Assignments

Cambridge CELTA Written Assignments Criteria

Assignment 1 – Focus on the Learner

Grade: Pass
Pass on
resubmission
Fail

Candidate’s name: _______Sean Stanley_______________

Date submitted: ______14/5/21___________________________

Date resubmitted (if _______________________________________

applicable):

I declare that this assignment is my own work and I have not copied from others nor
let them copy from my work.

Candidate’s signature: _________sean stanley___________________

Editor’s name (if _______________________________________

applicable):

Specific assessment criteria:

 showing awareness of how a learner’s/learners’ background(s), previous

learning experience and learning style(s) affect learning

 identifying the learner’s(s’) language/skills needs

 correctly using terminology relating to the description of language

systems and language skills

 selecting appropriate material and/or resources to aid the

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

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

Tutor’s comments:

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Grade:

Tutor name:
Tutor signature:

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You are allowed one resubmission. Include the original with the
resubmission.Assignment 1: Focus on the Learner

Length: 750 – 1000 words

Aims:
 Assess the needs of a particular learner, taking the learning context into
consideration
 Find materials to address the specific needs identified
 Write a rationale explaining why those materials help address the needs
identified

There are three parts to the assignment. Use the headings below.

Part 1: Learner Profile

200-250 words
Through the interview and writing task, obtain information about the learner’s:
a) language learning background - Find out if they have studied
English before and if so, where, when, for how long and to what level they
studied.
b) language learning experience - What style of teaching have they
experienced before? e.g. teacher-centred, rote learning
c) motivation for learning English - Why are they learning English?
d) age, interests, job, first language, cultural background

Part 2: Language Needs

350-400 words
After interviewing the learner, looking at a sample of their writing and observing the
learner during TP, identify some of the learner’s relative strengths and weaknesses
in:
- Skills
o What can the learner do well in class? What do they struggle with? Do
they usually get the correct answers? How do they deal with
misunderstandings?
- Language
o What are the specific language errors you have observed? Why do
you think the learner is making these errors? (use Learner English for
this)

You should take into account what the learner should be able to do at their level,
what their motivation for learning English is and how they use English in their daily
life.

Part 3: Helping the Learner

300-350 words

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Choose 2 different areas of weakness from Part 2 (e.g., one grammar- past simple
vs. present perfect and one pronunciation- /r/ and /l/ difficulty) and find a piece of
material to help the learner improve in each area. You can structure Part 3 as
follows:
a) Weakness (from Part 2):

b) Material identified (including relevant copyright information):

c) How it helps the learner (with reference to the specific error and this
learner):

Please attach all materials as appendices to this assignment.

Tips:

 Be sure to clearly connect all 3 parts of this assignment

 Examples of spoken and written errors you have observed provide good
evidence of why you consider these specific areas weaknesses
 The reasons the learner may be making these errors can be found in the book
Learner English which is located in the CELTA library
 Other good reference material includes The Practice of English Language
Teaching by Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English by Jeremy Harmer or
Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener (these were the recommended course
books)
 Materials that help explain the area of weakness and provide practice are
likely to be most beneficial (e.g., pronunciation material that explains how to
make /r/ and /l/ sounds and then provides targeted practice)
 Specify whether the materials are to be used as self-study or in-class material
and why

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Interview Sheet

Student’s name:

Through the interview, obtain information about the learner’s:

a) Language learning background. Find out if they have studied
English before and if so, where, when, for how long and to what level they
studied.
b) Language learning experience. What style of teaching have they
experienced before? e.g. large classes, one-on-one, in a foreign country,
teacher-centred/student-centred
c) Learning style. How does the student like to learn? e.g.
groupwork, individually
d) Motivation for learning English. Why are they learning English?
What are they going to do with it in the future?

NB As you listen, note down any errors in grammar, vocabulary and phonology

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Assignment 1 – Focus on the Learner

Part 1: Learner Profile

The learner I interviewed was Sergio Lage. He is in his 20's, from Brazil and his first

language is Portuguese. He is interested in singing, playing the piano and travel. He

mentioned that in his native language he had a childhood problem with stuttering

which he mostly overcame through his interest in singing, while the problem doesn't

effect him so much when speaking English. He has studied English for 3 years up

until now, on his own, in New Zealand as well as in Sydney and Perth in a class

environment. His language learning experience consisted of one on one learning as

well as in classrooms and because of his time in English speaking countries like

Australia and New Zealand, he has several years experience of learning the language

in the environment of an English speaking country. Most of his English language

learning has been on his own doing things like watching American TV shows. He

likes learning on his own as well as in a class environment with a teacher. His main

aims behind learning English are related to employment. He currently works in a

warehouse as a store man and hopes gaining fluency in English will help him with his

job prospects.

