there now.

Generative context

An estate agent, after showing somebody around a house.

This could be just a dialogue on a CD, a video or on paper, with pictures:

Interested party A) So, when was the last time someone lived there then?

Estate agent B) Hmmmmm, well, it was lived in briefly a couple of years ago by a 

mother and her young son, but before that, well that takes us back a few years…. 

From 1976 there was a lady - she lived there for years.

It’s a lot to take on – there’s a lot of improvements to be made… Do you know 

anything about the neighbours?

Well there’s a lovely family next door that side… they’ve only lived here for a year or 

two, but in that house there, (points) there’s an old chap – he’s lived there for 

years…

Anticipated problems with form

• The contractions of ‘has’ to ‘s and ‘have’ to ‘ve in the present perfect maybe 

difficult for learners to deal with, therefore they may avoid using them, consequently 

appearing too formal. • Irregular verbs.

…with meaning

• The different times present perfect is used, and the meanings it can infer.

• With the past simple, the meaning is more straightforward, but deciding which of 

the two to use may cause problems therefore..

05 example

CELTA WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1 - Language Related Task

1. The plane leaves at 10.00 tomorrow.

a) The present simple + time marker.

Subject + verb in present simple tense + time marker.

b) Talking about a scheduled future event.

c)

 • Students may have difficulty understanding the concept that this is talking about a future event, as the present tense is used. • Students may have difficulty when pronouncing “tomorrow”, esp. the weak form at the beginning of the word: tomorrow. • Students may struggle pronouncing the weak form in “the” and “at”.

d) A businessman needing to book a last-minute flight for an urgent meeting.

e) Has the event already taken place? (No)

 When is it? (The future) 

What is happening at 10.00? (The plane leaves)

How does the businessman know? (He booked the flight, he was told the schedule)

2. If I had a lot of money, I’d buy a boat.

 a) The past and present tenses together with the second conditional. If + subject + past simple + noun, + modal verb (would) + verb in the present + noun. 

b) Talking about a hypothetical event in the present.

c)

 • Students may have difficulty with understanding the hypothetical context. • Students may struggle with the pronunciation of the contracted form of the verb “I’d”. • Students may have difficulty grasping the different forms of the conditional (Zero, first, second and third). • Students may use an incorrect tense in the ‘result’ part of the sentence. E.g. If I had a lot of money, I’ll buy a boat. If I had a lot of money, I’d have bought a boat. • Students may have difficulty with pronouncing the weak forms in “I”, “a”, “of”. d) Somebody talking to his friends about playing/doing the lottery. 

e) Did he have a lot of money? (No) 

Does he have a lot of money now? (No). 

Did he buy a boat? (No) 

Why? (doesn’t he buy a boat?) (He...

04 example

This assignment focuses on your ability to identify the significant features of the form, phonology, meaning and use of language items and the use of relevant information from reference materials.

Analyse the following language items:

NB Target language is underlined; where the examples are paired, you will need to contrast them.

1. I was going to phone you yesterday, but I forgot.

2. She must have gone home by now.

3. Open the window, will you?

I wonder if you’d mind opening the window.

4. She’s phoned 3 times today.

She phoned 3 times today.

5. A stranger

A foreigner

Include the following in your analysis:

1. Generative context

2. Meaning

3. Form

4. Phonemic transcription, an indication of stress and comments on pronunciation

5. Concept checking questions (with answers), and, where appropriate, time lines, diagrams, pictures, etc

This assignment should be written / word-processed on the table provided. An electronic version is available from ISE Reception, on request. The assignment should be error free and 750 – 1,000 words in length. It must be submitted complete with marking grid(s).

Please see the next page for an example.

CELTA Language related assignment.  Example

She shouldn’t have walked home alone

1. Generative Context A woman student in Brighton walked home by herself late at night and was mugged.  She was carrying a lot of cash, didn’t tell her friends she was leaving the club and walked down some dark steps.  The next day I criticised her actions.

2. Meaning 

We use this form to express a critical attitude towards the past actions of someone else. (Advice after the event – Rosemary Aitken – Teaching Tenses – p. 138)

3. Form

(subject) + should (+ not)  + have  + past participle 

4. Phonemic transcription, including marking the main stressed syllables

(Longman dictionary of contemporary English)

Particular attention needs to be paid to the weak form of “have” and, possibly there may need to be some revision of the various pronunciations of the “ed” ending of the past participle

5. Concept checking questions (with answers), and, where appropriate, time lines, diagrams, pictures, etc

Did she go home by herself?                                    Yes

Was it dangerous?                                                   Maybe

Was it a good idea?                                                 No

Am I criticising her?                                                Yes

Am I talking about the past or the future?            The past

03 example

1. Model sentence: You shouldn’t have told her!

Analysis of Meaning:

We are using modal verb ‘should’ to give advice or to express something that is necessary/unnecessary. 

