CELTA Assignment Cover Sheet

To be completed by CELTA candidate

Submitted by: _____Alan Mercer____________________________________________

Assignment title: ______Language Skills Related Tasks___________________________

Assignment number: _______3_______________________

Number of words: _____994_________________________

Submitted on (date): ___12/06/2023___________________________

This assignment is my original work and I have acknowledged all sources.

Full name: _____Alan Mercer___________________________

To be completed by CELTA tutor: Kathy Hill 17. 06.2023

Overall grade: PASS on 1st Submission.

General comments:

Well done Alan, this assignment shows you understand the theory behind receptive skills lessons
and how this helps your students develop. You have a variety of task types and each is suitable for
the stage in the lesson where you have put it. You quote from recognised authors. A very useful
assignment.

International House London Teacher Training

A MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL HOUSE WORLD ORGANISATION

Assignment 3 – Language Skills Related Tasks – Candidate Alan Mercer

Choice of Text
The text ‘Family Feuds – or Just Lunch’1 has been used as it is a piece of writing about an issue that
will have been encountered by most people at some stage in their lives: even if someone has not
directly experienced events similar to those described in the article, they will most likely have an
opinion on the matters raised, as it is a theme that they may readily hear on the radio or read in a
newspaper or magazine. This makes the topic more conducive to personalisation and will thus
pique the students’ interest, help engage them and make the reading task more enjoyable.

The length of the article is appropriate as it takes about 2 minutes to read quickly, ideal for a gist
reading task. There is also a lot of useful language, which would make it ideal for a detailed
reading task as well. The text and questions set would be appropriate for an upper intermediate
learner of English.

Lead-in
The lead-in stage could involve the learners being asked to look at a picture of a ‘feuding’ family at
the dinner table, and then being asked their thoughts on the picture as outlined in the appendix.
The ultimate aim is to activate the students ‘top-down’ processing. This is a theory that applies to
both receptive skills, listening and reading. As Scrivener 2 says, ‘…when we listen to a new
dialogue, we start processing the text using skills associated with a theory…”top-down”, ie,
making use of what we already know to help us to predict the structure and content of the text,
and getting a general overall impression of the message.’

Pre-teach
This stage could be merged into the Lead-in stage, ie, when looking at the photo any lexis likely to
cause problems could be covered by the teacher. The purpose of this stage would be to teach any
blocking words in the text in order to help facilitate comprehension. As this is not a main stage of
the lesson, not too much time should be expended on this task, so a maximum of four or five
words would be taught.

Initial Reading Task

This would be practising the sub-skill of reading for gist. The learners are asked to think of an
alternative title for the article. This task should be manageable for the student and give them
confidence to proceed to the next task. Students would be shown the question before being given
a few minutes to read the text and then they could be put into pairs to formulate an answer.
This type of activity is chosen because it is a skill we employ in real life, whether it be reading the
day’s TV listings, the blurb on a book cover or an advert in a magazine. As this is a task that
replicates what we do in everyday life it is more likely to engage the learner – a relatively quick
and achievable task would make for a better educational experience. As Scrivener 3 says, regarding
learners expecting to read texts thoroughly and to stop only when they have understood every
word: ‘…this plodding, word-by-word approach is not the way that we most often do our reading
in real life. In order to make students better readers, we need first of all to raise their awareness
that it’s not always essential to understand every word, and that practising some different reading
techniques in English may be useful for them.’

Detailed Reading Task

This would be practising the sub-skill of reading for detail. More time would be given to reading
the text and there would be 8 MCQs targeted at testing the learner’s finer understanding of the
text. The MCQs would generally follow the order of the text so as not to confuse the learner,
although where a question does involve different parts of the text the sections concerned will be

1
‘Family Feuds’ text, sourced by Kathy Hill, International House London
2
Scrivener, J. (3rd Edition) Learning Teaching, Oxford: Macmillan Education – p 258
3
Scrivener, J. (3rd Edition) Learning Teaching, Oxford: Macmillan Education – p 264

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clearly flagged so the learner will not have to go through too much of the text to get the answer.
Students could be given a longer period of time to read the text than in the initial reading task and
then asked to answer the questions with a partner.
Scrivener4 says the traditional classroom way of reading texts carefully with the intention of
understanding as much information as possible is ’typically a stop/start kind of reading, involving
going back over small pieces of the same text a number of times to find out more and more about
it. This is different to the way we typically read novels and magazines in real life, where we don’t
pay attention to every detail: ‘When we don’t understand word or small sections, we usually just
keep going, maybe only coming back when there has been a major breakdown in our
understanding.’

Productive Speaking Task

Students are asked to answer a few personalised questions related to the text and discuss this in
pairs or small groups. This is an important stage of the lesson as the previous tasks should have
acted to awaken the latent capabilities of the student and they now have the opportunity to
practice this language amongst their peers. As Scrivener 5 says, ‘For many learners, their “passive”
knowledge is much larger than their “active” knowledge…One of the best ways…to help learners
activate this knowledge is to put them in “safe” situations in class where they are inspired and
encouraged to try using language from their “store”.’

Delayed Error Correction

This is the final stage of the lesson where errors are addressed and model answers are elicited
and shown to the students. During the previous productive speaking stage the teacher will have
noted down student errors but delayed correcting them so as not to interrupt the flow of
conversation. Examples of sentences, good and bad, may be written on the board and the
students are praised for good work and encouraged to offer ways of improving sentences. The
students leave the lesson feeling they have achieved something and are making progress.

