written assignment 2 celta

Written Assignments

Written assignment cover page & resource.

Please use (and complete) a Written Assignment Cover Page for the first page of ALL of your written assignments.

ALL Written Assignments must be submitted in Word (doc or docx) format.

Download the Written Assignment Cover Page (docx)

If you don't have Word, use this Written Assignment Cover Page (Google Doc - Go to "File" (top left), then "Download" to download in various formats).

Before you get started on your Written Assignments, you can refer to this handy Written Assignment Resource that we've put together to give you a starting point for your research and other helpful resources for getting started with and completing each of the tasks below.

LSRT - Language Skills Related Task

Download the LSRT Rubric

Download the LSRT Guidelines

Download the LSRT Sample

For this assignment, choose an authentic reading text to practise and develop your learners’ reading skills. Choose a text which is suitable for one of your teaching practice classes.

Design a receptive skills lesson and describe the procedure of your lesson in prose, including the following information:

Say why you have chosen the text, comment on its suitability for use in the classroom and say which level you would use it with. Submit a sourced copy of the text with your assignment.

Design a lead-in , saying how you would raise your learners’ interest in the topic of the text.

Design an initial reading task and state which sub-skill(s) it practises. Include the task (with answers) on a separate handout.

Design a second reading task and state which sub-skill(s) it practises. Include the task (with answers) on a separate handout.

Design one or two productive skills follow-up tasks (speaking or writing) which capitalise on the interest generated by the text. Include the task(s) with your assignment.

Provide a rationale for doing each stage and task. Reference at least one methodology text to support your ideas.

Assessment criteria

The assignment should be written in continuous prose, with clear headings and paragraphing.

Cambridge English specifies that for the Language skills related tasks assignment, successful candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

correctly using terminology that relates to skills and sub-skills

relating task design to language skills practice

finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task.

Word count: 750 – 1000 words

LRT - Language Related Task

Download the LRT Rubric

Download the LRT Guidelines

Download the LRT Sample

Download the LRT Rubric and you will see a typical text that you might get students to read in class. It contains some useful language for Part 1 of your assignment. ( Your TP Language Analysis Sheets will be Part 2 ; read the rubric for details – link above).

Look at the items from the text in the box below. Choose one of the grammar structures and do the following:

analyse the meaning , describing how you would check students’ understanding. Use concept checking questions and some other clarification techniques if necessary, e.g. timelines, personalisation.

highlight the form

highlight key pronunciation features

focus on appropriacy where necessary

anticipate problems that students might have with meaning, form, pronunciation and appropriacy and suggest solutions . The solutions for problems with meaning could include some of the same techniques you used to analyse meaning, e.g. concept checking questions, timelines and personalisation

state which references you have used to help you in your analysis.

…everything that has happened to us during the day. (grammar)

…but sooner or later we have to sleep . (grammar)

If scientists invented a pill which, if you took it, would keep you awake for ever, would you take it ? (grammar)

Two example answers, one grammar and one lexis, have been done for your guidance. These can be found in the Guidelines for Assignment 2 link above.

Cambridge ESOL specifies that for the Language related tasks assignment , successful candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

analysing language correctly for teaching purposes

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

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

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

FOL - Focus on the Learner

Download the FOL Rubric

Download the FOL Guidelines

Download the FOL Sample

In this assignment it is possible to focus on an individual adult learner or a group of adult learners (age 18+).

Part A: Write a profile of the learner(s)

In the profile it is important to include the following information about the learner(s):

Level, nationality and mother tongue.

Background and learning experience, with particular regard to learning English.

Reasons / motivation for learning English and what you consider to be their needs.

Preferred learning style(s) and the activities which they enjoy most and benefit from in class.

Details of their strengths and weaknesses. There should be a balance of grammar, lexis, pronunciation and the four skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). This analysis will help you prepare for the second part of the assignment.

Refer to at least one reference book to support your observations.

Word count for part A: 550-700 words

Part B: Identify language problems and provide suitable activities from published material to address these.

For this part of the assignment choose two specific language problems. Use your analysis of the strengths and weaknesses in part A to help you identify two key areas which the learner(s) need help with. Focus on problems with grammar, lexis and pronunciation, but avoid choosing two problems from the same area, e.g. two problems with grammar.

Find one activity that could be used with your learner(s) for each problem . You need to find two activities in total. You should hand these in with your assignment. These activities must be from other published material, and not from coursebook material you are using, or have used, on the course. Give a rationale for why you chose each activity stating:

Why you have chosen to focus on that area of grammar, lexis or pronunciation.