Context:

Two friends Bob and John are talking about the last night’s dinner at Bob’s house. His mother made her favourite dish, a vegetarian lasagne. When asked how it was, John told her that it was a bit too dry and overdone. “You shouldn’t have told her! It made my mom really sad.” – said, Bob. 

Checking Meaning: 

Ask students if John told Bob’s mother that lasagne was good. (Yes)

Was this a nice thing to say? (No)

Show examples of giving advice:

“You should stop smoking”

“You shouldn’t drive too fast”

Form:

Modal verb ‘should’ is used to offer advice and express something that is necessary or unnecessary. 

Phonology:

I would need to help students with the stress on “shouldn’t” and “told” as these carry the meaning of the sentence.

2. Model sentence: “I’ll have finished the project by Friday.” 

Analysis of Meaning:

Future Present Perfect is used to express the action which has started sometime in the past, it is still going on now, and it will end at some point in future. We do not know when the action started but we DO know when it will end.

Context:

I started writing my homework last Friday at 8pm. I am still working on it because it is long, and I will finish it by Tuesday morning at 8am. 

Checking Meaning: 

Did I start writing my homework last Friday? (Yes)

Am I still writing my homework? (Yes)

Will I finish my homework on Tuesday at 8? (Yes)

Will I finish my homework on Monday? (No)

Form:

I    will   have     finished        the project by Friday. 

      will + have    + past participle

Phonology:

To help students with to stress will have and proper pronunciation of finished(d)

3. Model sentence: “John ran out of money.” 

Analysis of Meaning:

We are using a phrasal verb construction to indicate that John has spent all his money and that he no longer has any. 

Context:

Two friends go out for a dinner together. One of them spends all his money to pay for food and drinks. He does not have money to pay for taxi to go home. 

 

Checking Meaning: 

Did John walk/rush out of a restaurant? (No)

Did John pay for the dinner? (Yes)

Does John has any money? (No)

Ask students if John can pay for a taxi home? (No)

Form:

Phrasal verbs are idiomatic expressions which consist of a verb+preposition. Their individual parts have one meaning but put together they form another meaning – different from their individual parts. The verb “run” means to move fast while “out” is opposite of in. The phrase ‘run out’ means that you have no more of something. 

Phonology:

I would need to help students stress ‘ran’ and ‘money’. Also, I would have them pronounce ran out as one word ranout. 

4. Model sentence: “I had my car repaired.” 

Analysis of Meaning:

In this example we are using the causative to show the proper grammatical structure when we want to show when a person or a thing causes another thing or person to do something. This particular causative is in a passive form. 

Context:

I think I will have my windows fixed. 

I think I will have Rob fix my windows. 

In the first example we are not naming a person who will do the fixing (passive form) while in the second example we do, Rob. (active form)

Checking Meaning: 

Did I fix the car myself? (No)

Did I have someone else fix my car for me? (Yes)

Do we know who fixed my car? (No)

Form:

Causatives can be either in passive or active voice:

The active:

Subject

Causative verb

Agent

Action verb

Object

My teacher

         had 

me

     redo 

my assignment.

The passive:

Subject

 Causative verb

Object

Action verb

      I 

       had 

my hair 

   cut. 

Notice that in the passive form there is no agent!

Phonology:

I would have to point them out to pronunciation of car and repaired; only one ‘r’ should be pronounced thereby linking the target words into one – careparied – with an emphasis on a bit longer ‘r’. 

5. Model sentence: “I don’t mind working late.” 

Analysis of Meaning:

We are using Present Simple + Verbal (Gerund) to express a habit or a generalisation. In this case the speaker is saying that he often works late and that it is not a problem for him. 

Context:

I work at the bank. My work hours are 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. However, my boss asked me to stay longer on Tuesday and on Friday. I worked till 7 in the evening, which was all right with me. I do not have a problem with that. 

Checking Meaning: 

Did I work after 5 o’clock on Tuesday and Friday? (Yes)

Do I have a problem with that? (No)

If my boss asks me again to work late will I do it? (Yes)

Form:

I don’t  mind  working late. 

   verb        +         gerund

Gerund is a verb used as a noun. Verb+ing=gerund. 

Phonology:

I would point the students to stress don’t and to the fact that often in colloquial speech ‘t’ is often lost. 

02 model for giving instructions on Assignment 01

ASSIGNMENT 1

LANGUAGE RELATED TASKS

Candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

a) analysing language correctly for teaching purposes

b) correctly using terminology relating to form, meaning and phonology when analysing language

c) accessing reference materials and referencing information they have learned about language to an appropriate source

d) using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task

Length: 750 - 1,000 words 

This assignment follows on directly from the input sessions on Phonology, Language Awareness and Planning. It will help you with the practical task of completing Lesson Plans for TP, that is, when you are preparing to teach a lesson involving new language items you will need to include something similar on your language analysis sheet.

To pass this assignment, you must have no more than four major errors in your description of form, meaning and phonology. Please write you word count on your assignment.