Part 2: Language Needs

Sergio does well in discussions with other students and has the confidence to try what

is being asked, as well as to ask questions to the teacher. I noticed that he might

struggle with phrasal verbs as is common with English language learners. In my TP2

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session he asked about the difference between get in and get on and why we use get in

when referring to a car and not get on. He tends to ask questions if he doesn't

understand and seems to understand the explanations so I would tend to say he is

more capable in English than some of the other students.

Some errors I have observed include syllable-timed rather than stress-timed speech,

while pronunciation of syllables which would be unstressed tends to be over

emphasised. I have noticed he has a tendency to pronounce the long /i:/ sound as in

'reach' as if it was the shorter sound vowel, as though it was the same as 'rich', and the

tendency to pronounce fool as thought it were full, due to the absence of an equivalent

to the longer vowel in Portuguese. Also I noticed the presence of the common mistake

where a word ending in 'ed', for example 'shocked' is pronounced as 'shock-ed' instead

of the correct pronunciation; 'shockt'. Furthermore the presence of fewer diphthongs

in Portuguese leads to the confusing of the vowel present in words like hear and hair,

which I have noticed in his speech. Also common to notice in his speech was the /z/

which occurs in the ends of English words, particularly verbs such as 'runs', 'goes' etc,

is something that doesn't occur in Portuguese, so this sound tends to be articulated as

an /s/. One other thing that I noticed is that, as mentioned in “Learning English”, since

there is no equivalent in Portuguese for how we sometimes use the '-ing' form of

words as in “Do you mind waiting for a few minutes?”, Portuguese speakers tend to

replace this with the infinitive, ie. 'to wait'. In his writing, Sergio made this error when

he wrote “there is no cure or medication to stutter” instead of “...for stuttering”. There

is the tendency in Portuguese to drop the 'to be' or pronoun from a sentence since it

can be inferred from the context. I noticed in his speech this same tendency, where he

would drop the 'it' from a sentence, such as 'it is good', becoming 'is good'.

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Part 3: Helping the Learner

In this section, I have decided to choose the issue of pronouncing minimal pairs in

English and secondly the tendency to move towards use of infinitives instead of the

gerund due to the absence of this in Portuguese. In romance languages such as

Portuguese there is a tendency to not hear the difference between the long and short

vowels such as /i:/ and /i/ as in “reach” and “rich”, so it can become difficult for the

learner to hear the difference between similar words containing both of these

phonemes like “bit” and “beat”, “hit” and “heat” etc. Sometimes there is a tendency to

use only one of the vowels at all times or something in between. In order to help the

learner I found some YouTube videos where the difference between the two

phonemes is explained in detail; see reference page. The position of the mouth when

making the individual sounds is demonstrated, then numerous examples of minimal

pairs are given so that the learner might start to hear the difference in pronunciation.

The student can watch this video and listen to the presenter demonstrate the sound

differences between minimal pairs so they can learn to hear the difference, then they

can copy what she is saying as self practice.

Secondly, regarding the issue of using infinitives instead of using the gerund as in the

example of “to wait” instead of “waiting”, since there is no equivalent in Portuguese

for this, I tried to find some YouTube videos that explain the use of gerunds and

infinitives in English. The video I found, linked in references, explains the subtle

difference between the use of the infinitive and gerund forms. In it, the presenter

explains that there is no real hard and fast rule regarding when to use the infinitive or

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when to use the gerund, it is just necessary to learn the difference through practice and

exposure. She gives a lot of examples that show the difference in conventional usage

for each form, when using one gives a slightly different meaning or would be

grammatically incorrect. This kind of video would help the learner by making him

aware of the issue, explaining the problem and giving a lot of examples showing the

subtleties involved in using one or the other. Perhaps in the beginning the learner

would tend to default towards using the infinitive because that is how it is in his

native language but now, since the learner would be aware of the issue he could focus

on that in his daily use of the language. I also found some self study exercises for

practicing when to use the gerund or infinitive; link provided in references.

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References & Appendices

Smith, B, and Swan, M. 1987 Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and
Other Problems. Cambridge University Press.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55a1bb03e4b072e2b123e170/t/5a122b078165f5
61f54e2bd5/1511140106233/swan-learnerenglish+145+to+161+Russian.pdf

“/ɪ/ vs /i:/ | Learn English Pronunciation | Minimal Pairs Practice”

https://youtu.be/gme2kr9hhXg Accessed 11 May, 2021

“How to use GERUNDS and INFINITIVES | Confusing English Grammar”

https://youtu.be/v2_Qic03XFI Accessed 11 May, 2021

“Gerunds and Infinitives Exercise 1”

https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/gerunds-and-infinitives-exercise-1.html
Accessed 11 May, 2021

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