BKC - International House Moscow

CELTA Course

Written Assignment One FOCUS ON THE LEARNER

Length: 750-1000 words
Due: 5 November

Aim
To develop your ability to assess the needs of a language learner, and to act on this information
by finding appropriate material for language support.

To prepare for this assignment

1. Interview 2 of the TP students in the class you observe on Day 1. Collect information
about their language learning background, using the forms below (Appendices 2-4). Choose
one of these 2 and draw up a learner profile for this student.
2. Observe this student closely during classes (preferably on the days when you are not
teaching). Look at issues such as how they act, react and interact, what they say, how they
appear to study, take notes, use a dictionary, etc.
3. Observe this student’s use of (a) grammar, (b) vocabulary, and (c) pronunciation, and
in each of these 3 areas, write down some examples of particularly successful language use
and some examples of errors.
4. Refer to Learner English by Smith and Swan. This has information about typical errors
associated with a range of different languages.

This assignment is divided into 3 parts, totalling 750-1000 words.

Part 1: Background (250-300 words)

Write a learner profile of the student including all the relevant information which you obtained
in the interview:
• L1 and knowledge of other languages
• Education (including previous English language learning experiences)
• Cultural factors affecting their learning
• Motivation (reasons for learning English)
• Learning preferences
• Language areas (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation) and/or language skills the
learner thinks he/ she needs to improve.

Part 2: Establishing Strengths and Weaknesses (400-500 words)

Use your notes of the student’s language from the interview and the lessons and decide what
you feel his/ her key strengths and weaknesses are as a learner and comment on the following:
● The student’s communicative ability (making themselves clear, dealing with not
understanding, fluency, appropriacy)
● His/ her abilities re TWO particular skills: one receptive (reading/ listening) and the
other productive (speaking/writing).
● His/Her overall strengths/ weaknesses in language.
● Identify ONE problem that the student has problems with in EACH of these areas of
language: GRAMMAR, LEXIS, PHONOLOGY. Support these with a minimum of THREE
examples of the same problem to ensure that these are genuine areas for development rather
than isolated mistakes.
● For each error, explain what the error was and why you feel the student made it.
Include phonemic script when detailing pronunciation errors.

See the example below, detailing an area of phonology.

 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

Error type Example Possible reason

Pronunciation of sounds /ð/
and /θ/
‘the’ /ð/ is pronounced as /z/,
‘something’ /θ/ is pronounced
as /s/.
Examples: 1) this /z/ year, 2)
thank /s/ you, 3) thirteen /s/
The sounds /ð/ and /θ/ are not
found in the students’ L1 and
‘present major difficulties and are
often replaced by /z/ and
/s/’(Swan, 1997). This is L1
interference.

Part 3: Identifying Areas of Language Development (200-250 words)

Select TWO activities from published sources which will help this student to address the
problems outlined in the grid. Choose two of the areas of language identified as the learner’s
weakness and pick one activity for each of them. These activities cannot come from the
coursebook you have been using with the students for teaching practice.
● Describe the aim of the activity.
● Provide a clear rationale for choosing these activities, i.e. why you feel it would suit
this particular student in terms of her learning preferences, interests, preferred interaction
patterns, etc.
● Explain briefly how you will use them in class, including what stage you see it fitting
into a lesson.

For example:

My student (Elena) has problems choosing when to use present perfect and when to
use past simple. I would use a gap-fill activity where she has to choose between past
simple and present perfect to help her practise this (see attached exercise from ......).

In class, I would briefly re-elicit the use of the past simple and present perfect and
then give her this exercise as controlled written practice before providing less
controlled oral practice.

Elena likes to have things in writing and, as I mentioned in part 1, she enjoys this
type of activity; I think this is because she is quite intolerant of ambiguity and likes
to be sure she is correct before using the language in her own output. The context of
sentences is travelling, which interests Elena - she is learning English because she
wants to communicate easily when travelling.

● Attach a referenced copy of your two selected activities

NB Look through different text books and resource books available in the Teacher’s
Room or in Teacher Training for tasks that would suit your learner’s needs.

You should include a bibliography at the end of the assignment, giving the titles and
authors of the books you used in writing this assignment.
 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

Assessment Criteria (Cambridge ESOL) – A pass assignment shows candidates can:

● show awareness of how a learner’s background, previous learning experience and
learning preferences affect learning;
● identify the learner’s language / skills needs;
● correctly use terminology relating to the description of language systems and language
skills;
● select appropriate material and / or resources to aid the learner’s language
development;
● provide a rationale for using specific activities with a learner;
● find, select and reference information from one or more sources;
● use written language which is clear, accurate and appropriate to task.

FAQs

Q. Can the suggested activity be an exercise from a student's self-study grammar book?
A. YES. We want you to suggest one activity (for grammar and one for pronunciation or lexis,
so two in total), but this can be an activity, a short exercise, a task, anything you think is
appropriate for their problem area, either spoken or oral. You do not have to plan a whole
grammar presentation - one activity is all the rubric asks for.