Task

Analyse each of the underlined language items below, using these headings and following the format overleaf.

1.     Contexts/situations for presentation; create a context to illustrate the meaning.

2.     Characteristics   i) Meaning: the essential elements

                                  ii) Form: use appropriate labels

                                  iii) Pronunciation: think about how a native speaker would say the                    

                                      sentence and identify any phonological features of the target language

3.     Check understanding; use concept questions and devise timelines when appropriate.

Language Items 

a) I’ll be lying on the beach this time next week. (Intermediate)

b) There’s the bell. It must be the postman. (Intermediate)

c) I remembered to lock the door vs I remember locking the door. (Upper Intermediate)

d) Would you mind opening the window? (Intermediate)

e) That child is spoilt. (Pre-Intermediate)

Example

Target Language: She used to go on holiday with her family (but now )

Level: Pre-intermediate

1.  Context

I'd describe a Shirley Valentine character, using a magazine picture of a tropical paradise to show where she goes on holiday now. I would draw two pictures, one of the character in 1990, with husband and children in Blackpool, the second of her this year, lying in a hammock under a palm tree with friends. I would then try to elicit the target sentence.

2.  Characteristics

i) Meaning:       Different from the Past Simple – repeated 

      activity not a single action and no longer true

ii) Form: She (subject pronoun) + used to + bare infinitive 

Did she use_ to + infinitive? 

She didn't use_ to + infinitive

iii) Pronunciation:       She used to go. /ʃɪjuːstəgəʊ/

Weak form of 'to' /tə/

The ’d’ of 'used' is not pronounced

Main stresses on `used' and `family'

3.  Concept checking questions

Teacher Students

Is this sentence about now or the past? The past

Who did she go on holiday with? Her family

One time or many times? Many times

Does she go with them now? No

Who does she go with? Her friends

Recommended Reference Books 

● Practical English Usage, Michael Swan, OUP 

● How English Works, Michael Swan and Catherine Walter, OUP

● English Pronunciation Illustrated, John Trim, CUP 

● Sound Foundations, Adrian Underhill, Macmillan ELT 

● The Good Grammar Book, Michael Swan and Catherine Walter OUP 

● Teaching English Pronunciation, Joanne Kenworthy, Longman

● Headway Upper Intermediate Pronunciation  Bill Bower and Sarah Cunningham OUP (i –xi) 

Example 01

 CELTA P/T

Karolina Szybinska

Assignment 2: Language Related Tasks

1. He hesitated before jumping.

a. CONTEXT.

Introduce a context by getting the students to talk with their partners for

2 minutes about the things they are scared of and afraid to do. Group

feedback. Then, show them a short clip from a MacGyver series. MacGyver

will be known to European students as a maverick spy who can build

anything out of nothing, but who is afraid of heights. In the episode he

flies a hot air balloon and needs to jump off it when the balloon is

damaged. Get students to talk to their partner about MacGyver, in

particular what he’s fears are. Get them to tell you what happened in the

scene. Elicit: He hesitated before jumping.

b. CCQs. 

• Did he jump? (yes)

• Did he wait before jumping? (yes)

• Was it a long wait? (no)

• Was it before he was scared? (most probably yes)

a. FORM.

Subject + verb + past form (+ time adverbial+ verb+ ing)

2. I’m meeting Peter for lunch on Saturday.

Assignment 2

CELTA P/T 

Karolina Szybinska 1

a. CONTEXT. 

b. CCQs:

• Are we talking about present or future? (future)

• Am I planning to stay at home on Saturday? (possibly, but most

likely not)

• Am I going to have lunch on my own? (no)

• Did I plan this or is it a spontaneous decision? (planned)

a. FORM.

Subject + to be (1st person singular) + verb+ ing + object (+ preposition +

object+ adverbial of time)

Assignment 2

CELTA P/T 

Karolina Szybinska

September 19th 2014 Assignment 1

Assignment 3 examples

Example 01

The text that the lesson I am going to describe is based on is the biography of the British actress, Helen Mirren. It is an 

authentic text with the only function of giving factual information about the artist without expressing the writer's opinion.

Using a piece of material printed from Internet might remarkably boost students' confidence. 

Internet is used daily by lots of people all around the world and most of the information it provides is in English. An article 

like this biography is a kind of text students might want to read understand in real life. As Monreal claims:

"The use of authentic material motivates the students for several reasons:

- it offers variety and a break from the text book;

- it gives them the challenge of understanding 'real' English;

- students get a glimpse of the country and are prepared to cope with such materials if they visit Britain or the U.S.".

The topic of the article is suitable for adult learners also because the actress is part of the target culture. 

However, it may not be interesting enough for everybody in the class not only because it contains dry facts only, but also 

because students - who probably have not been living in the target community for a long time considering their level - might 

not know the actress.

according to Grellet "...one should start with global understanding and move towards detailed understanding rather than 

working the other way round". I tried to exploit this piece of reading material in the best way bearing this gradual approach

in mind.

