CAMBRIDGE CELTA

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: LANGUAGE SKILLS RELATED TASKS

Part A

Write a summary of key points on reading comprehension and reading skills. This
summary should act as an introduction to Parts B to F below.

What follows is a breakdown of key points on designing a typical English Language
Teaching (ELT) lesson with the aim of developing reading comprehension and reading
skills.

Reading like listening are receptive language skills and developing these skills is key to
increasing students (Ss) comprehension and appreciation of the English language. At the
beginning of a typical ELT lesson it is good to lead-in by activating the Ss schema, that is,
their pre-existent knowledge of the world (Cook, 69, 1989). By encouraging Ss to bring to
the ELT environment what Ss already know, the opportunity for language learning is
maximised.

Tasks that require the skimming technique can be set. This allows Ss to first get an
overview of the text, known also as the gist of the text. There are many different
examples of texts that could be skim read. Whats important is that the right questions are
asked about the text less so what sort of text it is. For example, J, Scrivener comments
that questions could be asked of short stories like, Is this passage about Jills memories
of summer or winter? Or Is this story set in a school or restaurant?

This approach is in contrast to tasks where specific information is required where students
are encouraged to use the scanning reading skill. Comparing the two, Harmer uses the
metaphor, of looking at a forest, or instead, studying the individual trees within it
(Harmer, 270, 2007). Scanning of course is the latter, and involves looking at individual
trees. Brochures or the phone book could be used as examples of good scanning texts.
Again the type of question posed is important. For example as Harmer writes, a few
pages of Ulysses by James Joyce [could be used] and [the students] ask[ed] . . . how
many full stops they can find.

It is logical to begin with skimming activities because moving from the general to the
specific . . . allows students to get a feel for what they are seeing . . . before they attack
the text in detail.(Harmer, 270, 2007) Further to this point, successful use of skimming
activities will also often be connected with general understanding of whats asked of them
in the scanning activities.

It is important to set tasks that challenge Ss appropriately otherwise Ss may, lose heart
and gradually disengage. (Harmer, 272, 2007) To avoid this there are a number of
different approaches, one of them is pre-teaching vocabulary. This enables teachers to
reduce the barriers to Ss comprehension of texts.

Authenticity is also important whereby texts are used that use modern, everyday
language. It is important that Ss feel that what they are learning is relevant to them. What
is relevant is also likely to be of interest. It seems reasonable to assume that students
learn best where they are interested and engaged. Choosing resources with graded
language can also be highly useful.

It is always important first of all to tell Ss what the purpose of a task is and give clear
instructions. In that context the intensive reading skills that have been discussed thus far
are productive activities. Ss can do the tasks with the intended aim of developing their
reading skills and comprehension.



Bibliography

Scrivener. J. 2005. Learning Teaching (Second Edition). Macmillan.

Harmer, J. 2007. The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th edition) Pearson Longman.


Part B

Read the attached article from the Bay of Plenty Times (04.03.2010). Think of a
question (or questions) that learners could discuss in pairs as a lead in to the text. Say
why you think this/these question(s) would be effective.

Have you been to any New Zealand beaches? Why/why not?
What are some nice things to do at the beach?
What do you think the dangers are at the beach?

These questions would be effective because they are open questions that will stimulate
discussion rather than closed (yes/no, one word answer) questions that do not promote good
speaking activity. I think that these questions would be effective because the article deals with
the beach and for most people the beach is seen as a nice place to go so it would stimulate
Ss interest in the subject. The questions also link to what will appear in the text that addresses
the Ss lives and past experiences.

Part C

The following eight words appear in the article.


surf (n), (v) help (v) climb[-ing] (v) drift[-ed] (v)

rip (n) paddle (v) beach (n) volleyball (n)

Decide which four you think will be new for learners and you will need to pre-teach, and
which four you will not need to pre teach. Describe how you will elicit the four words.

It is likely that the Ss would know the following words.

help (v)
climb[-ing] (v)
beach (n)
volleyball (n)

And it is likely that the words that would need to be pre-taught are.

