CELTA Written Assignment 3:

Language skills related tasks 

Candidate name:
(in capitals and signed​to testify that this is entirely your own work) 

Date: Grades:
❑ ​Pass ❑ Resubmit

Assessment criteria Tutor's comments

a. correctly use terminology that
relates to language skills and
sub-skills

b. relate task design to language

skills practice

c. access reference materials

and reference information
they have learned about
language to an appropriate
source

d. use written language that is

clear, accurate and
appropriate to the task

Tutor name and signature:

❑ Pass (on resubmission) ❑ Fail

Tutor comments on resubmission:

Tutor name, signature and date:

Tutor 2: ​I have read the assignment and agree with the grade and comments.

Signature: _____________________________ Date: _______________________

 
CELTA Assignment 3: Language Skills

Justification of material choice

The learners are a monolingual Russian speaking class of nine adults, who
are doing an Upper-Intermediate course. All of them have already been exposed
to authentic material outside of class, although they still struggle to understand
authentic listening texts. Their interests vary depending on the age and occupation
that is why I decided to focus on the material of general interest aimed at
entertaining. The authentic video I chose is from BBC Radio 1 Youtube channel
(​
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiHj1DcFi2s​). This video shows two
celebrities taking part in the radio game “Alphabeticall”. They have to make a
prank call to the toy shop starting each new utterance with the next letter of the
alphabet.
In terms of developing receptive skills I am planning to stick to the top-down
lesson sequence and the task-feedback circle described in Scrivener’s book1.
Firstly, I will engage students using Lead-in and give the reason for listening and
some background information at the prediction stage. Then students will practice
listening for gist and next listening for specific information. Scrivener says that
most teachers believe that people use this top-down sequence more often in real
life.2 Therefore, I assume that students will greatly benefit from this sequence.
However, as I mentioned before, the students may struggle to understand
authentic material. This video contains textual clues that will help the learners to
get the main idea and some details. Harmer J. pointed out that video is richer than
audio as it fills in background information visually3. And that is one of the reasons
why I chose this video.

RECEPTIVE SKILLS: LISTENING

I assume that any vocabulary new to students is known to them.

LEAD-IN (5 minutes)

Procedure​: Show the presentation slide with questions. Ask students to discuss
them in pairs for 3 minutes. Stop the activity and ask students to talk about their
partner’s experience.

Materials​: Appendix 1

Aim:​set the context of the lesson and engage students

Rationale: ​According to the task-feedback circle presented by Scrivener4, there

should be an introduction to the topic. It will excite students’ interest and contribute
to their general understanding.

1
Scrivener J., Learning Teaching p 253, 259
2
Scrivener J., Learning Teaching p 259
3
Harmer J., How to teach English p 144
4
Scrivener J., Learning Teaching p 253
2 
 
 
TASK 1 - PREDICTIONS (5 minutes)

Procedure​: I give instructions to students to watch the video without sound and
answer the questions. I give them hand-outs. Play the video without sound from
0:45 - 1:06. Students watch and then answer questions in pairs for about 2
minutes. Students answer the questions and I write all their possible answers on
the board to check later.

Materials​: Appendix 2

Aim: engage students by providing them with a prediction task, give students the
reason to listen for gist, enable students to understand more while listening for the
first time

Rationale​: Harmer J. recommends using this activity to give students the clues of
what is happening as students must be ready to listen and engaged with the topic
and the task.5 This activity will help facilitate understanding, which is crucial for the
lesson based on authentic material.

TASK 2 - LISTENING FOR GIST (12 minutes)

Procedure​: Play the video. Students watch it for 7 minutes and check their
answers. Then they compare their answers in pairs for 2 minutes. At WCFB stage
students nominate each other to answer the questions. Other students check.

Materials​: Appendix 2

Aim:​develop students’ listening for gist

Rationale​: If students listen to the material for the first time, it is better to give
them an easy task aimed at general understanding.6 Students are not supposed to
understand each word and it creates a sense of achievement when they are able
to do the task correctly, despite of the fact it is hard for them to catch details.