I) A good way of establishing the context of the lesson would be a dynamic warmer activity using famous actors' names and 

film titles. Each student would be given a card either with the name of a film star (e.g. Marlon Brando, Julia Roberts etc.) or 

the title of the most famous film they starred in (e.g. The Godfather, Pretty Woman etc.) and should move around to find 

the person with the matching card. Once they find their partners, they would be given 3 minutes to tell each other what they 

know about the actor and the film.

I think this activity would be a good starting point for several reasons: it sets the general topic of the lesson, it activates 

students' knowledge about it and as it includes movement, it "wakes up" tired or passive students. Moreover, it is a good way 

of forming pairs for the following activities.

2) The next step would bring the class closer to the subject of the main activity of the lesson but without seeing the text. I 

would show students a photo of Helen Mirren taken from her most famous film "The Queen" without telling them anything 

about her. I would use the technique of eliciting to discover what students know about the actress. I would also ask them to 

imagine and predict some information about Mirren such as her nationality, the roles that she might have played and so on.

3)At this point I would hand out the text. Before the lesson I would prepare two versions of the article(A and B) with some 

missing words in each version, but students should not focus on the gaps at this stage of the lesson. Before reading the text I 

would tell the class to discuss in pairs what they expect the text to be about. For example they should understand that it is

the actress's biography. If they could not recognise her before, they could learn her name. The layout of the page should 

help students understand that the article comes from a website. On the basis of these ideas they should be able to predict 

what kind of information they will learn from the text (e.g. childhood, family, studies, career, roles etc.).

I think getting students to predict what the article is about is particularly useful because it helps them get familiar with the 

text and it can facilitate its comprehension.

4) Regarding the vocabulary contained in the article I would not consider it particularly difficult for intermediate learner. 

Most of the key vocabulary is related to acting such as 'auditioned', 'role', 'joined', 'performed', 'award' and 'stage' and I think 

students should be encouraged to figure the meanings out from the context whenever possible. If needed, I might use short 

defnitions and examples to clarify meanings. Meaning Check Questions might be useful as well:

role: "Did Helen Mirren play Cleopatra? Yes."

"Is Anthony and Cleopatra a role? No."

"Is Cleopatra a role? Yes."

joined: "Was Helen Mirren a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company before 1966?No."

"Did she become a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966? Yes."

Comprehension difficulties might emerge in relation to the titles the article is full of (e.g. revenger, seagull, faith healer, 

roaring, madness).

They are not essential to understand the article because most of the titles might be unknown in any language to people who 

do not have a particular interest in theatre. For this reason I would not spend time on pre-teaching them, but I would 

simply give students a glossary with short definitions.

5) The first reading task would be a skimming activity. I would set a time limit of 1 minute to skim the text without worrying 

about the gaps. Students should check if their predictions were correct and understand the general meaning of the text 

without focusing on details.

6) The second reading would be a pair work activity. In each pair one student would have text A and the other one text B. 

They should fill in the gaps by asking each other questions. For example:

A: "When was Helen Mirren born?"

B: "She was born on the 26th of July 1945."

B:"How old was she when she auditioned and was accepted for the National Youth Theatre?"

A:"She was 18."

The aim of this task is to practice scan reading. In order to answer their partner's questions students have to find specific 

information in the text.

7) Now that students the complete biography, another reading task would follow, this time for detail. I would give students 6 

titles, each one describing a paragraph of the article. The titles might be the following:

- Helen Mirren's early years;

- Her first steps on stage;

- Shakespeare and looking for success overseas;

- Back to Shakespeare - "Queen" for the first time;

- Two decades of growing success;

- "The Queen" of the cinema;

Matching the paragraphs with the most appopriate title requires a more careful reading and a full comprehension of the 

contents.

8) The last stage of the lesson would involve speaking. A suitable activity to provide learners with free oral practice based on 

the biography is role-play in pairs. In each pair one of the students would be a journalist working for a magazine. The other 

person might play the role of Helen Mirren, or if some students have a particular passion for cinema, they might also 

choose another film star they know well. After spending about 10 minutes on preparing realistic questions and aswers, the 

interviews might be acted out in front of the class. Depending on the students' personality and "spirit of adventure", it might 

be a funny way of ending the lesson.

Bibliography

- Grellet, F. (1999). Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

- Montreal, M.E. (1983). "Authentic Reading Materials." Modern English Teacher"

- Robertson, C. - Acklam, R. (2000). Action Plan for Teachers.

London: BBC World Service.

Section 2 - Language Analisys

Grammar item: already

"When she was 20 she already had the role of Cleopatra in NYT's Anthony and Cleopatra."

1) a time adverb.

2) a mother gets home from work and sees her son playing videogames.

She asks: "Why aren't you doing your homework?" He replies: "I've already done it."