Surf (n), (v)
drift[-ed] (v)
rip (n)
paddle (v)

Surf (n), (v): It would be good to show an image of a surfer on a wave where you could see waves
behind the one he was catching. You could point to the waves and explain about the way waves
break as they approach the beach. You could then explain the verb by pointing to the surfer and
say that he was surfing.

drift[-ed] (v): To explain drift you could draw a diagram of a river and explain that when things are
moved by the water they drift. A log, leaf or toy boat can drift.

rip (n): Again an image of surf would be useful in this regard, providing that it was a longshot where
you could see the whole beach. You could draw arrows on to this that show the waves coming in to
shore and draw other arrows heading out to sea to show that sometimes the waves exit the beach
together creating a rip.

paddle (v): The teacher could act this out by pretending theyre in the water and miming paddling
with their hands. Explain that what theyre doing is called paddling.


Part D

Below are three suggested tasks that could be used as initial reading tasks. Only one
of these tasks would give learners practice in gist (or skim) reading. Choose which
task you think would be most suitable. Provide a rationale for your choice and say
why the other two are not suitable.

Task 1

Read the text quickly and make a list of everyones names.

Task 2

Read the text quickly and say what happened at the beach.

Task 3

Read the text quickly and decide which summary is correct.

a) The article tells the story of how a mother and her two sons saved a
volleyball player who got into trouble at the beach.
b) The article tells the story of a mother and her two sons and how they got
into a dangerous situation at the beach, but were saved.

Task 3 would be most suitable because Task 1 and 2 require a detailed reading of the text.
An understanding that could only be achieved were the text to be scanned. It is also
suitable because sometimes its difficult to ask the Ss to practice skimming/gist reading
unless they properly understand what skimming/gist is. Task 3 gets around this problem by
giving a clue as to what the gist might be by detailing in answer B the gist. At the beginning
of the activity when you can say to the Ss that they got the answer right or wrong using
Task 3 they would have had an opportunity not only to get the answer correct but also to
better understand what practice in skimming/reading for gist is.


Part E

Below are three suggestions for structuring a detailed reading task for the article.
Decide which two suggestions are most appropriate for the article and which one is
not. Provide a rationale for your decision.

Suggestion 1: Get learners to order the events in the story correctly.

Suggestion 2: Get learners to imagine what they would do in the same situation.

Suggestion 3: True / False statements about the events in the story.


Suggestion 1 and Suggestion 3 are the most appropriate because they require detailed reading of
the text whilst Suggestion 2 would only require students to skim the text. Its possible to know that
Suggestion 1 and 3 are detailed reading tasks because you wouldnt be able to complete them by
just skimming.
To achieve Suggestion 1 learners would have to order the events in greater detail than the detail
offered by B) in Task 3.
Write a detailed reading task using the structure of only one of the two appropriate
suggestions.

1. Lana Maguinness was a champion NZ surfer T/F
2. The beach was called Main Beach T/F
3. The kids were building a sandcastle when a wave came and swept them out to sea. T/F
4. Sol was found 100km out to sea T/F
5. Out at sea, Sol was very relaxed T/F
6. Craig Wearne plays sports T/F
7. Craig first saved Noah and then swam to Lana and Sol T/F
8. They were all saved thanks to the New Zealand Fire Service. T/F
9. The two adults that helped the family were good swimmers T/F
10. Lana Maguinness should have been more careful. T/F

Key:
1. F
2. T
3. F
4. F
5. F
6. T
7. T
8. F
9. T
10. T



Part F


Describe what kind of follow up speaking activity you would get learners to do after
they had finished the detailed reading and understood the information in the text.

You could hand out some statements that you had prepared. Explain that these statements
are not necessarily true.

The beach is a nice place to go during the winter.
You should always watch your children at the beach
You shouldnt let your children swim in the water
Nobody should be aloud to go to the beach

They could discuss them in pairs, there could then be a group discussion where you nominate
people especially the quiet ones.