What exactly the activity you have chosen practises. Do not include a description of how you would use the activity.

Why you believe the activity is appropriate for your learner(s). Consider whether it is engaging, meaningful and culturally suitable.

Word count for part B: 200-300 words

The assignment should be written in continuous prose, with clear headings and paragraphing. Although it might be necessary to discuss and share data with your colleagues, assignments must be written independently.

Cambridge English specifies that for the Focus on the learner assignment, successful candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

showing awareness of how a learner’s / learners’ background(s), previous learning experience and learning style(s) affect learning

identifying the learner’s / learners’ language/skills needs

correctly using terminology relating to the description of language systems and language skills

selecting appropriate material and / or resources to aid learner’s / learners’ language development

providing a rationale for using specific activities with a learner / learners

finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources.

Total word count: 750 – 1000 words

LFC - Lessons from the Classroom

Download the LFC Rubric

Download the LFC Guidelines

Download the LFC Sample

This assignment is linked to your own experiences and progress in teaching practice, your observation of peers, your ‘live’ observations of experienced teachers and the filmed lessons in the Observation Room .

Please organise your assignment under the following headings:

Your teaching strengths Identify at least three areas of teaching which you have improved on during the course and state how you have achieved this progress. You should include specific examples from lessons you have taught and feedback comments from trainers, other trainees and your teaching practice students.

Areas for improvement Identify at least three areas of teaching you need to work on and make suggestions on how to improve on these after the course. Give examples from your teaching and include comments from trainers, other trainees and your teaching practice students to justify your suggestions.

Observations of other trainees and experienced teachers Identify particular strengths and skills you have observed, commenting on both your peers and experienced teachers. You should include specific examples of skills and techniques you would like to use in the future, and say how you will incorporate them into your own teaching.

Further development after the course Say how you intend to increase your knowledge of ELT after the course. State which sources you intend to use to find out information about new methods and approaches. You should also say how you intend to develop your teaching skills in the future.

Cambridge English specifies that for the Lessons from the classroom assignment, successful candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

noting their own strengths and weaknesses in different situations in light of feedback from learners, teachers and tutors

identifying which ELT areas of knowledge and skills they need further development in

describing in a specific way how they might develop their ELT knowledge and skills beyond the course

The Ultimate Guide to CELTA

CELTA Written Assignments – Language Skills Related Tasks (LSRT)

Looking for help with CELTA Written Assignments? You’ve come to the right place.

Written assignments form a major part of the CELTA assessment process and are a compulsory part of the course.  There are 4 written assignments in total but some centres conflate two of them to make one larger assignment.  In this series we will look at each individual assignment and provide you with some advice and guidance as well as highlight some of the common pitfalls.

Disclaimer: All centres create their own written assignment rubrics, make sure you check with your centre exactly what is required.  We can only provide general information here, rather than specific.  With this in mind, do you think it would be wise to pay for other peoples’ assignments to help you write your own?

Although every centre creates their own written assignments, the CELTA Syllabus and Assessment Guidelines states that for the LSRT assignment:

The design of the assignment is to include:  • evidence of the candidate’s background reading in the topic area • identification of the receptive language skills and/or subskills that could be practised and developed using coursebook material or authentic text • identification of productive language skills that could be practised and developed in relation to that text • task design in relation to the text with brief rationale

Candidates can demonstrate their learning by: a. correctly using terminology that relates to language skills and subskills b. relating task design to language skills development c. finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task

All written assignments should be 750 – 1000 words

Source: CELTA Syllabus and Assessment Guidelines

What does this mean for you?  Well firstly, of course, you need to make sure you do some background reading and find out more about why we provide students with practice in the reading/listening subskills,  what  these subskills are and how you can give the students practice using them.  It would be very easy for me to tell you the answers in this post but that won’t help you in the long run.  Instead I can suggest a couple of sources for you to have a look at:

• Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener
• The CELTA Course by Cambridge University Press
• Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language by Macmillan Education
• Listening Skills  – Blog Post by TUGtoC
• Getting to Grips with Reading Skills  – Blog Post by TUGtoC

If your centre’s assignment requires you to find your own material (reading or listening texts) make sure that it is something you can use for the level of learner you are aiming the lesson at.  Whilst it is true that most material should be possible to use with all levels, the activities themselves must be aimed at the learners’ level.