3) Used with the Present Perfect refers to an action that happened sooner than expected. Used with the Present Simple and 

Past Simple it emphasizes that a situation exists now or existed at a certain moment in the past.

4) CCQs:

Did Helen Mirren play the role of Cleopatra when she was 20? No.

Did she play the role of Cleopatra when she was younger than 20?

Yes.

Do we know when?No.

Is the fact that she played Cleopatra before she was 20 unexpected or unusual? Yes

5) A Timeline:

PAST Future

_____X________X_________________________________________________________________________________

________

/examples Category: Pronunciation

Problem area: Individual Sounds

Felipe’s most predominant pronunciation error occurs when encountering /ð/. He

generally pronounces it as /d/. The converse error also occurs, but not as frequently.

Examples:

Incorrect pronunciation:

Other /ˈʌ d.ər/ Then /den/ Bad /bæ ð/

Correct pronunciation:

/ˈʌ ð.ər/

/ ð en/

/bæd/

Why?

Felipe’s predominant error (replacing / ð / with/d/) has not been mentioned by

Kenworthy (1987), Kelly (2000) nor Coe (1987). However, Kenworthy (1987) has pointed out Spanish-speakers may

replace /d/ with / ð /. According to Coe (1987), / ð /

is not a phoneme or a near-phoneme in Spanish (particularly in Latin-American

versions of the language in which /θ/ is not customary).

Strategies

- The sound and pronunciation of /d/ and / ð / need to be compared and contrasted. For example, Kenworthy

(1987) has suggested drawing students’

attention to “the definite contact between tongue and roof of the mouth needed

as a starting position for /d/, and the sound’s quick release”.

- Underhill (1994) has suggested using pocket mirrors to draw learners’ attention to phoneme-related mouth 

movements. Being a visual learner, Felipe might

benefit from this (and/or diagrams, Underhill, 1994).

- Words containing the target phonemes could be the focus of a game of dominoes3

, for example, matching /d/, / ð/ 

and / θ/

Example 02

Gayatri Krishnan

CELTA-June 2013

Assignment 3: Skills-Related

Part1: Justification of material choice

For this Skills-related assignment, my choice of authentic reading material is “Few Places with Better Stories”. from Asian Geographic magazine (no 78 issue 1/2011, pages 30 and 35). As this magazine is widely read and it is also a popular TV channel, the students will be able to relate to it easily. I decided to use this article as I think it is appropriate for English Language learners at the Intermediate level. The article deals with photography which can be a hobby or passion for many adult learners and hence they can identify with the author. It is also biographical, as the author narrates his experiences, thus the reader can bond with the narrator. This topic has a universal appeal and is not culturally biased. The article also has contemporary relevance as the author blends photography with nature, as the world is desperate to conserve it. “One test for useful reading might be to check how far tasks reflect real life uses of the same text. If a text is used in class in ways that are reasonably similar to real life, it is likely that the task will be effective” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Jims Scrivener, Macmillan)

But, most of all, this entire article is perfect for a reading activity, as the topic enables great discussions/productive skill extensions.  

Part 2: Receptive skill task design 

Lead In:

I think a good starting point for this lesson would be playing a clip of underwater life from National Geographic archive.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSlFsbrUz2Q

Students are familiar with underwater life and the clip will help to set the context and situation. Students could first discuss with partners how they feel about the underwater photography. After eliciting some opinions and feelings, ask some additional, personalised questions like:

 “Have you seen underwater world at Sentosa?” 

“Would you like be an underwater photographer?”

“Would you like to go on an underwater expedition with the National Geographic team?”

Teacher elicits responses to set the context further.

Although there are plenty of new vocabulary items in the article, I think students would not have any significant difficulties in grasping the overall meaning of the text. I agree with Jeremy Harmer with reference to pre-teaching: “by giving them some or all those words we deny them (a chance to practice tackling authentic texts)” (Harmer -203). In my perspective, students learn new words with reference to context which will enable them to grasp the word well. In this article, I would pre-teach key vocabulary, such as:

• photo-journalist

• decade

• motivate

• to fall in love

I would convey the meaning for the above words with the help of visuals, and CCQs. The rest of the vocabulary issues (which does not impede the set tasks) can be dealt with matching words with meaning or synonyms at the pre-reading stage.

I would use this article to practise skim reading. Though the article is lengthy, the first paragraph throws enough insight about the author. This enables a gist reading.

The gist reading task – 30 seconds: Appendix B

I would remind the students that gist reading is a skill that requires quick reading and ability to choose important information. “Skimming=Reading quickly for gist of a passage. A typical skimming task would be a general question from the teacher...” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Jims Scrivener, Macmillan)

Feedback: 1minute

A lesson without feedback “is teaching that proceeds forward without reference to what impact this is having on the learner’...” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Jims Scrivener, Macmillan)

For specific reading task or scanning skill, I would use a simple set of questions- 5 minutes (reading and answering): Appendix B. “You probably want tasks that encourage students to search for specific small sections of text which they can read more carefully to find a required piece of information……..Students doing this will be reading the material in a similar way to how people might read it in everyday life.” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Jims Scrivener, Macmillan)

For both the scan and skim reading activities, student would do a pair check of their answers before the teacher does feedback. 