Appendix
Please see attached appendix for the lead-in, gist reading, detailed reading and follow-up tasks.

4
Scrivener, J. (3rd Edition) Learning Teaching, Oxford: Macmillan Education – p 264
5
Scrivener, J. (3rd Edition) Learning Teaching, Oxford: Macmillan Education – p 213

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APPENDIX

Lead-in Task
Look at the picture of a family having dinner.
Do they look happy?
If not, why not? What do you think happened?
Have you had an argument with your family at dinner?

Initial Reading Task

Read the text ‘Family Feuds – or Just Lunch’ and answer the question below. You have 2 minutes
to read the text.

Can you think of a different title for this text?

Answer
An appropriate response could be something like, ‘Is it important for families to eat together?’

Detailed Reading Task

Select the correct statement in the questions below. Is the correct answer A, B or C?

1. Does the writer of the article think that

A. families should have meals together often?
B. families should have meals together at the weekend?
C. families should have meals together on weekdays?

2. Does the writer of the article think that

A. the quality of the conversation during dinner is important?
B. it is important not to argue during dinner?
C. arguing during dinner can be a good thing?

3. The writer says the family eats together more at the weekends because
A. there is too much noise and chaos during the week.
B. at the weekend there is more time and less going on.
C. the father does not live at home on weekdays.

4. Which is correct?
A. British families used to have meals together more often.
B. Research shows that parents now talk to their children for less than 12 minutes a day.
C. According to the writer it is not good for the family to argue together at the dinner table.

5. Which of the following is correct?

A. Gerry enjoyed eating with his family when he was a child.
B. Gerry doesn’t like eating together as a family now.
C. Gerry’s family meals are less stressful now than when he was a child.

6. Which family has 4 children?

A. Gerry’s family.
B. Andrew’s family.
C. James’ family.

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7. Which family is more likely to eat together during weekdays?
A. Gerry’s family.
B. James’ family.
C. Ben and Angela’s family.

8. Who is more likely to be found eating their dinner on their own in front of the TV?
A. Gerry’s daughters.
B. Andrew’s stepdaughter.
C. Ben’s American friends.

Answers
1. A
2. C
3. B
4. A
5. B
6. B
7. B
8. C

Productive Skills Task

Look at the following questions. What do you think? Discuss with your partner.

1. Do families in your country eat together more or less often than they used to?
2. Do you think it is important that a family eats together?

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 Family Feuds – or Just Lunch?
If you find family meals tense and unpleasant, you're not alone. Alan Jefferson explains.
The nation's eating habits have changed and many families no longer eat together on a regular
basis. To be honest, this doesn't strike me as particularly surprising. Lunchtime last Sunday in my
own home consisted of my two-year-old son happily throwing his food on the floor whilst - yet
again - his older brother and sister protested loudly about the vegetables they were being made to
eat.
Despite the noise and chaos, though, we still prefer to have meals as a family. On weekdays
that's difficult as there are too many things going on and there just isn't enough time for me and my
wife to sit with the children at breakfast. Only our youngest is with his mother for lunch and the
children's supper is too early for me to participate. But we do our best at weekends.
If, as some research shows, parents now talk to their children for an average of just 12 minutes a
day, then our decision to eat together as much as possible is more than justified. Whilst the quality
of the kitchen table chat is not particularly high - a mixture of bad jokes, song lyrics and gossip -
we are at least communicating, which is the main thing, so it doesn't matter to me what the topic of
conversation is. Of course, family meals can be tense and we don't always see eye to eye. But for
me, arguing together is an essential part of family life and all part of learning to get on with each
other.
Gerry, a 35-year-old father of two young girls, would not agree. He had enough of stressful
family meals as a child and now sees them as both impractical and undesirable, ‘I hardly ever get
home early enough to eat with my kids, but I don't particularly mind that it has a lot to do with my
own childhood memories. Mealtimes were very formal occasions, and they provided my parents
with the opportunity to interrogate me about everything Id done that day. I used to feel very
uncomfortable. Later, during my teenage years, the meal table became the scene of terrible rows.
Of course, I’d like to spend less time rushing around and more time with my family, but I don’t
miss family meals at all.’
Andrew finds family meals difficult, but necessary. ‘We’re always having rows, particularly
when the kids start moaning about what’s on their plate,’ he says. ‘Trying to keep everyone happy
isn’t easy, especially with three children under nine who all have different tastes and a teenage
stepdaughter who would much rather be eating her dinner on the sofa in front of the TV. But eating
with others is an important social skill. I want my children to get used to doing it in the home so
that they will know how to eat in public.’
James, the father of two teenage boys, says: ‘The older my kids become, the less contact I have
with them and the more important family meals become. They’re often the only opportunity we get
to talk.’
As a travelling sales representative, James is responsible for his own time management and he tries
to organize his appointments in such a way that he can return to his Liverpool home in time for
dinner with his family at 7.00 pm. ‘I’ve made it a priority,’ he says, ‘because I feel that mealtimes
are an important point of family contact.’
So have Ben and Angela, who manage to get their four children aged 5 to 16 around the table for
weekend family meals. ‘We try to keep everyone at the table for at least half an hour on Saturdays
and Sundays. We have a telly in the kitchen but the kids aren’t allowed to have it on when we are
eating there - that would make the whole thing rather pointless,’ says Ben.
He recalls a recent trip to the States, where his American friends had the television on all day.
‘Different members of the family would wander in at different times, grab something from the
fridge and eat alone, always in front of the TV. I think it’s a shame that Britain is becoming much
more like that now’.

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