RPL Assignment

7/25/2019 RPL Assignment

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Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults

Written Assignment 2

Language Related Tasks

Rusiru Kalpagee Chitrasena

CELTA (Part-time) Trainee- The British Council, Colombo

18-05-2014


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Section 1: Grammar


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Language:

When I arrived at the cinema, the film had started. ( Intermediate)

Meaning:

I arrived at the cinema. The film started before I arrived there.

When there are two past actions, the past perfect is used to refer to the earlier action.

Timeline:

CCQs:

How many past actions are there? (Two)

Did both actions happen at the same time? (No)

Did the film start after I arrived at the cinema? (No)

Did the film start before I arrived ? (Yes)

So, which action happened first? (The film started.)

Pronunciation features to highlight:

The film had started.

/hd/ or /d/

a) The weak form of had

b) Filmand startedare stressed. Hadis unstressed.

c) The contraction of had in spoken form


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Form to highlight:

Anticipated problems:

Some Sri Lankan students may overuse the

past perfect in situations where the past

simple is preferred.1

Solutions:

Use CCQs and examples to highlight

situations where the past simple is

preferred in Standard English.

Bibliography:

Aitken, R. (1992). Teaching Tenses. 1st. ed. Surrey: Thomas Nelson and Sons.

Meyler, M. (2013). Teaching English in Sri Lanka: An introduction to the languages of Sri Lanka, and the

implications for learners and teachers of English. In: CELTA Handbook. Colombo: The British Council, pp

14-25.

Workman, G. (2006). Concept Questions and Timelines. 2nd. ed. S.I.: Chadburn Publishing.

1 The use of the past perfect as a distant past tense by some learners in the Indian-subcontinent ( Aitken,

1992:58) and the overuse of the past perfect by Sri Lankan learners to report something which the speaker did

not experience first-hand (Meyler,2013).


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Language:

My grandfather would always have sweets in his pocket for us. (upper-intermediate)

Meaning: In the past, my grandfather always had sweets in his pockets for us, but now he doesnt.(Probably he is no longer alive.)

Timeline:

CCQs:

Did my grandfather carry sweets in his pocket in the past?

Does he carry sweets in his pockets now?

Did he carry sweets once or many times?

Pronunciation Features to highlight:

a) The pronunciation of the labiodental approximant [w]b) Consonant+ vowel linking (liaison) in [wdlwez]c) The weak form of have

Form:

[w]

My grandfather wouldalways have sweets in his pocket for us.

[wdlwez] [hv]


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Anticipated Problems:

The students may get the TL confused withthe other uses of would (e.g. secondconditional, expression of politeness, andetc.)

The students may not grasp the differencein meaning when would is used with astate verb. (e.g. He would know it.)

Solutions:

Use CCQs to show them that it refers to apast habitual/regular action which doesnthappen anymore.

Explain to the students that they cannotuse wouldwith state verbs to refer to apast habit.

Bibliography:

The British Council (2014). Language Awareness: Tenses, CELTA Input notes. The British Council,Colombo on 05-05-2014.

Underhill, A. (1994). Sound Foundations. 1st. ed. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann.


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Language:

Its too heavy to lift. (pre-intermediate)

Meaning:

It cannot be lifted because of its weight. Toosuggests that something has more of something than isgood, valuable or normal (Scrivener, 2010).

CCQs:

Is it heavy? (yes)

Is it very heavy? (yes)

Can we lift it? (No, we cant.)

Why cant we lift it? (Because its heavy.)


Distinguish between the pronunciation of tooand the weak form of to.

The stresses are likely to be on tooand lift, but heavymay also be stressed instead of too.However, both too and the heavywill not be stressed at the same time.

Form:

too+ adjective + to-infinitive


The students may overuse tooinstead of really/very.

Solutions:

Show them that toois generally used in anegative sense (i.e. when the qualifydescribed by the adjective is not good,normal or valuable)

Bibliography:

Scrivener, J. (2010). Teaching English Grammar: What to Teach and How to Teach it.1st. ed. Oxford:Macmillan.

Its too heavy to lift.

/tu/ / t/


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Language:Youre filthy dirty! What have you been doing? (Intermediate)

Meaning:

This question uses the present perfect continuous to refer to the result of a recently stopped activity.

Contextualization (personalized story).E.g. I was digging a pit in my garden. I was sweating like a pigand there is mud on my shirt. At the end of it, I looked filthy dirty. My neighbour sees me when I was justgoing about to finish the work and says: Youre filthy dirty! What have you been doing?

CCQs:

Did he want to know why Im dirty?(Yes)

Did he talk about an action I started in the past? (yes)

Did he mean that my action stopped a long time ago? (No)

Did he mean that my action has just now stopped? (Yes.)