Q. Can I use a task that I have designed myself?

A. NO. Part of the point of this assignment is to demonstrate that you can seek out appropriate
materials from published sources. This can be a coursebook, a supplementary resource book, a
self study book, an activity found on the internet, or any other suitable source, but in this
assignment it is not a task that you design yourself (although you might suggest an
adaptation).

Q. Can the suggested activities provide practice through listening and reading?
A. YES. But you should justify why this is appropriate for your student and the grammar/
lexis/ pronunciation point you are working on.

Q. Can the activity be something the students do at home on their own?

A. NO. You can decide whether you would ask the students to do the activity on their own, or
as pair/group work. That is up to you. But it should be incorporated into a lesson.

Q. Should we write out the procedures for the activities?

A. YES, briefly, so that it is clear you understand how the activity works and what stage of the
lesson it is for. That will also help you formulate a clear rationale.

Q. Do we have to state the word count and bibliography as part of the assignment?
A. YES.

Potential Pitfalls
-Not collecting enough data to refer to in Parts One and Two;
-In Part Two, making only general comments and not providing examples, e.g. “The student is good at
grammar” rather than “The student has a good command of past tenses both with regular and irregular
verbs”.
-In Part Three, not referring to problems outlined in Part Two;
-In Part Three, if the activity doesn’t deal with the exact problem identified in Part Two or not
explaining the rationale for its selection (including linking this to information from Part One).
-No photocopied activities in the attachment.
 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

Appendix 2

LEARNER PROFILE QUESTIONNAIRE

Name: ________________________________________________________

Age: __________________________________________________________

Nationality: ____________________________________________________

Profession: ____________________________________________________

Native language: _______________________________________________

Other languages spoken: ________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Level of English: _______________________________________________

Period spent studying English: ___________________________________

Previous learning experience: ____________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Reasons for studying English: ____________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Something easy about English: ____________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Something difficult about English: _________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Your favourite/most disliked activities in class: ______________________

_______________________________________________________________

Appendix 3 (for a student)

 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

Student
Questionnaire

Ask your partner. Take notes!

What is your job?

What are your hobbies?

When did you start learning English?

Why are you learning English?

(e.g. travel, work…)

Which makes learning easier for you? (Seeing things on the board, listening to the teacher,
doing a lot of active tasks)

Which English-speaking countries have you been to? Which would you like to go to?

What do you do outside of class to improve your English?

What do you like doing in class? (speaking in groups, with a partner, grammar exercises,
reading, listening, writing, games, role plays, moving about the room, working with words)
What don’t you like doing in class?

Which area of your English do you want to improve the most?

What makes a teacher a good teacher? (A teacher who is friendly, etc.)

 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

Appendix 4 (For a
student)

Student (name) _____________________

Student’s partner (name) ___________________

Now write a letter to the teachers about your partner!

 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

Part 1: Background: L1 and other languages, education (inc. English language learning experience),
cultural factors,motivation, learning preferences, language areas/skills to improve. Write in continuous
prose.
Uliana (24 years old) is Russian, and Russian is her mother tongue. She has been studying English for
one year. At school and university she mostly focused on German. As German and English are both
Germanic languages a lot of lexis is quite similar, so her knowledge of German may help her greatly in
studying English. The other factor which she can benefit from is that she already knows strategies of
acquiring a foreign language. Her age suggests that she graduated from a university a year or two ago,
that means she still remembers how to learn, which is also very helpful. Uliana works as a PR-manager,
so her job is quite intellectual and involves analytical skills, which contributes to language learning as
well. Among other things which can facilitate her language acquisition is the fact that outside the
classroom she watches films with subtitles.

Uliana is very punctual, she is always on time for lessons, also she hasn’t missed any lessons so far, but
this learner isn’t very organised as she doesn’t have a copybook for English notes. She has intrinsic
motivation, which is not very strong. In the learner profile questionnaire she has written that she
studies English for self-education and another reason is that she wants to go to the USA. So she doesn’t
have an urgent need to learn English.

As for learning preferences, in the same questionnaire she indicated that speaking is the skill she would
like to improve.

When it comes to her personality, Uliana is quite reserved, and rarely smiles. Uliana’s learning style can
be described as active and experiential as she isn’t afraid to make mistakes and she often volunteers to
answer.
 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

Part 2: Establishing Strengths and Weaknesses

Skills: Communicative ability, abilities re TWO particular skills, overall language strengths and
weaknesses. Write in continuous prose.
As for her communicative abilities, I’ve noticed that she can deal with difficulties effectively. For
example, when she needed more time for finishing a task, she asked the teacher to give her extra
time. Moreover, she asked it in English and she was polite.Also, she uses functional language such as
‘Excuse me’, ‘I don’t understand’, ‘I don’t know’ quite confidently. She can express her ideas quite
well and can convey meaning successfully without much hesitation and pausing between sentences.
She doesn’t stutter, she has clear pronunciation.