The teacher flashes the answers for the gist reading on the screen (OHP) and for the scanning task, individual students could volunteer to discuss the answers. At this stage the teacher can feedback on how the students located the answers (sequence of information in the paragraphs, lead words, context etc).

“ A common scanning activity is searching for information….Although scanning is involved with finding individual points from the text….the way the reader finds the information involves some degree of processing of the overall shape and structure of the text…” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Jims Scrivener, Macmillan)

Part 3: Productive skill task design

I would use a writing task for productive skill. As the students have read about underwater life, I would set a guided task to write about the topic: 

“Your thoughts and feelings of underwater world”

 (Students are expected to write five sentences)

• Photos and pictures of marine life will be pasted around the classroom. Each picture/photo will carry a description/key words.

• Students will do a gallery walk, with a pen and a paper, to note the details and description they would like to use.

• They will return to their seats to write five sentences about underwater life and their feeling/sentiments.

• This task is for 15 minutes 

• At the end of the task, the writing from students will be pasted on the white board and the students can read each other’s and vote for the best.

 “Writing involves a different kind of mental process. There is more time to think, to reflect, to prepare, to rehearse, to make mistakes and to find alternative and better solutions” ...” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Jims Scrivener, Macmillan).

I would like to use writing activity because “ The need for longer formal written work seems to have lessened over the years, and this is reflected in many classrooms where writing activities are perhaps less often found than those for other skills” ...” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Jims Scrivener, Macmillan).

Part 4:

• A copy of the authentic task- appendix A

• The tasks you have designed- appendix B

• The answers to the task- appendix C

Appendix B

The gist reading task – 30 seconds:

 Answer the following questions with a “yes” or “no”.

a) Is this passage about a photographer? 

b) Is this passage about underwater life? 

c)  Is this passage about a school teacher?

1) Para 1: When did the author fall in love with the sea? 

2) Para 1: Why did the author become an underwater photographer and a photojournalist? 

3) Para 1: What brings greatest joy to the author? 

4) Para 2: According to the author, is the ocean dying? 

5) Para 3: What motivates the author most? 

6.) Para 4: Did the author swim with underwater animals? 

Appendix C

Answers key

Gist activity (skimming)

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. No

Specific reading (scanning)

1. as a child

2. He loved telling stories with pictures.

3. Photographs of nature.

4. Yes

5. The story

6. Yes

Bibliography:

Learning Teaching, Third Edition, Jim Scrivener, Macmillan, 2011

Harmer,J.The Practise of English Language Teaching, 3rd Edition, Longman, 2001 

Example 03

Assignment 3 – SKILLS

“Many children are growing up in an increasingly print-dominated world where , although they may learn to click on a computer mouse before they learn to turn the page of a book, reading is vital skill” (From “500 Activities for Primary Classroom” )

Selected Authentic Material

 A short article on Make your plate healthier, taken from “Saudi Gazette’s New Children’s Magazine” – April 30, 2008.

Justification for the Choice

Since my TP group comprised Arabic speaking adult elementary students, I thought it necessary to select a piece of material that should not only be   informative and entertaining, but also be in consonance with the interests and abilities of the students.  While doing this I followed the model that was demonstrated in the input session by Mr. Jonathan:

                         Information                     Enjoyment

Recipe

Visa form Newspapers Drama

Brochure Ads. Poetry

Sponsor’s un- Blurb Sports News

dertaking Magazines                        Personal letters

Though the article is from a children’s magazine, it is neither too easy nor too difficult for elementary level.  For adults, there is a challenge in it. As for the theme of this article, it deals with healthy food, and health is the concern of everybody in this era of information explosion.  Moreover, the students, while reading it, can enjoy themselves of words representing delicious tastes and beautiful colours of fruit and vegetables.

Reading Task (Receptive)

“Real-life purposes are not the only way of measuring the usefulness of classroom reading work.  Often we might want to train students in specific reading techniques or strategies, things that will help their future reading, even if the immediate classroom work doesn’t itself reflect a real-life purpose.” (Page-186, Learning Teaching – by Jim Scrivener)

Skimming and Scanning are the skills that need to be developed from the beginning at adult elementary level. Therefore, “many activities” says Jim Scrivener, “designed to increase reading speeds are variations on the two ideas – Skimming and Scanning” (Page-85, Learning Teaching – by Jim Scrivener).  Even in the input sessions, it was emphasized to not to miss two things – gist or general reading (skimming) and detailed reading (scanning).  Keeping this in view, the task that I have designed for reading activities covers these two cardinal aspects.

