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CELTA - Written Assignment 3: Language Skills Related Tasks

CIRA FERNNDEZ SNCEZ


Designing a re!e"ti#e$"r%du!ti#e skills less%n which you will then teach
In the second or third stage of the course you are required to plan and teach a reading
or listening lesson. For this you must find a text yourself which is appropriate for the
level of your class. This can be from a course book, from supplementary materials, or
from authentic sources like the internet. You will need to decide how to use it with your
group of Teaching ractice students to give them a receptive and productive skills lesson
of !" or #$ minutes in length. %s for all final lessons, you must submit a full lesson plan
and stage plan. %s well as this, you must fill in the following assignment which should
demonstrate to us that you have a clear understanding of receptive skills procedures and
activities.
N&:
&emember, this is a '(I))' lesson * you are +,T using the text to introduce a discrete item of
language -such as grammar or a lexical set..
/ocabulary0 in order to help students understand the text, you may need to design an
activity to help with certain words or phrases. The idea of this, though, is +,T to teach this
vocabulary and later practise using it, but simply to aid the students1 receptive
understanding of the text. Think about when and how to do this most effectively. '%!a(ular)
is neit*er )%ur main n%r su(sidiar) aim+
You may only edit a text you choose by 23TTI+4 ,3T '52TI,+'. You must not rewrite,
reword or simplify the text.
If you choose a course book text, you cannot simply use the course book activities which
come with the text. You need to design your own activities.
ost6reading activities must include productive skills i.e. writing or speaking.
7o some reading about receptive8productive skills activities in 9armer -The ractice of
5nglish )anguage Teaching: 9ow to teach 5nglish., 'crivener -)earning Teaching. or another
general 5)T methodology book. ,%ur assignment s*%uld s*%- e#iden!e %.$make re.eren!e
t% t*is reading e+g+ in!lude a .e- /u%tes$ make re.eren!e t% t*ese (%%ks in s%me -a)+
At t*e latest0 )%u s*%uld *and t*e assignment in at t*e (eginning %. t*e a!tual less%n.
You can hand it in before if you have finished it.
-;"$6<$$$ words.
ASSESS1ENT CRITERIA:
Successful candidates can show evidence of:
Correctly using terminology that relates to language skills and sub-skills
Relating task design to language skills development
Finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using written language that is
clear, accurate and appropriate for the task
CELTA - Written Assignment 3: Language Skills Related Tasks
Rati%nale .%r !*%%sing t*is te2t
I chose an authentic text because it is a way of giving 's more exposure to the )=. In particular
I chose a traveller>s blog because the topic is one which 's can easily link to their own lives and
experiences and because the main aim is to motivate them and engage them in oral interaction
by the end of the lesson. 5ven though, at the beginning, I thought an authentic text of this kind
would be too challenging for intermediate 's, I soon realised that it could be a good choice for
several reasons0
?4etting students accustomed to reading authentic texts from the very beginning
does not necessarily mean a much more difficult task on their part. The difficulty
of a reading exercise depends on the activity which is required of the students
rather than on the text itself, provided it remains within their general
competence. In other words, one should grade exercises rather than texts?
-4rellet, <@A<0 ;6A..
%ccordingly, I graded the tasks and suited them to the 's> level of competence instead of
choosing a simplified text. I think blogs present 's with real life contents and expressions, that
is, the kind of language they will encounter outside the classroom. Blogs are easy to read in
terms of content and structure -their main function is descriptive. and there are many
different topics to choose from -travel, cooking, literature, movies, music, etc... In conclusion,
as an 5)T professional, I will definitely use authentic texts as much as I can and retain much of
their presentation and layout because they are important features which can also help 's
anticipate meaning.
Rati%nale .%r "re-reading$listening a!ti#ities and su(-skills
re6reading activities are key to get 's involved and interested in the topic. %ccording to
'crivener -=$$"., there are two main types of pre6text activities0 introduction and lead6in and
first task -pre6reading.. The main aims of introduction and lead6in activities are to provide an
initial discussion of key themes, make an explicit link between the topic of the text and the 's>
own lives and experiences, or focus on important language that will come in the text. %s first
tasks, 's can predict from some extracted information -illustration, key words, headlines, etc..
read questions about the text, or even composing their own questions.
For my lesson plan, I have designed three types of activities which ?move from >big> to >small>,
i.e. >top6down> 6from overview to details? -'crivener, =$$"0 <A;.. The first is predicting the
topic of the text by showing 's some pictures. It is a fast and effective way of making 's
anticipate the topic of the text and start to activate their schemata. %nticipation and
motivation go hand in hand and are of the utmost importance0

?This >expectation> is inherent in the process of reading which is a permanent
interrelationship between the reader and the text. Chat we already know about
the subDect and what we are looking for are probably Dust as important as what
we actually draw from the text? -4rellet, <@A<0<A..
The second task is aimed at developing 's> skimming skills. They have to go through the reading
material quickly in order to identify the type of text and its communicative function. Becoming
familiar with the structure and organisation of texts and their purpose will help 's understand
the text much better.
CELTA - Written Assignment 3: Language Skills Related Tasks
Rati%nale .%r during-reading$listening a!ti#ities and su(-skills
%s for during6reading activities, I chose three tasks. In the first task, 's have to put different
headlines in their right place in the text. I designed this task to promote 's> skimming skills and
gist reading and to make them more familiar with the structure of the text and its logical
organisation. The second task is a vocabulary task in which 's match blocking lexis selected
from the text with their definitions or synonyms. This task is aimed at helping 's with difficult
vocabulary so that they can do better in the detail comprehension task that comes later on.
Finally, the detailed comprehension task is a multiple choice activity to check 's more detailed
understanding of the text. %ccording to 'crivener -=$$"., while6reading tasks focus on fast
reading for gist and then move on to focus on fast reading for specific details -scanning., and
that is precisely the intention behind the selected tasks in this stage.
Rati%nale .%r "%st-reading$listening a!ti#ities and skills
%s a post6reading activity I chose an oral activity, a pair interview. 's have to ask their
partners some questions connected to the topic of the text and record their answers for later
retelling. This is a good way of linking the topic of the lesson with the 's> own lives and
personal experiences and a way of encouraging them to move on to a more productive and
creative stage. The fact of making 's retell their partners> experiences can be very positive
because it will make them pay even more attention to the language and perhaps it will give
them a chance for peer correction.
&I&LI34RA5,
4rellet, F. -<@A<.. Developing Reading Skills. 2ambrige0 23
9armer, E. -=$$;.. he !ractice of "nglish #anguage eaching. earson )ongman
'crivener, E. -=$$".. #earning eaching. $ guidebook for "nglish language teachers% Facmillan

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