CELTA Written Assignment 2

Language Related Tasks

For this assignment you should refer to grammar reference material (e.g. ‘Practical English
Usage’ by Michael Swan or ‘Grammar for English language Teachers’ by Martin Parrott) and
learner dictionaries, as well as ‘Learner English’ by Michael Swan and Bernard Smith to help
you identify problems learners in your training context may have with the target language.

All the language items for this assignment have been taken from the authentic text ‘Glastonbury
fans set for more mud’ published on Yahoo! News. (www.yahoo.com)

Include your references at the end of each part of the assignment and a word count.

Grammar
For each of the underlined language items below, complete a language analysis form as you do
for your TP (LPF). You can refer to examples you already have. Assume that you are
analyzing this language for the benefit of intermediate level students.

1. …less severe than……

2. …campsite had been improved, …
3. ...(Some campers have already moved…
Lexis
1. …flash floods
2. …triumphant
3. (Grammar & lexis) …may break through

What lexical set (group of related words) could you draw out from the text? Write the set
on the back of the last analysis forms..

Glastonbury fans set for more mud

Music fans are coping with further showers
as the Glastonbury Festival enters its
second full day.
Parts of the site have been turned into a quagmire by heavy rain, but long dry
spells have provided respite.
The conditions have not deterred most of the 177,500 festival-goers, who can
expect to see a line-up headed by The Killers, The Kooks and Paul Weller.
The weather has been less severe than the last festival two years ago, when
flash floods hit the Somerset site.
But the area that was submerged in 2005 is again the hardest-hit, with several
dozen tents waterlogged after showers.
Police said crime was on a par with 2005's festival, with 163 offences recorded
by Saturday morning.
In addition, a 26-year-old man from the Midlands is in a critical condition in
Yeovil District Hospital after being found unconscious in the early hours of
Saturday morning after a suspected drugs overdose.
Friday's bill was topped by the Arctic Monkeys, with the Sheffield band
headlining the event's main Pyramid Stage.
Their triumphant set came just 18 months after the release of their debut
album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, and saw them perform
tracks from both that and its follow-up Favourite Worst Nightmare.
"I heard rumours that we didn't have enough songs to headline Glastonbury,"
frontman Alex Turner joked during the set, which saw them joined by rapper
Dizzee Rascal.
Amy Winehouse, The Magic Numbers and The Automatic were among the other
acts who excited crowds on Friday.
The busy areas of the site have turned to mud, which is several inches deep at
worst.
Two years ago, several hundred tents in one area suffered heavy flooding.
Organisers said the drainage in that campsite had been improved, with large
pipes laid to take water away.
But this year, the same area has become a swamp, with tents surrounded by
standing water.
Some campers have already moved to different spots, while others are
digging channels with tent poles to divert the water and hoping the skies do not
open again.
"When we got here on Thursday night, the weather was fine and it was on rock
hard ground," said Kerrie O'Leary, 22, from Sheffield.
"I don't mind being surrounded by all this sludge, as long as it stays all right
inside the tent."
Heavy showers
Another camper, Paul Kelly, 27, from Leicester, said one of his friends had left
the festival as a result of the deluge.
"She just decided she'd had enough," he said.
"I'm thinking about moving, which is going to have to happen at some point.
"I think they've improved the drainage at the Pyramid Stage. What they now
need to sort out is the camping areas."
Jenna Duncan, 22, from the West Midlands, had been bailing water out of the
tent's entrance and said she would also move if conditions worsened.
"This sleeping area is wet," she said.
"It adds to the excitement I suppose."
More showers are due on Saturday, but the sun may break through later in
the day.
The event, held on Michael Eavis' Worthy Farm, near Pilton, since 1970, draws
to a close on Sunday.
The Who, Kaiser Chiefs and the Manic Street Preachers are among the other big
names appearing on the Pyramid Stage during the weekend.
Target Language:
Quantifier & Adjective & Conjunction
Example: The weather has been less severe than the last festival two years ago.....
Form (as you would write it on the board or on a worksheet for students)

Quantifier (less) & adjective (severe) & conjunction (than)

Pronunciation (weak forms, contractions, phonemic transcription, word stress, etc)

‘Than’ is pronounced as /ðæn/. has a weak form.

‘Severe’ is pronounced /sɪˈvɪə/, with the second syllable stressed.

.
Meaning (What does the target language mean? How are you going to convey it and elicit it? How are
you going to clarify the meaning to students? Mime, concept questions, diagrams, time lines, etc.