Once you have found a text (if your centre hasn’t provided you with one) you will probably be asked to come up with suitable activities that will give the students practice in one or two of the reading/listening subskills.  You can make sure that your activity really does practise the subskill you are suggesting by trialling the task yourself (ie if you want the students to scan for specific information, try it yourself and see if it is actually possible to find the answers by scanning!).  Please also make it clear in your assignment that you will be giving the students the task to do while reading/listening – NEVER ask students to read or listen to something without giving them a task to do.  If you give students something to read/listen to without a task then they will not be practising the listening/reading subskills, instead they will be listening/reading very carefully because they won’t have anything specific to focus on.  I can’t tell you how frustrated we tutors get when trainees get this wrong 😦

After you have created your in-reading/in-listening part of the lesson you will be asked to suggest a follow-up activity that would have students practise either speaking or writing.  After receptive skills practice students need to start being productive and as reading and listening is an individual task I would suggest a follow-up task should have more student interaction, this could be in written or spoken form but is more likely to be in spoken form as writing tends to be done alone.  Whatever you decide to do, remember to exploit the context of the in-reading/listening tasks by, for example, remaining on the topic from the text. Remember, however, they should not be reading/listening to the text again for the post- activity.

One more thing you should make sure you do is write a bibliography, stating all the resources you have used to help you to write your assignment.  Remember, CELTA requires you to prove you are capable of “finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task” – (Source: CELTA Syllabus and Assessment Guidelines) so make sure you prove this by including your bibliography.

When you think you have completed your assignment, walk away from it for at least a couple of hours.  Go back to it later with a fresh pair of eyes and check it against the rubric.  Ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you done everything that you have been asked to do?
• How many words have your written?
• Is it clearly laid out and easy for someone else to read?
• Are there any spelling, punctuation, grammar errors?
• Are there any typos?
• Have I included a bibliography?

Common Pitfalls

In our centre, trainees often fall foul of the following:

• using the subskills terminology incorrectly (ie saying something is a scanning task when it is a skimming task)
• providing a task that doesn’t practise the subskill they say it does
• not highlighting the fact that the in-reading/listening task they would give students should be done while reading/listening
• not submitting a complete assignment
• writing much more than is required and going way over the word-count
• not proof-reading their work before handing it in
• not including a bibliography

Any one of the above can result in having to resubmit the assignment.  Whilst having to resubmit is no bad thing, it does increase your workload and stress levels so should be avoided if possible.

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Author: Emma Jones

A CELTA Tutor based in Munich and co-author of The Ultimate Guide to CELTA View all posts by Emma Jones

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Language-related tasks - help with CELTA Assignment Two

Language-related tasks is often assigned early in a CELTA course and, like all other assignments on the course, it needs to be completed in between 750 and 1000 words. Some people fear it, as it's the closest thing you'll get to a 'grammar test' on your CELTA course, but it's not really a test because you are encouraged to use dictionaries, grammar books and grammar resource websites while writing the assignment. In fact, you are expected to look things up and reference this in your assignment. No one assumes you're already a grammar expert before a CELTA course begins!

This assignment will be structured in different ways depending on who your CELTA tutors are, but essentially, you'll always be asked to do the same things. These will include analysing the meaning, form and phonology of a number of language items (usually between 4 and 6 items) and these will include both grammar and vocabulary. You will be asked to do this in bullet points and not in continuous prose, so it can be a good idea to approach this as a series of exercises and not like an essay you might do for a university course.

When you're analysing meaning, it's important that you're aware of whether you're being asked to use the context that is being presented to you in the assignment or if you're being asked to create your own context. Context is seen as key to clarifying meaning, so you'll either be expected to teach meaning in a context presented to you or you'll be asked to provide a context - the assignment may ask you to provide a formal definition, but when analysing meaning for teaching purposes, it is essential this is done using a context. As a fellow teacher trainer of mine is fond of saying, a teacher shouldn't be a dictionary.

In the meaning section, you'll probably be asked how you would check students' understanding of meaning. This may be by using concept checking questions (CCQs) or by using something else like a timeline. This is often the trickiest part of the language-related tasks assignment. Remember that concept checking should be related to the context, it shouldn't be overly vague or complex and it shouldn't use the target language to check understanding of the target language. You'll find lots of help on YouTube and Google if you look up 'CCQs' or concept checking questions. Take care over this part of the assignment, as in my experience, this is often where trainees trip up.