“Reading”, says Jeremy Harmer, “is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain.  The eyes receive messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of these messages.” (The Practice of English Language Teaching, Page-153). So the first activity in the task is to make students go through the passage quickly and circle the statement that is true about the whole passage.  This is in fact a practice for gist reading so that the students skim the text and make sure what it is about. There are four small paragraphs (without any headings) in the selected authentic material.  Each paragraph has some key words which give the student a clue what it is about – healthy and unhealthy types of food.  So, the students will have to read it from top to bottom to get the gist of the article that is there in one of the statement given for choice. 

The second activity focuses on reading for specific information and details so that the learners scan the text carefully to find the answers.  While doing this he performs top-down reading that affords him ample interaction with the text with a specified time.  “If this regularly done, the teacher will find the amount of limited time necessary becoming less and less.” (Page-153, The Practice of English Language Teaching). The article selected tends to give a good comprehension of what they should put on the plate at the time of eating besides attaining the scanning skill.   

Writing Task (Productive skill)

“Reading provides a scaffold for learning to write and it is frequently appropriate to teach reading and writing in an integrated way, both in the initial stages and when children have more developed skill”. (Page-49, Section 2, Reading and Writing, Book’s Name “500 Activities for the Primary Classroom)

On the basis of input sessions and guidance given for follow-up activity, a simple writing task has been designed for the elementary students.  At this level, the students are not prepared for any sophisticated writing activity.  So, they have been asked to write a small paragraph on “Healthy Food”.  However, a few prompts have been given to guide the students.

As after reading the passage, the learners will have got a lot of information about healthy and unhealthy food, they will definitely love to put it in a writing form.  Pair and group work will also make this task quite interesting. Error correction will also be a part of each activity to make it authentic as well. 

In short, by the end of these tasks, if well executed, the learners will have practiced both reading and writing well involving skimming and scanning, and some freer practice in writing skill as well.

Since this assignment requires a focus on the authentic material and the tasks, procedural details have been skipped.   

Books consulted:

1. Michael Swan and Bernard Smith (1998) Learner English, CUP

2. Colin Campbell/Hanna Kryszewska, (1992) Learner-based Teaching, OUP

3. Jim Scrivener, (2006), Teaching Learning, Macmillan 

4. Jeremy Harmer, (1998), The Practice of English Language Teaching, OUP

5. 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom (Section 2: Reading and Writing.

Websites:

http://esl.about.com/od/englishreadingskills/a/readingskills.htm

http://eslus.com/LESSONS/READING/READ.HTM

http://www.actstudent.org/writing/prepare/build.html

November 14th 2014 Assignment 3

Resubmitted

Assignment 3

Language Skills

The class profile:

The learning group is composed of  students and they are all from Brazil. They are at the elementary level. Their names are: Adilson, Areta, Bárbara, Camila, Filipi, Jéssica, Elizeth, Patricia, Renata, Roberta and Sandra. 

Students’ age range:

Based on the students’ age, there are three groups of adult learner: 

• 20‐29: Areta, Bárbara, Camila, Filipi, Jéssica, Roberta;

• 30‐39: Renata, Patricia, Sandra;

• 40 and over: Adilson and Elizeth;

Learning styles

Their learning styles are very similar. Most of them are visual learners such as Roberta, Elizeth, Aretha, Camila and Patricia. They are aided by boardwork / picture concepts that explain meaning of the new vocabulary or target language and also they keep eye-contact with the teacher while he is teaching. 

Sandra and Adilson are more kinaesthetic learners than visual. Sometimes they get bored easily and also they are highly communicative. They get motivated when the tasks are in pairs or in groups as well as when they write on the whiteboard using the target language. 

Interests and needs 

The students are really motivated to improve their skills in English and also they believe that as soon as possible they will be able to use on their daily life. The majority is studying English to boost their employment opportunities but, two students with more than 40 year old are learning English to communicate with people from other countries as well as travel abroad.

Their needs are related to the social language, such as, introduce a person, greetings, be able to ask and giving directions, be able to describe a person, how to write an email, talk about past activities, talk about daily routines. The lessons also are prepared and contextualized according to the Ss’ purposes.

The authentic reading text

Reading it is an important way to get new vocabulary about places, foods or countries. 

According to Jim Scrivener, " The more someone reads, the more they pick up items of vocabulary and grammar from the texts, often without realizing it, and this widening language knowledge seems to increase their overall linguistic confidence, which then influences and improves their skills in other language areas…” (Learning Teaching, 3rd Edition, page 188) .

The authentic reading text I chose is a menu from Chili Johns’ Restaurant ( http: //chilijohns.com/content/munu2010final1.jpg), one part is about meals and the other is about drinks. This type of text is something related to social language which is one their needs. As adult and visual learners this reading activity should be well accepted for everyone. 

Restaurant is one of the places you can find foreigners, as well as when visiting other country it is the place you will taste the typical food and learn more about the culture of the people who live there. 