The adjective severe, when referring to weather, describes weather that is extremely unpleasant and
likely to cause harm or damage.

Lexical item: The weather was better in 2007 than in 2005.

To convey the meaning, I would draw a timeline with 2005 on the extreme left and 2007 on the extreme
right. I would use weather symbols, similar to those used on the BBC weather forecast, to convey the
difference in the severity of the weather during both festivals. The 2007 symbol would be a grey cloud
with rain, and the 2005 symbol a black cloud with rain and thunder claps. To further emphasise the
meaning, pictures of the Glastonbury campsite during both years could be shown above the weather
symbols, to show the difference in the effects of the weather.
Anticipated problems and solutions; (Do your best here, try and offer solutions, too)
Meaning

The difference between ‘less’ and ‘fewer’ may be difficult for some students, and a particular problem
for Spanish speakers as the Spanish language does not differentiate between the two (menos =
less/fewer). One method of explaining this would be to point out that ‘less’ usually precedes uncountable
nouns (e.g. less confusion, less water), while ‘fewer’ usually precedes countable nouns (fewer cars,
fewer bottles). To convey the meaning, I would use an exercise that included a list of (mixed) countable
and uncountable nouns, and ask the students to match each one with ‘less’ and ‘fewer’. A concept
question would be ‘Can you have two weathers? No’. With students at an intermediate level or above, it
would be relevant to point out that informal English often uses less with countable words, but it is
considered incorrect in the written form.

The meaning of ‘less’ can also change, and this could also confuse the students. One strategy to explain
the various uses would be to illustrate examples, such as the use of ‘less as an adverb, e.g. ‘I work less
than I used to’. The students could then be asked to write their own examples of the other functions of
‘less’.

Form

The word ‘than’ may be difficult for Spanish speakers, as Spanish often uses the same word (‘que’) for
‘than’ and ‘that’, which could lead to students incorrectly using ‘that’. I would illustrate some examples
of the uses of both words, and then give the students an exercise which would involve inserting either
‘that’ or ‘than’ into a series of sentences.

Pronunciation

Students may try to pronounce ‘than’ as /ˈθæn/, or as /tæn/ if the ‘h’ is silent in their native tongue.
‘Than’ also has a weak form (/ˈθən/).

Students may attempt a phonetic pronunciation of ‘severe’, as /seˈvere/ rather than /sɪˈvɪə/.

An appropriate solution for the pronunciation would be to drill the phrase in its entirety, with particular
emphasis on the accent in ‘severe’, as it is pronounced as a two syllable word. ‘Severe’ and ‘than’ could
also be drilled separately.

References:
1. Macmillan English Dictionary for advanced Learners. (2002). Oxford: Macmillan
Publishers Ltd.
2. Jump, James R. (1995), The Penguin Spanish Dictionary. Penguin Books, London. P. 318.
3. www.answers.com
4. Griffiths, B. And Jones, D. G.: The Welsh Academy Dictionary (2002). University of Wales
Press, Cardiff.
5. Swan Michael. (2009). Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Word Count:
 Grammar Analysis 2

Target Language:

Past perfect (passive voice).

Example: Organisers said that the drainage in the campsite had been improved.
Form (as you would write it on the board or on a worksheet for students)

Past Perfect (passive voice):

Subject (the campsite) & past simple of auxiliary verb ‘have’ (had) & past participle of ‘to be’ (been) &
past participle of main verb (improved)
Pronunciation (weak forms, contractions, phonemic transcription, word stress, etc)
In the adjective improved, the word stress is on the first syllable (ɪmˈpruːvd).
Meaning (What does the target language mean? How are you going to convey it and elicit it? How are
you going to clarify the meaning to students? Mime, concept questions, diagrams, time lines, etc.

The verb ‘to improve’ is a regular verb, which signifies an action to make something better.
The past perfect construction is used here to signify an action that was completed before a given time in
the past, and as is the case with this article, this tense construction appears in a sentence that contains
two clauses:

Organisers said that the campsite had been improved.