In the section on form, you'll need to break down the grammar items and describe their structures to students. Your tutor should have given you plenty examples of how to do this in advance of you starting the assignment. You'll find lots of helpful examples of how to break down form in any of the grammar books we recommend .

Finally, you'll be asked to analyse pronunciation. Remember to sound the words out and think about how they sound in a sentence, not just how they sound in isolation. The word 'to' sounds different when you say it by itself and when you say it in a sentence like 'I've got to leave now.' Your tutor will expect you to notice this. Remember to use a good learners' dictionary to find phonemic transcriptions and other valuable information about word stress.

No tutor will expect a perfect assignment, and you can make mistakes and still pass, but you will need to show that you can deal with (1) meaning, (2) form and (3) phonology in order to pass the assignment, so make sure you pay attention to all three elements. In my experience as a tutor, you're more likely to be asked to resubmit an assignment with consistently excellent sections on meaning and form if you make lots of errors when analysing pronunciation than you are if you are partially correct when analysing all three aspects of language. If you are asked to resubmit, you shouldn't worry about this. It simply means that the tutor believes you can learn from re-attempting some parts of the assignment. A resubmission isn't a fail, and it's likely you'll only be asked to change very specific parts of the assignment in your resubmission.

About the author :

Dr Connor O'Donoghue  hails from Ireland and he started teaching English as a foreign language in Poland in 2003 and he became a CELTA trainer in 2008. He has taught and trained in Ireland, the UK, France, Italy, Slovenia, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. Connor also holds a Masters and a PhD in Education from Trinity College in Dublin. He has previously managed large teacher training centres in Vietnam and in London before founding DC Teacher Training.

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CELTA student

Monday 27 june 2016, celta assignment 2 - language related tasks, no comments:, post a comment.

How to Write CELTA Assignments: Easy Guide

 learning how to write celta assignments.

Hello once more! The latest question is from a reader who hasn’t studied in a long time and she’s worried about how to write  CELTA assignments .

the instructions for the assignments the writing style for these how to cover all of the necessary points

Some of the above will overlap, but let’s start with the instructions for your CELTA assignments!

Instructions for your CELTA assignments

Now, the word count is very strict, as it is in all English language institutions – follow it very closely!

You have to be aware that you’ve got a strict word limit for the CELTA assignments. Here’s the exact wording from the official CELTA syllabus PDF :

So please take note of this and do not go over it. If you ask your tutors, they might give you a 10% above or below maximum/minimum limit, but do not take a chance by going over that.

Tip: To make sure you cover all main points evenly, you can break up the assignment into appropriate sections with even word counts for each part before you start. If you feel some sections will need more words than others, then adjust these accordingly.

In short, make sure you are definitely within the word limit when writing your CELTA assignments!

Using Instructions Properly

If the assignment instructions, or rubric, ask for references, as they will in some assignments, make sure to check whether they count for the word limit – they shouldn’t for most referencing styles, but some CELTA centres might say that they do, so ask your tutors first!

Also for referencing, you should check what referencing style you need when it comes to how to write CELTA assignments .

Common referencing styles include:

Most likely, your CELTA centre will use either the APA or Harvard referencing style. If you find this out in advance, it is another thing you can learn before you start the course!

The assignments don’t require many citations/references, but when you do need to include them, you can get help from free websites like citethisforme.com , or you can use my guide on 10 Tech Tips for writing CELTA Assignments for a bit more detail on tools for referencing.

To sum up, remember to check the style of referencing that your CELTA centre wants and follow that consistently and it won’t be a problem for you. This is because referencing doesn’t feature heavily in the assignemtns, although you do need to use it.

Covering  All the Points You Are Given

Another thing to focus on is covering all of the relevant points that you are given in your assignment instructions.

You’ll be asked to cover lots of different parts of your learning and reflecting on what you’ve done, but if you’re not ticking off every box on a list, it will be harder to know if you have done everything asked of you.

No need to worry, though – it’s mostly quite formulaic and you don’t have to be an outstanding writer to pass, you just have to write clearly and concisely to get through it.

Make sure you’re following or ticking off everything on the list, and be thorough.

Using a Table to Help You Cover All Points in Your CELTA Assignments

You could start by making your assignment a table in a Word document, with each point to go through.

Let’s say if you have two columns, and the first column has the points to cover, and the second column is blank for you to write in, you can just simply fill those boxes with ticks when done to make sure they have been covered.

