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!
[...] Musings of Ms. Volatyle « CELTA Assignment: Language Analysis [...]
Hi,
I am doing my CELTA Assignment 1: Language Awareness Task.and I have a few questions that need some help with. The below sentences are wrong and needs correction. Identify the errors and explain the reason for correcting them.
1)The assistant picked up all the pieces of broken glass and put it in the rubbish bin. (I thought it should change to them).
2)I’m not well. I’m having a cold. (I thought the cold should change to a flu).
3)I love this park. My father brought me to one last week but it wasn’t as nice as this one. (I thought it should end as not as nice as this. But I don’t know how to explain it or if it’s the error I was supposed to look for).
Can you help?
Thanks!
1)The assistant picked up all the pieces of broken glass and put it in the rubbish bin. (I thought it should change to them).
You’re right, ‘it’ should be ‘them’. In the sentence segment, ‘put it in the rubbish bin’, the subject ‘it’ is referring to the ‘pieces of broken glass’, and hence should be plural.
2)I’m not well. I’m having a cold. (I thought the cold should change to a flu).
No, the correct answer is –> I’m not well. I have a cold. This is because when you’re sick, it’s a state of being. You must use the present tense in this case, not present continuous.
3)I love this park. My father brought me to one last week but it wasn’t as nice as this one. (I thought it should end as not as nice as this. But I don’t know how to explain it or if it’s the error I was supposed to look for).
The correct answer according to me is –> I love this park. My father took me to one last week but it wasn’t as nice as this one.
Americans may disagree because they use ‘bring’ and ‘take’ interchangeably, at least colloquially. The usage of bring vs take depends on your point of reference. You bring something where you are, you take something to another place (which is different from where you are). Here’s a more detailed explanation of the difference between ‘bring’ and ‘take’ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/bring.html
I posted your question to the Forum on my blog too, to see if any other visitors to the site respond.
Lemme know if this helps.
sentence 2: I’m not well. I have a cold. (no need to make it flu, which is entirely a different disorder)
sentence 3: I love this park. My father took me to one last week but it wasn’t as nice as this one. (no other change required)
-Ranjan (my friend too lazy to log in here) (still love you Ranjan)
1. the assistant picked all the pieces of broken glass and put them in the rubbish bin.
im not sure ‘up’ should be there either.
2. I’m not well. I have a cold. ( you either have or not, cant be having i think)
3. my father took me to one last week, but it was nt as nice as this one. ( it would have been (brought) if her father had taken her to the park in question.
-Ranjani (another friend too lazy to log in) (still love you lots babe)
Hi,
I am currently doing a CELTA course and have nearly finished. Only have 1 last hour to teach and one last assignment to do. Only I’m finding it hard on how to conceive this last assignment. It’s the “Lessons from the classroom” one, the one you make a reflective essay on the course.
Would you have any tips to help me?
Regards, Sarah.
Hey Sarah,
Just like one does for the first three CELTA assignments, one must follow the guidelines strictly for the fourth assignment too.
The difference is, you need not stress out on this assignment. You can write it more informally than the first three.
To begin with, write a few words about how you feel at the end of the course. Is there a sense of achievement? Do you feel more confident as a teacher than you did on the first day of mock-teaching?
Next, you have to describe your growth curve through the course. Don’t forget to mention: (1) what you learned from your fellow CELTA-mates (2) what you learned from the feedback of your trainers (3) what you learned from observing experienced teachers (4) your strengths and weaknesses through the course, and how you overcame/plan to overcome the latter
Quote the written feedback from your trainers as often as possible. Quote any feedback your SS gave you. Mention specifically the tips your colleagues gave you, and how you put them into practice in your classes.
Hope this helps. Which countries do you want to teach in after your CELTA?
hello
your download function has stopped working, pls can you fix it
thannks
It’s been fixed. Was a temporary issue with the plugin. Thanks for pointing it out!
I’m doing the CELTA next month… Glad I found your blog
Thanks for posting tips and your assignments will surely be a big help.
Hi,
I have just found the sentences on internent, someone had problems dealing with his assinment.So, i had a shot on it. PLZbe welcome to correct and harshly Criticize //
Assignment 1: Language Awareness
1-‘’She used to drive to work’’
Meaning:
A old behaviour or a reccurent past action, which are nolonger taking place in the present. It is a habit or a reccurent past action that someone put an end to.
Use:
We use this segment to express a damped behaviour or a past reccurent action which are quit and no longer happening in the present.
IllustrativePresentation Context:
Last year,when she lived in the suburb ,she always drove to her work. This year she moved to the city. Now, she nolonger drives to her work. She just walks a couple of blocks to reach her office.
Marker Sentence:
‘Angela used to drive to work.’
Pronounciation Features:
The stress falls on “Angela”,”drive” and “work”.
“Used” is liknked to “to” and is prounouced as /ju:st tə/.
Concept Cheking 1:
-Did she drive to work ? YES
-Does she Drive to work now ? NO
-Does she walk to work now ? YES
Concept Cheking 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:
Wiillia 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:
Willaim had his house repainted.
Pronouciation 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 becomed 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 compaired 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 foreget.Or to talk about something has been recalled and done.
The differnce between ‘remember to’ and ‘remembered to’ is:
-‘remerber 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 foreget it.
‘Remembered to’ is used to express something has come into someone s mind and consequentetly 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 foreget 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 Cheking:
-Had Jakie 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 foreget 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 saty 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.
Pronounciation 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 pronouces as one segment /gət,ᴧʊt,əf/ and in American speaach the /t/ sound becomes an/r/ sound, so it becomes pronouces as /gər,ᴧ:ʊr,əf/.
Concept cheking:
-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’.