The verb is used here in the passive voice, which does not signify the originator of the action. To convey
the action and elicit the meaning from the students, a timeline could be used showing the present, the
time in the past when the statement was made, and a preceding time when the improvements to the site
were carried out. A concept question could also be asked, such as ‘Do we know the name of the
company that improved the site? No’.
Anticipated problems and solutions; (Do your best here, try and offer solutions, too)

Meaning

‘Been’ may difficult for students to understand, as it is an irregular past principle. A solution would be to
write the infinitive verb form ‘to be’ on the board, and then show examples of uses of the verb in its
perfect forms, so that the students become aware that ‘been’ is the correct past participle of ‘to be’. This
could be followed by an activity that would involve changing the tense of a series of tenses, from the
present to the present perfect form.

If this is the first time that the students have encountered the passive voice, they may be unsure of its
significance and use. I would use examples of similar sentences, using both the active and the passive
voices, for example, ‘the man saw the dog’ and ‘the dog was seen’. A concept question could be ‘Do we
know who saw the dog? Yes (active). No (passive).’

Form

If the students are encountering the passive form for the first time, they may be unsure of the verbs that
can and cannot be used in the passive voice. I would need to show the students some examples of the use
of intransitive verbs, which can be used with the passive voice, and transitive verbs, which cannot.
Examples of transitive verbs include ‘fit’, ‘lack’, and ‘resemble’. I would illustrate examples of the same
sentence in the passive and active voices, e.g. ‘the window was broken’ and ‘the boy broke the window’.
A suitable follow-on activity would be to ask students to transform passive statements into the negative
voice, and vice-versa. Real-life examples of the passive voice could be drawn from politicians speeches.

Pronunciation

In Spanish and Catalan, ‘v’ is pronounced as ‘b’, and this could cause problems with the pronunciation
of ‘improved’. Spanish speakers also often mispronounce past participles and adjectives with an ‘ed’
suffix. In the case of ‘improved’, they might also pronounce the ‘o’, thus pronouncing the word as
/imˈprɒved/ rather than /ɪmˈpruːvd/. In this case, I would drill the correct pronunciation with the
students, emphasising the correct pronunciation of the ‘v’ and the suffix.

References:
1. Dumford, Mark J. (2007). Weekend TEFL Coursebook. Leeds: i-to-i (UK Ltd.).
2. Macmillan English Dictionary for advanced Learners. (2002). Oxford: Macmillan Publishers
Ltd.
3. http://spanish.speak7.com/spanish_miscelleneous.htm
4. Vives Boix, Gemma: Parla Catalá! (1992). Pia Press, Cardiff.
5. Clark, Daniel James: English-Catalan-Spanish Conversation Guide (1996). Edicions de la
Magrana, Barcelona.
6. Swan Michael. (2009). Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Word Count :
 Grammar Analysis 3

Target Language:

Present Perfect Simple tense/ adverbs of time.

Example: Some campers have already moved to different spots, while others are digging....
Form (as you would write it on the board or on a worksheet for students)

Present Perfect Simple.

Subject (some campers) & adverb of time (already) & present simple of aux. verb ‘to have’ & past
participle (moved)

The adverb of time is placed between the auxiliary verb and the past participle of the main verb.
Pronunciation (weak forms, contractions, phonemic transcription, word stress, etc)

The accent is on the second syllable of ‘already’ (/ɔːlˈredi/)

Moved is pronounced as a single syllable word (/muːvd/)
(/həv/ /ɔːlˈredi/ /muːvd/)
Meaning (What does the target language mean? How are you going to convey it and elicit it? How are
you going to clarify the meaning to students? Mime, concept questions, diagrams, time lines, etc.

‘To move’ is a regular verb which signifies to leave a place or to change position.

The use of the present perfect is to convey an event that started in the past that is relevant to the present.
is used here to talk about a completed action that is connected to the present. The use of the adverb
‘already’ signifies that campers have been moving at any time, from the time that they started moving,
up to the present moment. A timeline could be drawn to illustrate that the movement of the campers
happened at a given time in the past and has continued up to the present.

Anticipated problems and solutions; (Do your best here, try and offer solutions, too)

Meaning
The word ‘already’ may be difficult for the students to understand if they have already used it within a
different context, and the meaning could be conveyed to the students by illustrating examples of its
usage. An example of a different usage would be to describe an event that happened unexpectedly, e.g.
‘has the show finished already?’ The structure can be explained as subject (campers) & auxiliary verb (to
have) & adverb of time (already) & past participle of main verb (to move).

A timeline drawing would be useful to convey an activity that started in the recent past, and is continuing
up to the present.

Form

The word order could be problematic for some students. A simple explanation stating that when used to
say that something has happened before the present moment, the adverb of time ‘already’ is always
placed between the auxiliary and the past participle.