Whether you choose to do the above, or not, you really need make sure you’re following the instructions closely, that’s the biggest thing I can say as I’ve probably stressed in this answer!

Don’t worry if you’re coming back after a long time without doing any formal writing.

If you’re on the CELTA course it’s because they think you have a high enough level. Don’t be afraid of the written assignments for this reason!

How to Write CELTA Assignments: Writing Style

However,  i n your CELTA assignments, there’s a lot of reflective writing and you will need to use a somewhat informal style.

This is because they ask you direclty to reflect on your learning. For example, the final assignment – lessons from the classroom, will ask you to reflect on what you’ve learnt during your course.

You’ll also need to talk about both yourself and students directly in the Focus on the Learner assignment.

CELTA Assignment Tasks

The other point is then, in some of the assignments, you will be given language tasks and exercises.

There will be many different tasks within these assignments, so you won’t actually be writing paragraphs for much of them.

I hope that has clarified some points for you about how to write the CELTA assignments and that I haven’t scared you (too much!).

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Exam Seekers

Content related to english exams and courses., |celta-010| assignment 2 – language related task.

Hello Exam Seekers,

Seeking some more information about the CELTA? Well, here it goes! 🙂

A friend has recently come to me to ask some questions about her first assignment in the CELTA. As I’ve already mentioned in a previous post, the CELTA first assignment according to the syllabus  is the Focus on the Learner . However, centers have total autonomy to choose the order of the assignments, and as they can order the assignments as they please, it makes much more sense that the first assignment is “Language Related Task” than “Focus on the Learner”. Why?

Well… First, let’s try and understand how the Language Related Task works then I’ll answer the question above, ok?

First, we need to know what is the design of the assignment:

Length: 750–1,000 words >>  identification of significant features of the form, pronunciation, meaning and use of language items/areas and the use of relevant information from reference materials.

Candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

• analyzing language correctly for teaching purposes.
• correctly using terminology relating to form, meaning and phonology when analyzing language.
• accessing reference materials and referencing information they have learned about language to an appropriate source.
• using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task.

Having that in mind, we have the following task:

This assignment involves analyzing language. On the next page, there is a typical text that you might use in class. Look at the items in the grids on the following pages (also underlined and boldfaced in the text). Choose 2 (two) grammar and 2 (two) vocabulary items and:

a) Analyze the meaning (in this context), form and pronunciation of the item;

b) Identify any problems students may have with meaning, form and pronunciation and provide realistic solutions;

c) State which references you have used to help you in your analysis.

By the end of your writing process your assignment should look like:

The image above just represents half of the assignment. Remember that you need to choose 2 (two) grammar and 2 (two) vocabulary items . Let’s follow the example above and work on the grammar item presented.

The first thing to do is to choose the grammar and vocabulary items that you want to work on. For example:

• SHE HAD LEFT WHEN I ARRIVED.

When you have a grammatical structure to teach, you have to explain to the students some things about the items:

• pronunciation

To teach the meaning of some words, or to work on students’ questions that might come up, you need to use CCQs . We have already written something about that, but for those of you who don’t remember, CCQs are the Concept Checking Questions . You can use them to teach a concept or to check students’ understanding of a concept, therefore it must be in your language analysis sheet.

Another important thing that you need to add to your assignment is the anticipated problems tab. If you are teaching any kind of concept, you need to be prepared for the questions that will come up, and it must be related to all of the aspects taught.

PART 1 – CONCEPT and FORM

While you are doing your assignment or preparing a lesson on grammatical points, you should have a grammar book with you. As you can see, the example above uses PARROT, M. (2000). Grammar for English Language Teachers. CUP.

What is the verb tense you are teaching? Check the grammar book and put it on the first tab. While you are checking the verb tense, you are figuring out if the verb tense you have has the same structure of your sentence, and that’s why the concept comes together with its form. So it should look like this:

• Concept: Past Perfect
• Form: Subject + had + verb in the past participle (irregular)

When you are teaching a grammatical item, you usually focus on affirmative, negative or interrogative independently. But sometimes, especially if you are working on the whole grammatical structure you should put the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms in your language analysis sheet, especially if you are writing an assignment on the topic.