TASK 3 - LISTENING FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION (12 minutes)

Procedure​: I explain to the students that they need to complete the table
(Appendix 3) with the sentences/phrases that Anna Kendrick used in the dialogue
for each letter of the alphabet. I play the video from 3:32 and till the end. Then
students compare their answers in pairs for 5 minutes which gives them an
opportunity to fill in the answers they could not catch. At WCFB stage I show them
a presentation slide with the correct answers so they could check.It may take
about 3 minutes as there are 26 phrases.

Materials​: Appendix 3

Aim:​develop students’ listening for specific information

5
Harmer J., How to teach English p 135
6
Harmer J., How to teach English p 136
3 
 
 
Rationale​: According to Harmer, later listenings may focus on more detailed
information since students are already familiar with the background.7 I chose
listening for specific information sub-skill because specific information that
students are going to search for in this video (phrases/sentences that start with a
particular letter) represents not only content details of the video, but language use
too. So, this video will be exploited to the full to students’ advantage.

PRODUCTIVE SKILLS: SPEAKING

TASK 1 - DEVELOP SPOKEN FLUENCY (20 minutes)

Procedure​: I ask them to discuss some context-based questions about the video
in pairs for 3 minutes (Appendix 4). At WCFB stage they talk about the things they
come up with and I put all their ideas on the board. It will take about 2 minutes.
Next I give the instructions for the follow-up activity. Students play the same game
as Anna played in the video. I mention that there are going to be 3 winners at the
end of the activity to motivate them. They work in pairs. They take a card with the
place or person (Appendix 5) where/whom one of them has to call. Student A is
calling and Student B is responding and completing the alphabet table (Appendix
6) with the words that Student A is saying crossing out those letters that Student B
fails to use ​(8 minutes)​. Then students take a new card and swap roles ​ (8
minutes)​. At the end of the activity, the class counts the letters each of them
managed to use and choose 3 winners ​(4 minutes)​.

Materials​: Appendix 4, 5, 6

Aim:​develop spoken fluency in the context of the game “Alphabeticall”

Rationale​: This video provides a good opportunity for the students to develop their
spoken fluency. As Scrivener J. noted, if the subject is relevant and interesting,
students will be motivated to talk about it.8 As a follow-up activity the students will
play the same game “Alphabeticall” so it is not only relevant to the context where
they are going to develop their listening skills, but it is also a competitive task.

Word count: 1068 words

Bibliography:
● Harmer, J. (2010) How to Teach English, Harlow: Pearson Longman
● Scrivener, J. (2011) Learning Teaching, Oxford: Macmillan Education

7
Harmer J., How to teach English p 136
8
Scrivener J., Learning Teaching p 211
4 
 
 
APPENDIX 1

Lead-in (self-designed)​:
1) What is a prank?
2) Did you make prank calls when you were a child?
3) Has anyone ever made a prank call to you?
Picture​:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PrankCall

APPENDIX 2
Predictions​& ​Gist-listening task​(self-designed):
1) Who are the people in the video? (Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick)
2) What are they doing? (They’re playing the radio game, making prank calls)
3) Who are they talking to? (Shop-assistants in toy shops)
4) What do they have to do? (They have to ask about trolls in stock starting
each utterance with the next letter of the alphabet).

APPENDIX 3
Listening for specific information ​(self-designed, idea is taken from BBC radio
game “Alphabeticall”):
A Are you there? J Just S Sad. That’s sad

B Buddy, can you here K Kung Fu Panda T Totally random

me? question

C Can you tell me L Let down U Unique

about the troll doll in
stock?

D Do you have any M Madagascar V Very, very cool

troll dolls?

E Even though the N No, no W Well

holidays are coming
up

F For my niece O Obviously, you, X Xylophones

guys, would have big
toys

G Gonna be back in P Princess Puppy is Y You do

like 10 minutes? the character that I’m
looking for

H How should I know Q Quite good Z Zootopia

when to get back in
touch?

I I really appreciate R Really quickly

that

5 
 
 
APPENDIX 4 ​(self-designed)
1) Which letters were the most challenging for Anna and Justine? Why?
2) Think of a strategy you can use to overcome these difficulties.

APPENDIX 5 ​(self-designed)

POLICE STATION ELECTRONICS SHOP DOCTOR

BAKERY PHARMACY POST OFFICE

BEST FRIEND PARENTS BOSS

APPENDIX 6 ​(self-designed)

A J S

B K T

C L U

D M V

E N W

F O X

G P Y

H Q Z

I R

6