Pronunciation

The word ‘already’ could be difficult to pronounce for some students. The pronounciation could be
practiced by writing the word on the board and then drilling it’s pronunciation, firstly as a whole class
and then asking individuals to repeat it. Again, Spanish/Catalan speakers may have difficulty in
pronouncing the ‘v’, as ‘b’ and ‘v’ sound the same in both languages. A solution would be to drill the
word ‘moved’, giving particular emphasis on the ‘v’ sound. After it has been drilled a few times and the
students are improving their pronunciation, the emphasis on the ‘v’ could be reduced so that a more
natural pronunciation is then drilled. As well as the pronunciation of ‘v’, the students may have difficulty
in pronouncing the whole word.
References:
1. Macmillan English Dictionary for advanced Learners. (2002). Oxford: Macmillan
Publishers Ltd.
2. Dumford, Mark J. (2007). Weekend TEFL Coursebook. Leeds: i-to-i (UK Ltd.).
3. Swan Michael. (2009). Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Word Count:
 Lexis Analysis (4)

Target Language:

Lexical Item: when flash floods hit the Somerset site.

Form (as you would write it on the board or on a worksheet for students)

Compound noun, formed by an adjective + noun. ‘A flash flood’ would be written on the board
Pronunciation (weak forms, contractions, phonemic transcription, word stress, etc)

This compound noun is pronounced as word with two syllables, (/flæʃ ˈflʌdz/), with the accent on the
second syllable.
Meaning (What does the target language mean? How are you going to convey it and elicit it? How are
you going to clarify the meaning to students? Mime, concept questions, diagrams, time lines, etc.

A flash flood means ‘a sudden unexpected flood’, and ‘flood’ means a covering of water over something
(usually a piece of land). I would use pictures of an actual flood and its’ effects to elicit the meaning
from the students and invite them students to ask questions about the things that they see in the photo. A
timeline with a very short time span and ‘before and after’ pictures of a flooded land would help the
students to understand the concept of the flood happening in a flash.

Anticipated problems and solutions; (Do your best here, try and offer solutions, too)

Meaning

Other uses of the word ‘flash’ may be familiar to the students, such as bright lights, a sudden appearance,
or as an adjective to describe someone who displays his or her riches. I would undertake an eliciting
activity and invite students to offer examples of the different uses of flash, and illustrate each of the
different meanings by asking the students to rephrase the given sentences.

Form

The Spanish language pluralises adjectives as well as the nouns that they describe, and this could lead
the students to also pluralise ‘flash’ as ‘flashes’ when referring to more than one flash flood. I would
undertake an eliciting activity focusing on pluralising compound nouns, explaining that compound nouns
such as ‘heavy drinker’ or ‘flash flood’ and ‘strong cigarette’ are pluralised by adding an ‘s’ to the final
word. I would then ask the students to provide their own examples.

Pronunciation

Some native speakers of language that do not have the / ʃ/ phonemic could have difficulties with the
pronunciation of flash. I would write the word on the board accompanied by it’s phonemic script, and
drill the word with a marked emphasis on the second syllable

References:
1. Swan Michael. (2009). Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collocation
3. Harmer, Jeremy. (2004). The practice of English language teaching. Essex : Longman.
4. Macmillan English Dictionary for advanced Learners. (2002). Oxford: Macmillan Publishers
Ltd.

Word count:
 Lexis Analysis (5)

Target Language:
Lexical item : Their triumphant set came just 18 months after the release of their debut album...

Form (as you would write it on the board or on a worksheet for students)

Triumphant is an adjective, written as ‘triumphant’.

Pronunciation (weak forms, contractions, phonemic transcription, word stress, etc)

Triumphant (/traɪˈʌmfənt/)
The accent is on the second syllable. There is a schwa at the end of the word, and it also has a cluster of
three consonants. The ‘t’ is silent when the word is spoken within a sentence, but spoken if the adjective
occurs at the end of a sentence.

Meaning

A conceptual question such as ‘Was the performance a poor one? No.’ could be used to check students’
understanding of the adjective. Within the context of the given text, the adjective is describing a musical
performance as a successful one.

Anticipated problems and solutions; (Do your best here. Try also to suggest solutions.)

Meaning
Students could be confused by the meaning of ‘triumphant’ if they know it as an adverb to describe
winning something. My explanation would be to state that triumphant does not always meant to win
something, as in a football match, but can also describe something successful.