And if you are working on a grammatical point, it should contain the timeline :

PART 2 – MEANING AND CCQs

Now that you know the form, what is the meaning of this sentence? Having the grammar book by your side and knowing the meaning of Past Perfect, you use what you know to translate the sentence that you have. Like in the example above:

• Meaning:  In this sentence, the event ‘left’ happened before the event ‘arrived’. The past perfect is used to refer to a completed action in the past that happened before another completed action. Therefore she left and he arrived right after.

When you are writing the meaning of this sentence, you have to think about how you are explaining the past perfect to your students. So you should come up with the following CCQs:

• Did she leave after he arrived? (NO)
• Did she leave before he arrived? (YES)
• When did she leave? (BEFORE HE ARRIVED)

You can come up with more questions, but keep in mind that this should help you explain the meaning of the sentence you are presenting, ok? So it must be clear and simple and it should always be at the students’ level, for example, if you are teaching past perfect, your sentence must be in the simple past.

And don’t forget that next to the questions, you must put the answer in parenthesis.

As you can see in the example above, we have one YES question, one NO question and one OPEN question. Try to follow this structure, because having only negative questions/answers don’t show that your students know what the concept is, they might only know what it is not and not what it is.

PART 3 – PRONUNCIATION

There is a nice website to help you with the pronunciation:  PHOTRANSEDIT . You write the word/sentence that you want and the website gives you the phonetic symbols. In our case, it shows this:

• Pronunciation:  /ʃid left wen hi əˈraɪvd/  –  She had LEFT when he arRIved

However, pronunciation is not only the phonemic chart, but the intonation and the stress relevant to your sentence, and that’s why we added the sentence above with “left” and “arRIved” in capital letters.

You are not teaching your student the phonemic chart, but it is relevant for you to have this in your language analysis sheet because it guides you through teaching the sentences. Moreover, it is relevant that you teach your students that you say “she had LEFT” instead of “she HAD left”. They need to know which part of the sentence is stronger and also the pauses in the sentences so that they can speak well.

PART 4 – ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS (APS)

While you are teaching the meaning, form and pronunciation, there are always some students who don’t understand right away or show difficulties along the way, and that’s why you should have  an ace up your sleeve.

When you’re planning your meaning, pronunciation and form, think of questions or problems students might have, write them and add the possible solution:

P: Ss may understand that she left after he arrived. 

S: CCQs & Timelines.

Pronunciation:

P: Ss may pronounce /hedʒiː/ instead of /həd/.

S: Drill and t ranscription on the board.

P:  Ss may use leave as a regular verb, as in ‘leaved’ .

S: Refer Ss to the chart of irregular verbs.

Now can you see the importance of the CCQs, the timetable and the phonemic chart? Because they should all be ready for you to use if the time comes.

Some important things to keep in mind:  If you are teaching one word, for example, APPLE, how do you plan on writing your meaning and APS on your language analysis sheet? You can simply show a picture of an apple. When you are teaching a concrete concept you can always show a picture or use realia to teach, and you won’t be needing any APS for meaning since the meaning is quite obvious with the picture. It’s not necessary to be redundant or put lots of thing in your assignment and language analysis sheet. It should be concise and helpful for the person who is teaching that specif lesson.

PART 4 – REFERENCE

This is another important aspect of your assignment, you must write the reference from where you took the information you wrote. Here are some examples of good bibliography for you guys:

• PARROT, M. (2000). Grammar for English Language Teachers.
• WORKMAN, G. (2006). Concept Questions and Timelines. Chadburn Publishing.
• CAMBRIDGE Dictionaries Online. Available at: <dictionary.cambridge.org>.
• ESL Base. Teach English. Available at: <www.eslbase.com/grammar>.
• OXFORD Advanced Learners Dictionary (2013). 8. ed. (app edition).
• SOUNDS: The Pronunciation App (2011). MPL . (app edition)

When you’re done, make sure you included everything:

What about the vocabulary items? It works very similarly. The difference is that you are working with one or two words, so you need to say if it is a phrasal verb, an adjective, conjunction, etc . If you want an example of a vocabulary analysis, write in the comment section below for us to know and help, ok? As for now, I hope I have cleared some questions about the topic.

—–

Now answering the question posed at the beginning of the text, it makes much more sense that centers start by Assignment 2 – Language Related Task  than Assignment 1 – Focus on the Learner , because it doesn’t matter if you are taking the full-time course or the part-time course , you should know how to organize your language analysis sheet from day 1 of the CELTA, because you will be teaching very soon. Meanwhile, getting to know your students is a process and it should be gradual. I mean… before choosing a specific student to interview and making your assignment you should be watching them and analyzing them.