Regarding to her weaknesses, she mispronounces some words, which I will discuss further. Also,
sometimes she makes occasional mistakes in using collocations. For example, she said, ‘Does she
like hospitals’ instead of ‘Does she work in hospital’. She struggles with grammar. For example, she
usually skips articles (Lidia is designer), mixes up auxiliary verbs (Does she a manager?) also she
uses the wrong word order (She eats ice-cream often).

Speaking about her two particular skills that I need to analyse I would like to focus on reading and
speaking. In her questionnaire Uliana points out that reading is the easiest skill for her. It’s probably
because she has got used to reading as her work demands dealing with texts. She usually finishes reading
tasks early and does them correctly. For example, she was the one who found specific information ‘We
don’t eat well’ from the text about online groups at my grammar lesson.
Uliana’s favourite activity is speaking, so she likes working with a partner. She enjoys such activities and
tasks as Information Gap, Guess Who and role plays. However, she finds speaking difficult and wants to
practice it more. I think it’s because of her shy nature. She usually speaks quietly.

Language
Error type Examples Possible reason (refer to Swan as
appropriate)
Grammar (identify the 1. Lidia see a film. ‘In the third person singular Russians
problem) 2. She like red. often omit the suffix –(e)s’
She doesn’t add ‘S’ using 3. Lidia eat ice-cream. (Swan, 2001)
Present Simple with 3rd person Because she wants to convey the
singular meaning and focuses on fluency she
forgets to add ‘S’.
Lexis (identify the problem) 1. Can I speak I usually go to ‘A number of widely used words
She confuses the verbs speak, the cinema? have different rules of usage from
tell and say 2. I say my friends I want to go their closest Russian equivalents.’
to the cinema (Swan, 2001) The words ‘speak’,
3. Lidia says me she wants to ‘say’ and ‘tell’ have a very similar
go to the park meaning, that’s why it’s very difficult
for the learner to differentiate these
words.
Phonology (identify the 1.watches /s/ When she tries not to forget to add
problem) 2. likes/z/ the suffix -(e)s using Present Simple,
Incorrect pronunciation of S at 3.plays /s/ she doesn’t pronounce the suffix -(e)s
the end of verbs in Present correctly.
Simple 3d person singular
 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

Part 3: Identifying Areas of Language Development

Activity 1 (aim, procedure, rationale) Write in continuous prose.
My student (Uliana) has problems using Present Simple with 3d person singular. She often omits the
suffix -(e)s. For her I would use a gap-filling exercise. (See attached exercise 5.3 from Essential
Grammar in Use by R.Murphy) In this exercise students should choose correct verbs and put them in
the correct form. This exercise is not her favourite activity, as it’s not interactive and communicative,
but it’s aimed at accuracy, so that she could pay attention to the form.
I’ll give this exercise after a quick revision of Present Simple with all pronouns by eliciting the rule from
students. After students have done the exercise by themselves, they’ll check in pairs and I’ll give
feedback. Then we’ll continue with freer practice.

Activity 2 (aim, procedure, rationale) Write in continuous prose.

My student (Uliana) confuses tell, speak and say. For her I would use activity where she should
paraphrase the sentences. (See attached exercise 48.2 from English Vocabulary in Use Elementary by
M. Mc Carthy and F. O’Dell) It’s a writing activity, where she creates phrases which she will use in
speaking.
I’ll give students the text where these verbs are used and ask students to underline them. Then I’ll teach
students meaning, pronunciation, form. After that I’ll give ss a gap-filling exercise. Only then I’ll give ss
this exercise for paraphrasing. It will be a semi-controlled practice before freer practice.
 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

This is my own work. Signed _______________

Word count: 966

Bibliography
Swan, M and Smith, B (2001). Learner English. 2nd Edition, Cambridge , UK
Mc Carthy, M and O’Dell, F (2017) English Vocabulary in Use Elementary. 3rd
Edition, Cambridge, UK
Murphy, R (2007) Essential Grammar in Use, 3rd
Edition, Cambridge, UK

CELTA Written Assignment 1: Focus on the Learner
Candidate name: Natalia Vishnevskaya      
                               

Assessment Criteria 1st
sub
2nd
sub
● showing awareness of how a learner’s background, previous 
learning experience and learning preferences affects learning.

● identifying the learner’s language and or skills needs.

● correctly using terminology relating to the description of language 
systems and/or language skills

● selecting appropriate material and/or resources to aid the learners’ 
language development

● providing a rationale for using specific activities with a learner

● finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more 
sources

● using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to 
the task

Pass/  Date 1st marker 2nd marker

 BKC - International House Moscow
CELTA Course

Resubmit/ 
Fail
1st submission:
                      
Pass or Resubmit?
2nd submission:
Pass or Fail?
Comment