Did he talk about an action that I have continued until now? (Yes)

Can he still see the result of my action? (Yes)

Timeline:

Pronunciation Features to highlight:

The weak form of have

Stress on what and doing

Falling intonation in WH-questionsForm:


Students may avoid using two auxiliaryverbs

Students may get confused about thedifference between beenand being

Solutions:

Record them clearly in the substitutiontable, when focusing on form.

Use error correction for concept-checking.

/hv/What have you been doing?


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Bibliography:





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Section 2: Vocabulary


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Language:

Library vs. bookshop (elementary)

Meaning:

Library: a place with a lot of books that you can read or borrow (take away for some time)

Bookshop: a shop that sells books

Use pictures of a library and a bookshop to illustrate the difference.

CCQs:Can we buy books in a library?Can we take books away from a bookshop (i.e. borrow them) without paying?


lib-ra-ry / labrri /

bookshop / bkp/

Form to highlight

Library: countable noun with an irregular plural form (ends withy) (library libraries)Bookshop: countable compound noun written as one word.

Anticipated problems

Students may misspell the plural form oflibrary.

Solutions:

Highlight the plural form of library, whenfocusing on form.

Bibliography:

Cambridge Dictionaries Online (2014). Essential British English Dictionary[online]. Available from:. [Accessed 15-05-2014].


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Language:

He looked the word upin a dictionary. (pre-intermediate)

Meaning:

Look something up: to look at a book or computer in order to find a piece of information

T will use a situational presentation to explain this phrasal verb. T will write an uncommon and possiblycomplicated word that the students would not know. T will then ask a student whether he knows themeaning. T will then give a dictionary to a student and ask: xxx, Why dont you look it up in thedictionary?

CCQs:

Did he know the meaning of the word? (No)What did he do to find out the meaning? (He looked it up in a dictionary.)


When the object is a noun coming between the verb and the particle, the stress is generally on thenoun. (Underhill, 2005)

Form to highlight

Look up the word Look the word up

Look it up Look up it [Error]


The Students may get confused with theform when the object is a pronoun (.e.g.look up it)

Solution:

Highlight with an example that the pronounis inserted between the verb and theparticle.

He looked the word up in a dictionary.


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Bibliography:

McCarthy, M. and O'dell, F. (2004). English Phrasal Verbs in Use. 1st. ed. Cambridge: 2004.

Underhill, A. (2005). Pronunciation and phrasal verbs. MED Magazine [online]. 34. Available from:.[Accessed 15-14-2014].


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Language:

She couldnt make ends meet with 3 children and so many bills. (advanced)

Meaning:

To make ends meet (idiom) = to have just enough money to pay for the things you need

Contextualization: Poor Sarah committed suicide last week. She couldnt make ends meet with 3children and so many bills.

CCQs: Did she have a lot of money? (No)Did she find it easy to raise three children?Did she find it easy to pay so many bills?Did she have enough money to pay for the other things she needed? (No)Why did she commit suicide? (Because she couldnt make ends meet.)


Careful pronunciation: /i kdnt mek endz mit w ri tldrn nd smeni blz/

PotentialSimplification2; /iknt mekndzmit wri tdrn n smenibz/

In rapid speech, make ends meet may be articulated as a simplified stream of speech by vowel

reduction and linking, i.e. as /mekndzmit/

Form:idiom (fixed expression)

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The students may try to insert words into thefixed expression, e.g. make the ends meet

The students may take the meaning literally.

Solutions:

Highlight that idioms are fixed expressions.

Highlight that the meaning of an idiom isgenerally not the same as the meaning of itswords.

Bibliography:

Thornbury, S. (2002). How to Teach Vocabulary. 1st. ed. Essex: Pearson Longman.


2 As suggested by Underhill (1994), teachers should deal with the features of connected speech after students

have grasped the pronunciation of sounds and words in isolation. It may be appropriate to do so with advanced

level students.

3The verb, makecan be modified to indicate tense change.


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(Word count: 1181 words)

Bibliography:


Cambridge Dictionaries Online (2014). Essential British English Dictionary[online]. Available from:

. [Accessed 15-05-2014].

McCarthy, M. and O'dell, F. (2004). English Phrasal Verbs in Use. 1st. ed. Cambridge: 2004.

Meyler, M. (2013). Teaching English in Sri Lanka: An introduction to the languages of Sri Lanka, and the

implications for learners and teachers of English. In: CELTA Handbook. Colombo: The British

Council, pp 14-25.

Scrivener, J. (2010). Teaching English Grammar: What to Teach and How to Teach it.1st. ed. Oxford:Macmillan.

The British Council (2014). Language Awareness: Tenses, CELTA Input notes. The British Council,

Colombo on 05-05-2014.

Thornbury, S. (2002). How to Teach Vocabulary. 1st. ed. Essex: Pearson Longman.


Underhill, A. (2005). Pronunciation and phrasal verbs. MED Magazine [online]. 34. Available from:

. [Accessed 15-14-2014].


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