Is it clear for you?

Once you know how to do your language analysis sheet and you are using it properly after writing Assignment 2, then you can focus on your learner and write an assignment on him/her.

I hope that this text has helped you. If you still have questions don’t forget to send us a message. Leave a comment in the comment section below or on our social media:

• facebook.com/ExamSeekers
• @ExamSeekers

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Have a great weekend, Patty 

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Amazing post! Thanks for sharing, Patty!

I’m glad you liked it. Thanks for the comment !!!!

Fantastic! Thank you a lot! I would be even more grateful if you could provide an example of vocabulary analysis 🙂

As soon as I have some time I’ll have something prepared for you. Thanks for following and thanks for the feedback.

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CELTA written assignment: focus on the learner(s)

The purpose of the assignment

The CELTA handbook (5th edition) explains that this assignment allows you to demonstrate that you can:

• show awareness of how a learner’s/learners’ background(s), previous learning experience and learning preferences affect learning
• identify the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills needs
• correctly use terminology relating to the description of language systems and/or language skills
• select appropriate material and/or resources to aid the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills development
• provide a rationale for using specific activities with a learner/learners
• find, select and reference information from one or more sources
• use written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task

That's a lot to cover in 1000 words so you need to be concise and stay focused.  This is not the place to discuss general approaches to teaching.

Most centres choose one of two ways to set this assignment:

• You may be asked to focus on a specific learner from one of the teaching practice classes or
• You may be asked to focus on the whole of a teaching practice class.

You may even be given a choice.

Whichever assignment you are set, the considerations are the same but, obviously, more depth will be required in 1. than in 2.

This is in the genre of an Information Report and it has three parts:

• A brief introduction stating the basic information about the learner or the class.  Say what you are doing and who the subject of the investigation is.
• An area-by-area report giving the data you have gathered, noting strengths, weaknesses and needs as you go along.
• sources for language and/or skills development and, if it's needed, personal support
• ideas for language and/or skill focused activities Link this section carefully to the data you have gathered, explaining why you think the ideas will help.

You can combine the second and third areas if that makes sense to you so two structures are possible:

Choose one structure or the other.  Do not mix them up or you'll be incoherent.

• An example of the learner's writing.  The neatest way to get this is to write a short note to the learner saying who you are, giving a bit of background (age, background, personal details etc.) and asking the learner to respond in like manner.  That way, you get the personal stuff you need and an example of how well they can handle the simple language needed to give some personal data (name, age, occupation etc.).
• reasons for learning English
• language learning background
• student’s opinion of their strengths and weaknesses in English
• preferred class and activity types

• You can, of course, gather some of this data by designing a questionnaire.  See the guide to needs analysis to get some ideas.  There is an example of a basic needs analysis form here.
• Record the interview and listen to it again, making notes of consistent errors and the learner's communicative effectiveness.  You can provide a tapescript of some important parts of the interview to exemplify the areas you think need work in the assignment.  You will need the person's permission to do this, of course.
• If recording is not an option, make as many notes as you can on the learner's use of English as you go along.
• Learning style.  The new edition of the handbook (the 5th) has removed any explicit reference to learning styles because the theories that underlie such things have been comprehensibly debunked.  The syllabus now contains reference to learning preferences.  However, for reasons which are slightly obscure, some CELTA centres and tutors are wedded to the idea of learning styles.  Many will let you have a copy of something called a VARK questionnaire to give to the subject.  There is, of course, a guide to learning styles on this site but you should treat the area with great scepticism.  See also the article attempting to debunk the whole concept .

• You need to set out some information about the people in the class: ages, occupations, reasons for learning etc.  See the table above.  The only sensible way to do this with a group of people is via a questionnaire needs analysis.  See the guide to needs analysis to get some ideas.  There is an example of a basic needs analysis form here.
• You can investigate learning preferences but will have to identify from the data any commonalities in the class rather than details of each learner.  See point f., above.
• For the final section of the assignment where you make suggestions, you'll need to be a bit more generalised and identify common aims and needs rather than individual ones. One approach is to identify the two weakest and the two strongest students and identify appropriate activities, resources and aims for them.  That should also cover everyone in between.