In the words of Jeremy Harmer, “When we see a written text our schematic knowledge may first tell us what kind of text genre we are dealing with. Key words and phrases alert us to the subject of a text, and this again allows us, as we read, to predict what is coming next.” (The Practice of English Language Teaching,page 200). 

They will realize that it is possible to read a menu in English as well as work with the new vocabulary. 

Stages for the reading activity:

Warm-up

To establish the context of the lesson I will start a warmer activity about typical foods from other countries because it is a good start to activate students’ schemata. After that I will ask to the students if they like going to restaurants with different types of food.  Students will try to answer it and then I will show to them the menu and start lead-in. 

Lead-in:

I will elicit and pre-teach some key vocabulary such as:

• meal, 

• dessert, 

• drink, 

• menu, 

• waiter/waitress, 

• customer 

• appetizers (comes before the main meal), 

• entrée (main meal), 

• cook,

I would convey the meaning for the above words with the help of visuals, and CCQs, then, using the MPF sequence for clarification, I will start eliciting some model sentences of questions the waiter/waitress might ask at the table as well as the replies to these questions.

Model sentences:

Questions from the waiter/waitress:

• May I take your order?

• Would you like anything else?

How to order a dish or a drink:

• Yes, I’ll have a___________(students will choose a dish), please.

• May I have a ___________(students will choose a dish, a dessert, a drink), please.

I will show the pronunciation, fall-rise intonation related to these questions and the connected speech such as in ‘your order’. After that, the form of each model sentence will be presented on the board. 

Reading task 01

I would use this menu to practice skim reading. 

According to Jim Scrivener “Skimming = Reading quickly for gist of a passage. A typical skimming task would be a general question from the teacher...” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Macmillan). 

The quick reading for the main topic also generates more interest to read the text further.

The questions related to reading for gist should be: 

• Is this a menu from a typical Italian restaurant?” answer: No.

• The prices of sandwiches, salads and desserts are below $10,00? answer: Yes.

Time for the activity: 1 minute. 

Before I correct answers from students they would do a pair check of their answers. 

Reading Task 2

The reading task is for specific information. The students should use the scan reading

which enables to identify relevant information quickly. It helps as an effective filter.

According to Jim Scrivener,“ Students doing this will be reading the material in a similar way to how people might read it in everyday life.” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Macmillan)

I will set the second activity showing 7 sentences they should mark T if the sentence is true or F if the sentence is false. 

Time for the activity: 6 minutes. 

The students will work individually but, before I correct answers from students they would do a pair check of their answers.

Sample of the handout:

Read the menu and choose if the statement is true or false.

Write T for true or F for false in the space provided.

a. The “Turtle Cheesecake” is a classic favorite sandwich. ___(F)

b. The “Egg Salad” is a fresh salad. ___(F)

c. The total price of BLT + Garden Salad + Pepsi = $12,75 . ___(T)

d. The “Cheese Steak Sub” is a grilled steak meat with melted 

provolone cheese. ___(T)

e. The “Hot Chocolate” is a dessert. ___(F)

f. There are no tomatoes on the “Taco Salad”. ___(F)

g. The “Fish Sandwich” is available only on Fridays. ___(T)

Productive Skills

Speaking task:  Ordering a Dish.

Based on the model sentences presented and boarded during the clarification and lead-in, this will be a role-playing activity in pairs. 

I will divide the students in two groups. The groups will be named ‘group A’ and ‘group B’, then the teacher divides in pairs formed by a student from the ‘A’ group with a student from the ‘B’ group. Then starts the dialogue with the ‘A’ student acting like a waiter and ‘B’ student acting like the customer. The ‘waiters’ will stand up and the ‘customers’ remain seated. The ‘waiters’ will dialogue with ‘three’ customers in sequence. After that, they will change the character with those who was acting as a customer. 

Before start the activity I will model the dialogue with a student and also, I will board the sequence of the dialogue with some gaps to students choose in the menu what type of food they want to complete the gaps in the dialogue..

Sample of the dialogue between a waiter (W) and a customer (C):

W – May I take your order?

C – Yes, I’ll have a___________(students will choose a dish), please.

W- Would you like anything else?

C – May I have a ___________(students will choose a dish, a dessert, a drink), please.

W – Ok, __________(students repeat what the customer ordered).

C  - Thank you.

Feedback

I would end the lesson with a delayed correction of some mistakes I collected during the dialogue of the freer practice, such as fall-rise intonation, grammar structures, connected speech and stressed syllables.

References:

• http://orelt.col.org/module/unit/3-reading-efficiently-sub-skills-reading;

• http://chilijohns.com/content/menu2010.pdf;

• Jim Scrivener, Learning Teaching ( Macmillan Publishers Limited 2005 );

• Peter Watkins , Learning to Teach English, A practical introduction for new teachers ( Delta publishing 2005);

• Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Fourth Edition (Pearson Longman 2007);

• http://chilijohns.com/content/munu2010final1.jpg;

• http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/quotations