Now I know every CELTA center sets its own assignments for its CELTA trainees but I don’t think they are vastly different from center-to-center. For one, Fernanda, the Brazilian woman who was at St. Giles International in San Fran with us showed us a bunch of assignments that her friend did at the Sao Paolo center, and they weren’t so different.
You can download this assignment with the link below. I haven’t posted it here for two reasons – it’s a really long assignment (like 5 pages in MS Word), and I’m too lazy to post it here!! 
Of course, if you’re a current CELTA trainee, you could just take these assignments, make a few minor tweaks and present them as your own. But the assignments are usually so easy (and interesting) that it’s fun to apply your brains and get them right!
Of the four assignments we had to do, only the first was seriously boring. The CELTA trainers are really annal about the guidelines set by Cambridge. It’s best to talk with your co-CELTA trainees and ensure you have understood the guidelines in the same way you have.
This assignment was really helpful in giving us an idea of how to do language analysis in our lesson plans too (and all CELTA trainees must do the language analysis for every grammar and vocabulary lesson they teach, which is more than half the lessons you would be teaching during the course)
For this assignment, we were given phrases for language analysis. Everyone in my class had to resubmit this assignment because none of us really understood then how annal our CELTA trainers – Maureen and Gabi – were going to be.
The four phrases we had to analyze were
- Used to
- Get over
- Would you mind
- To ‘get’/'have’ something done
We had to analyze the language items by presenting its basic meaning and use, an illustrative context, a marker sentence, pronunciation features, concept checking questions (CCQs) and the grammar form/pattern.
Anyway, check it out. If nothing else, it will give you a great template to analyze language items for your lesson plans.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD –>
If you’re a current CELTA student looking for help with your assignments, you might want to peek and see what I wrote in my CELTA assignments. They’re all available for free downloads. Drop me a line if these were useful. Cheers!
1. Hi,
I have just found the sentences on internet, someone had problems dealing with his assignment .So, i had a shot on it. PLZ be welcome to correct and harshly Criticize //
Assignment 1: Language Awareness
1-‘’She used to drive to work’’
Meaning:
A old behaviour or a recurrent past action, which are no longer taking place in the present. It is a habit or a recurrent past action that someone put an end to.
Use:
We use this segment to express a damped behaviour or a past recurrent action which are quit and no longer happening in the present.
Illustrative Presentation Context:
Last year ,when she lived in the suburb ,she always drove to her work. This year she moved to the city. Now, she no longer drives to her work. She just walks a couple of blocks to reach her office.
Marker Sentence:
‘Angela used to drive to work.’
Pronunciation Features:
The stress falls on “Angela”,”drive” and “work”.
“Used” is linked to “to” and is pronounced as /ju:st tə/.
Concept Checking 1:
-Did she drive to work ? YES
-Does she Drive to work now ? NO
-Does she walk to work now ? YES
Concept Checking 2:
-Did she drive to work ? YES
-Is the work still far ? NO
-Does she need to drive to work now ? NO
-Does she walk to work now ? YES
Grammar Pattern:
Angela+used+to drive
Subject+used+ infinitive
2-“ I had my car repaired yesterday”
Meaning: To have something done to you by someone else. To arrange someone to do something for you.
Use: The form is used to talk about something done by someone else to you.
Illustrative Presentation Context:
William knows nothing about painting. The walls of his house were in a rough state, as they started to peel off. Peter calls an agency to get it painted. The agency sends a painter to repair it. The house is repainted.
Marker Sentence:
William had his house repainted.
Pronunciation Features:
The stress fall on “William”,”house” and “repainted”.
The word ‘had’ is linked to the first letter of ‘his’ or ’her’ .In speech, it becomes pronounced as
/hæd/ /iz/ or /ər/.
Concept Cheking1:
-Does the house need to be painted ? YES
-Does William know how to fix it ? NO
-Did William call for a painter ? YES
-Did the painter paint the house? YES
Concept Cheking2:
-Could William paint his house ? No
-Did he have to call for someone to paint it for him ? YES
-Did the painter fix it ? YES
-Is the house painted ? YES
Grammar Pattern:
William+has+his+House+painted.
Subject+has or had+possessive adjective+object+past participle.
‘Remember to post the letter compared to ‘ Remember to post the letter’
Meaning:
‘Remember to’: is to recall and not to forget something.
Use:
The form is used to remind someone to do something, so, he won’t forget. Or to talk about something has been recalled and done.
The difference between ‘remember to’ and ‘remembered to’ is:
-‘remember to’ is used to address someone to remind him to do something that has not been done yet and to make sure he won’t forget it.
‘Remembered to’ is used to express something has come into someone s mind and have been done.
Illustrative Presentation Context:
When Jackie travelled to France, she asked he friend to take care of her fish. She loves too much her fish. She kept calling her friend on the phone to repeat telling her not to forget feeding the fish. As a matter of fact, the friend took a good care of the fish and fed it all the time.
Marker Sentence:
‘Remember to feed my fish’.
The friend remembered to feed the fish.
Concept Checking:
-Had Jackie travelled? YES
-Had she left her fish with a friend ? YES
-Did she kept calling her friend to make sure she is feeding her fish ? YES
-Did the friend forget feeding the fish ? NO
Grammar Pattern:
Remember+ infinitive
Subject+verb remember in past participle form’ remembered’.
‘To get out of doing something’
Meaning:
To run away from doing something.
Use:
This form is used to talk about someone who escapes doing something.
Illustrative Presentation Context:
The kid did not do his homework. He does nott want to go to school. He pretends he is sick to stay in bed. The mom thinks her kid is really sick and leaves him to rest. The kid did not do his homework and does not go to school.
Marker sentence:
The kids get out of doing his homework.
Pronunciation Features:
The stress falls on ’Mark’ ,’get out of doing’ and ‘homework’.
The form can be used in both simple tenses; present and past.
‘get out of doing something’ is pronounced as one segment /gət,ᴧʊt,əf/ and in American speech the /t/ sound becomes an/r/ sound, so it becomes pronounced as /gər,ᴧ:ʊr,əf/.
Concept checking:
-Did the kid do his homework ? NO
-Did the kid faked sickness ? YES
-Did he escape doing his homework ? YES
Grammar Pattern:
To get out of+V in the form of a gerund ’doing’.
Hi, it looks similar to the posted one.
I am doing the assignment right now but do not understand it at all. I am about to give up on the course. Is there anyone out there who can help me?
Hey.. Have a look at the assignments posted here. They’ll give you an idea about how much detail the CELTA requires. Don’t give up on the course. ESL is a great field to be in. Cheers!
Oh, I have Lilithian, I am such a slow learner. I do get it eventually but atm it all looks ‘Chinese’ to me.