celta assignment 2 sample

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Find out how to save time on your CELTA assignments!

CELTA Course Assignments: Step-by-step Guide with Real Examples

CELTA course assignments are a mystery for many people. Everyone who applies for a CELTA course has heard about them, but not many know what to expect.

In fact, I see many people online posting for help with them as they feel there is not enough time to do them properly and they are often confused by the instructions.

For this reason, I wanted to go through the basics of the CELTA course assignments and explain what you can expect. However, I should tell you early on: every CELTA course centre has slightly different assignments.

Yes, they follow the Cambridge CELTA standards but CELTA centres use their own specific requirements. This depends on what they feel is the best way for you to show what you have learnt on the CELTA course.

CELTA Course Assignments: What are they?

There are 4 CELTA course assignments, which are as follows:

Assignment 1: Focus on the learner
Assignment 2: Language related tasks
Assignment 3: Language skills related task
Assignment 4: Lessons from the classroom

As mentioned above, these are different for each CELTA centre so it is hard to go into too much detail here. Instead, I will give you a brief overview and some links to examples of these CELTA course assignments, available for free online (but don’t pay for any!).

A word of warning: online examples are not guaranteed to be of high quality. They are simple tasks past CELTA trainees have uploaded to various websites.

You might also find that the assignment you are given is very different to any of the sample CELTA course assignments linked to below. With that in mind, it’s important to think about these assignments in terms of broad concepts, rather than specific points.

CELTA Course Assignment 1: Focus on the Learner

In general, this CELTA assignment asks you to comment on one student, or learner, from the group you are teaching. The assignment is essentially a needs analysis for that student.

For this assignment, you have to focus on their background, and strengths and weaknesses in learning English. You should also give suggestions for them to improve. To get a good grade on this assignment, you will also need to refer to some CELTA books (in brief) about teaching English.

Much of your assignment will also be based on an interview you do with a particular student. Remember to organise the interview early on in your CELTA course! And no, it won’t be anything like the CELTA course pre-interview task !

The word count for this assignment could be something like the following:

Learner Background: 300-350 words
Analysis of the student’s language problems: 300-350 words
Suggested activities for them improve their English: 300-350 words

What you write under each section will be based on your interview with them and what you have seen them do in class. Keep a close eye on them to help you here!

Hopefully you can now see clearly why this assignment is called ‘ focus on the learner’ !

For a more detailed look, check this article I wrote dedicated specifically to the Focus on the Learner Assignment
Or check out the CELTA Survival Guide Ebook by CELTA Helper

CELTA Course Assignment 2: Language Related Tasks

For the second assignment on your course, you will need to focus on language skills and awareness.

Many people get really worried about this assignment, but you don’t need to! This is where you need to remember that the CELTA course is for people with little or no experience.

For the above, your tutors will not expect you to have a very high level knowledge of English. Just remember to follow the assignment instructions and do your best!

If you take good notes during the ‘input sessions’ on your CELTA course, these will be particularly helpful here (make sure you are taking notes you can read and understand afterwards!)

Regarding specific tasks, you will be given examples of language to work with and you will need to cover specific aspects of these.

You will likely have to explain, with examples, the following for each piece of vocabulary you are given:

Conveying meaning
Checking understanding
Pronunciation
Form (or sometimes called ‘part of speech’)
Anticipated problems & solutions

Remember, it is for you to show what you have learnt up to this point. With this in mind, you should be able to find help or a guide in your notes from the input sessions you have already had.

You should also write your own example sentences – don’t be tempted to use the ones from the dictionary!

Another section of this assignment will be dedicated to grammar.

Much of what you need to do in this section will be similar to the vocabulary section. You might need more background here, so I would suggest you do some reading before starting the course.

Reading relevant books will help you to save time later on and build your confidence throughout the course.

Some good books to help you here will be:

Advanced Grammar in Use
Practical English Usage
Grammar for English Language Teachers
(NB: all of the above are affiliate links).

For a much more in-depth look at this, be sure to check out my dedicated article for CELTA assignment 2 here (with worked examples!)

CELTA Course Assignment 3: Language Skills Related Tasks

These tasks will be based on an authentic piece of English language . You should have quite a bit of flexibility here to chose this, for example you could use many different types of sources such as articles, songs, videos, and so on.