The word ‘set’ could be problematic for the students, as they may be aware of thr definition as a
collection of something, or even as a ‘set’ in a game of tennis. I would simply explain that, in the context
of a rock concert, it means the songs that a particular artist sings. I would also point out alternative
meanings, such as the one in the game of tennis.

Form
Spelling may be an issue for Spanish speakers as the /f/ phenomena is represented by an ‘f’ rather than
the English ‘ph’. The correct spelling of the word could be written on the board, and then drilled,
allowing the students to make a connection between the form and the pronunciation.

Pronunciation
The consonant cluster ‘mph’ could be difficult for some students to pronounce. I would write the word
on the board, with it’s phenomic transcription, and then drill the whole phrase ‘their triumphant set’ with
the students. Rather than pronouncing ‘triumphant’ in isolation, this would help students to understand
that the ‘t’ at the end of the word is silent, as some of them may attempt to pronounce a marked ‘t’.

References:
1. Swan Michael. (2009). Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Macmillan English Dictionary for advanced Learners. (2002). Oxford: Macmillan Publishers
Ltd.
Lexis Analysis (6)
Target Language:
Lexical/Grammatical Item: the sun may break through later in the day.
Form (as you would write it on the board or on a worksheet for students)

Subject (the sun) & auxiliary modal verb (may) & phrasal verb (break through)

The phrasal verb to break through can occur without a direct object (e.g. the sun broke through) or with
a direct object (e.g. the soldiers broke through the enemy lines).
Pronunciation (weak forms, contractions, phonemic transcription, word stress, etc)

May break through (/meɪ/ /breɪk/ /θruː/)

‘Through’ has a cluster of three consonants (‘thr’), and ‘gh’ is silent

Meaning (What does the target language mean? How are you going to convey it and elicit it? How are
you going to clarify the meaning to students? Mime, concept questions, diagrams, time lines, etc.

The use of the modal verb may signifies a possibility that the sun come out. A concept question that
could be asked is will the sun definitely come through?, to clarify that the sun coming through is a
possibility, not a definite future action. I would use various props to project the meaning of the phrase,
for example, a toy car and a wall constructed from child could be used to visualise a subject (the car)
breaking through an object (the wall). To specifically convey the meaning of the sun breaking through
the clouds, I would stick a cardboard cut-out of the sun on a white board, and then stick two cardboard
cut-outs in the shape of clouds to cover it. Moving one cardboard cut-out to the left of the sun and the
other to its right would visualise the sun breaking through.
Anticipated problems and solutions; (Do your best here, try and offer solutions, too)

Meaning

The modal verb ‘break through’ in its bare infinitive form is visually and orally similar to the noun
‘breakthrough’. The cardboard cut-outs of the sun and cloud show clearly the meaning of ‘to break
through’. A suitable example to illustrate the meaning of ‘breakthrough’ would be a newspaper article
about a discovery made by a group of scientists, with the word ‘breakthrough’ in the title, e.g. ‘Cancer
researchers make significant breakthrough’.

Form

If the students are aware of the word ‘threw’ (past participle of throw), which is pronounced identically,
they could spell ‘thorough’ incorrectly. It would be important to write the word on the board before
drilling, so that the students can make the connection between the sound and the spelling.

Pronunciation

The silent ‘gh’ at the end of the word could cause pronunciation problems, especially if the students are
aware of words with similar suffixes but different pronunciation, such as ‘thorough’ and ‘trough’. This
could lead the students to wrongly pronounce the word. Again this should be drilled until it is
pronounced correctly.

The students may try to pronounce ‘break as a two syllable word (bre/ak), especially if they speak a
language such as Spanish which clearly pronounces each individual vowel separately. To check that the
students understand that it’s a single syllable word, they could be asked the concept question ‘How many
syllables are there in break? One.’ The word would be drilled thoroughly before the concept question, as
this would help students to understand that it is a single syllable word.
References:

1. www.bookrags.com/intransitive
2. Harmer, Jeremy. (2004). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Essex: Longman.
3. Macmillan English Dictionary for advanced Learners. (2002). Oxford: Macmillan Publishers
Ltd.
4. Swan Michael. (2009). Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press
 Lexical Word Set – Severe Weather and its Effects

showers
a quagmire
heavy rain
dry spells
flash floods
submerged
waterlogged
mud
heavy flooding
a swamp
standing water
a sludge
a deluge
wet