• The student is studying English for no apparent  purpose at the moment.  He or she may need the language in the future for some purpose but at the moment that is not clear.  The student may also need the language as part of a general education, for access to English-language websites and for travel and tourism. This student needs General English (a GE learner).
• This student need English to settle and integrate in an English-speaking culture for an indefinite time. This student needs English as a Second or Other Language (an ESOL learner)
• This student needs English for business and commercial purposes either because his/her professional setting demands it or because she/he is intending to study Business and/or Management. This student needs Business English (a BE learner).
• This student intends to study in an English-medium institution such as a university or college. This student needs English for Academic Purposes (an EAP learner).
• This student needs English for a narrow area of concern such as access to written scientific texts, to work in a particular occupation such as the hospitality industry, air traffic control, the merchant marine, the transport industry etc. This student needs English for a Specific Purpose (an ESP learner).
• All of the above can be subdivided into a bewildering range of acronyms including, e.g., EGOP (English for General Occupational Purposes), EGPP (English for General Professional Purposes), ELF (English as a Lingua-Franca, for communication between non-native speakers of English worldwide), English in the Workplace (EiW), English for Professional Purposes (EPP) and so on.

• "I want to learn English to fit into an English-speaking culture and work and socialise." This student has Integrative Motivation (to integrate into a cultural milieu).
• "I want to learn English to use the language in business meetings / to study a subject at university." This student has Instrumental Motivation (using the language as a tool to do other things).
• "I love the language and enjoy learning it and speaking it." This student has Intrinsic Motivation (the pressure to learn comes from within).
• "I have been told to learn English by my employer / parents / sponsor." This student has Extrinsic Motivation (the pressure to learn comes from outside).

Be careful not to be too dogmatic here.  People are complicated and their motivations are often obscure, even to themselves, so try to avoid statements such as

This learner is extrinsically motivated.

Prefer, instead, something a bit more careful such as:

From the data supplied in the short questionnaire, it seems that this learners is aware of the need to learn enough English to be able to function in the workplace but is also keen to access English-speaking websites and understand something of the cultures of English-speaking societies.  She has, therefore, a mix of instrumental and integrative motivation and needs English as a tool as well as for cultural access.

There is a guide to motivation on this site but you do not need all the detail now.  If you would like a simpler guide to motivation which still gives more data than here, there is one in the TKT course materials (new tabs).

Obviously, the suggestions you make will be determined by what you have discovered about the learner(s).

• Why do you suggest it?
• What's its target?
• How will it help?
• Include both ideas for activities and ideas for materials to use and topics to focus on.
• Identify both language structure and skills needs. For example, From the data summarised in point xxx above, I would argue that a priority for this learner / these learners is to enhance his / her / their reading skills because they / he / she identify it as a weakness and this is supported by my observations.  Good reading skills are needed for study in the UK and the majority of these EAP students / this EAP student will be going on to university in the next few months.  Therefore, I suggest using xxxx in class and starting a reading club using xxxx books and resources.  The student(s) will also benefit from a specific focus on both reading for gist and reading intensively so I suggest the following activities will be helpful... or Another area of weakness I have identified in point yyyy above is the student(s)' lack of vocabulary . Therefore, I suggest a specific focus on general academic vocabulary including using yyyy as a resource and spending at least one lesson per day focusing on common academic collocations (such as reasonable to argue, arising from the data, developing the point further etc.).  This will improve the learner(s)' ability to be precise in terms of meaning and use conventional language in academic essays. The class / student will also benefit from work on cohesive devices such as therefore, firstly, finally, because, furthermore etc. as his / her / their writing shows that they avoid or misuse these structures in general (see appendix 2, and the comments in point z).  This will make the learner(s)' writing in particular more accessible, better organised and fluent.

Do not repeat yourself here.  It's not necessary and you don't have enough words to play with. What you do need to do here is identify the main facts and the most important suggestions.  In other words, prioritise .

Before you submit your assignment, here's a quick checklist.  You can have this as a PDF file by clicking here or you can mentally tick things off on the screen.

• learning preferences
• the questionnaire and a summary of the results
• samples of work
• I have identified at least 5 language problems the learner(s) have / has
• I have given examples
• general future work
• specific ideas to deal with the problems I identified

Now assess yourself against the criteria for the assignment.  Here they are again.  Have you been able to:

Your tutors will maintain a record of the work you have done on the written assignments and will grade each of the criteria as follows: NS (Not to Standard), S (at Standard) or S+ (above Standard). You need to aim consistently for S or S+ grades, naturally.

If you have managed to tick all the items, well done.  Submit the assignment and move on.

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