With that authentic piece of language, you can then think about what you want the students to learn and make the tasks around this. You will need to explain why you have chosen this task, but this will be quite brief.

You need to do some reading for this task as it asks you to explain how to teach different skills in English.

Think about the skills as follows:

Receptive skills : reading and listening
Productive skills : writing and speaking

To apply what you have read, you will likely need to create possible exercises, or tasks, for each of these skills.

For every task you make for the skills above, you will need to give your reasoning, or rationale, for including this task in your lesson.

For example, you could possibly the students to read to get the general idea of the text (reading for gist), as your first reading task. Then, follow this with comprehension questions on the text they have read. It doesn’t have to all be about incredible tasks here, simple ones work well, too.

There are many different ways to approach this, but try to keep your aims and objectives clear in your mind at all times. If you do this, you will be fine!

CELTA Course Assignment 4: Lessons from the Classroom

As this assignment comes at the end of the course, it is mostly reflecting on what you have done.

You need to follow the instructions carefully (again!) to get a good grade. You will also need to think about things like your observations of the trainers, your peers and your own observed lessons.

This time, you will need to write about your own strengths and weaknesses. There will also be room for you to write about your development as a teacher.

Other points which might be included in assignment 4 are things like classroom management and lesson planning, among others!

It really does cover a wide range of topics, so look at what your CELTA centre wants you to do. Then all you have to do is follow what they ask for!

It might help to keep some sort of diary throughout the CELTA course to write assignment 4. It would certainly save you any time in thinking about what to write later on.

Imagine how you will feel at the end of the course; your brain might be ready to shut down!

Hence, diary notes could save you some mental energy here, with templates for this and much more included in the CELTA Student Notebook and Diary that I have made and put on Amazon – check it out now for more!

Remember to also check out my dedicated post on the Lessons from the Classroom Assignment here for an in-depth guide to everything you need!

Below is also a very detailed Slideshare presentation by Jo Gakonga of ELT Planning, an experienced EFL teacher and teacher trainer who has a fantastic website. It explains the main elements of the ‘lessons from the classroom’ assignment in detail.

Useful Links

Focus on the learner – assignment 1.

One example of the ‘Focus on the Learner’ assignment can be found on Scribd.com here

CELTA Course Assignment 2: Language Related Task

An example of the Language Related Task CELTA course assignment can be found here on scribd.com .

CELTA Course Assignment 3: Language Skills Related Task

A downloadable example of the CELTA course assignment 3 is available on Academia.edu – note that you will need to sign in with a Google or Facebook account to download the example CELTA assignment, but it is a safe site.

CELTA Course Assignment 4: Lessons from the classroom

There are many of these available online but this assignment is very personal. It’s all about you and your learning.
These assignments are helpful for an idea of what to expect, but not more than that.
Again from Academia.edu, you can download a version of CELTA course assignment 4 by signing in for free . You can also click on the image below to view it.

CELTA Course Assignments: Any more questions?!

So, I think I have covered all the main points above.

If you need extra help with your CELTA course, check out the CELTA Course Student Notebook and Diary by CELTA Helper over on Amazon .

This handy notebook is designed with ready-made templates to make your CELTA course that much easier, giving you space to record all your key notes without you having think about how to organise or record your notes – just fill in the templates for things like observed lessons, planning, reflective diary (especially helpful for the final assignment) and more. I designed it to help CELTA course students get through the course – perhaps it can help you, too.

CELTA Assignment 2: Language Related Tasks

Language Related Tasks ALAA Albishri CELTA Assignment #2 Language Related Tasks 1:...everything that has happened to us during the day. (Grammar) Meaning: This is present perfect simple which states action or experience in unspecific time in the past and has connected to the present. 1 CCQs: • Did everything happen in the past? (Yes) • Do we know exactly when it happened in the past? (No) • Is it still happening now? (No) Form: Past during the day Now Future The form is shown as the present perfect simple Subject (singular plural) + auxiliary (has/have) + main verb (past participle). 2 Pronunciation: ..... everything that has happened to us during the day. /həz ˈhaepənd / The sentence stress is on the content words everything, happened, and day. The stress on the first syllable of happened and has is pronounced in the weak form. The intonation pattern is falling. Anticipation problems and solutions: Problem: Students might be confused between past simple and present perfect tense. Solution: Using the timeline to state the differences between both tenses; simple past and present perfect. Problem: Students might not recognize the change that occurs in the main verb in the present perfect simple. They might write has/ have with the verb in the past simple, not in the past participle form. Solution: Providing a verb-list in the past simple and the past participle and highlighting the regular and irregular verbs of past participle like; watch/ write. Then, provide some control activities. Problem: Students might stress on the weak form of the auxiliary verb. They might say /haez/ instead of /həz/ Solution: Marking on the weak form on the board and practicing some drilling activities. 2: …we suffer hallucinations, and eventually die. (lexis) Meaning:

Related papers

In English, tenses system is quite complicated, but the most common problem is not how to form tenses but decide which tense to use in a given situation. The different tenses are signaled by verb endings or by auxiliary verbs. This makes the writer assume that there are many students, even at the English department, who still cannot use "Tense" in the correct way related to functions. Therefore, the writer is interested in analyzing the errors of using tense in English.

Journal of Systems Integration, 2020

The research purpose is to know the difficulties faced by the students in learning Present Perfect Tense and the cause of the problems. The design of the research is descriptive research. The number of the population was thirty-six students. The researchers used tests, questionnaires, and interviews to collect the data. After analyzing the data, it found that the average score of test results was 44.67, which was classified as a less classification. Then the ability in using To Be (Has/Have) of present perfect tense was placed in a good rating by the mean score 68.29. Moreover, the students' ability in understanding regular verbs was in a less classification by the mean score 34.03. It also happens for the knowledge in understanding irregular verbs which were classified as less classification by the mean score 39.72. Based on the data obtained from the questionnaires, it shows that most of the students felt that Present Perfect Tense is a problematic material of English. It was ...

Use: -Nãi mét sù viÖc ®ang x ¶y ra ngay t¹i thêi ®iÓm nãi. Eg: Don't go out. It is raining .

Many parts of rural America ----to reflect the values and traditions of the European immigrants who ----in the country during the nineteenth century.. A) continued / have arrived B) have continued / would have arrived C) continue / arrived D) would have continued / were arriving E) will continue / would arrive 2. With few exceptions, most totalitarian governments ----more liberal since 1989 when the Berlin Wall ----.. A) became / falls B) are becoming / would fall C) were becoming / has fallen D) had become / was falling E) have become / fell 3. Investigations by modern doctors ----that Catherine the Great of Russia ----from syphilis.. A) have suggested / has suffered B) suggest / suffered C) had suggested / was suffering D) may have suggested / would have suffered E) suggested / suffers 4. Cosmologists are addressing some of the fundamental questions that people ----to resolve over the centuries through philosophical thinking, but they ----this based on systematic observation and quantitative methodology.. A) would attempt / have done B) attempt / will do C) may attempt / did D) attempted / should do E) have attempted / are doing 5. Smoking ----in almost all segments of the American population, so that, in various polls, 60 to 65% of Americans ----non-smokers today.. A) declines / may have been B) has declined / are C) had declined / would be D) could have declined / will be E) declined / were 6. Until recently, some scientists ----that many individuals of the same species ----specific tasks better than the same number of individuals from different species.. A) will think / are performing B) were thinking / will perform C) think / ought to perform D) had thought / would be performing E) thought / could perform 7. Recent excavations in Algeria ----that Homo erectus ----there between 500, 000 and 750, 000 years ago.. A) have indicated / resided B) had indicated / has resided C) indicated / would reside D) could have indicated / had been residing E) indicate / had resided 8. North Korea still ----a vast police state that ----a network of concentration camps spanning the country.. A) was maintaining / has included B) had maintained / would include C) is maintaining / had included D) maintains / includes E) maintained / will include 9. Tofino, which ----once a quiet fishing village in Canada, ----a popular year-round resort now.. A) is / is becoming B) had been / became C) has been / had become D) was / has become E) would have been / will become 10. The scientific method ----mankind's greatest means of discovery and progress ever since it was formulated.. A) would have been B) was C) would be D) had been E) has been 28. The wolves that ----in Ethiopia some 100, 000 years ago ----into a separate and rare species.. A) had arrived / will have evolved B) arrive / will evolve C) were arriving / had evolved D) have arrived / evolved E) arrived / have evolved 29. Film music ----significant in many ways, of course, but not as music, which is why the proposition that better composers ----better film music is not necessarily true.. A) had been / shall produce B) has been / should have produced C) is / could produce D) can be / had produced E) would be / produced 30. Ever since James R. Flynn ----his startling results, psychologists and educators ----to figure out whether people really are getting smarter.. A) has published / had struggled B) published / have struggled C) had published / will struggle D) was publishing / had been struggling E) publishes / are struggling 31. Although their responses ----as obvious as those of animals, plants ----the capacity to respond to light, gravity, water, touch, and other stimuli.. A) may not be / have B) have not been / had C) were not / have had D) had not been / are having E) would not be / would have had 32. The United States ----expensive high-tech solutions to the problem of land-mine clearance, but simpler methods ----more preferable.. A) should pursue / were B) pursues / had been C) pursued / will have been D) would pursue / would have been E) has pursued / may be 33. When American independence ----in 1776, twofifths of all settlers ----of non-English origin.. A) was declared / were B) had been declared / would be C) has been declared / had been D) would be declared / could be E) may have been declared / must have been 34. By the early 20th century the local ceramic industry of Kütahya ----more or less to an end, but now the city ----the focus of a revival of this skilled art.. A) had come / is B) has come / has been C) came / was D) would have come / would be E) was coming / will be 35. When Charles ll ----king in 1660, the theatres, which ----by Cromwell, were opened again and new dramatists appeared.. A) would become / had closed B) had become / have been closed C) became / had been closed D) was becoming / will have been closed E) would have become / could have been closed 36. To save money, their government ----back to a 1993 law which ----the army to recruit part time conscripts as auxiliary soldiers.. A) reached / was allowing B) had reached / would allow C) would reach / had allowed D) has reached / allows E) is reaching / has allowed 37. People in England ----books about Turkey since the 15th century, but unfortunately an increase in quantity ----by an increase in quality.. A) had been writing / does not match B) are writing / will not be matched C) had written / are not matching D) have been writing / has not been matched E) wrote / had not been matched 38. Although 25 to 30 per cent of all people ----some form of excessive mood disturbance during their lifetime, only about 10 per cent ----a disorder severe enough to require medical attention.. A) would experience / have had B) experienced / will have had C) had experienced / had had D) will have experienced / would have E) experience / have 39. To the astronomers of the Middle Ages, the most important classical authorities on natural philosophy ----Aristotle and Ptolemy, since both ----frameworks that explained the whole universe.. A) had been / created B) are / have created C) were / had created D) have been / create E) may have been / were creating 40. Of all the arts it ----to classical music that Germany ----the greatest contribution.. A) had been / made B) is / has made C) has been / had made D) was / will have made E) might be / would have made

Focus of the research is to know students mastery on tenses grammar at the First Semester of English Departement of IAIN Palopo. the researcher formulated a research question, "how is the students' mastery on tenses at the first semester of English department of IAIN Palopo? The objective of the research to find out the students; mastery at the First Semester of English department of IAIN Palopo on Tenses. The population of this research was the students at the First Semester English study program IAIN Palopo, researcher used random sampling to technique to choose the sample, This research used quantitative method, the instrument of the test was grammar test. The researcher has concluded that many students still confused in using the form and usage of tense. Researcher suggest, the lecturer should pay attention in teaching about how and forming using tense. The lecturer could explain more clearly about usage and from of tense, student should try many exercises to the student about usage tense.

Dicionário de personagens da ficção portuguesa, 2023

International Journal of Social Inquiry, 2019

Laura Buitrago, Ricardo del Molino, Ángela Parra (eds.), Ecos pompeyanos: recepción e influjo de Pompeya y Herculano en España y América Latina, Bogotá: Universidad Externado de Colombia. Bogotá , 2023

ESI Culture , 2024

LUGARIT, 2024

Journal of Tourism History, 2022

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022

Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 2022

Arkivoc, 2009

Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Computational Approaches to Subjectivity, Sentiment and Social Media Analysis, 2014

Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma, 2013

International Journal of Modern Trends in Social Sciences, 2019

The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2023

Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2019

Statistics in Medicine, 2001

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2017

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

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.

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?

person holding blue ballpoint pen writing in notebook

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.