TEFL Iberia pre-course task

TEFL Iberia pre-course task
Name

First NameLast Name
Email
example@example.com
Course Date

DayMonthYear
Date

Classroom management
1) Imagine the floor plan of your classroom. How would you arrange the students to maximise student-student interaction? Describe below how you would arrange the students and teacher.
Rewrite the following instructions to make them more comprehensible to an English learner.
a) “If you could all sit down that would be great”
b) “Ok so I’m going to ask you a question. Where are you from?”
c) “If you have any questions just give me a shout”
d) “If you would just take a peek at your partner's notes and compare your findings”
Why is it important to make eye contact with all your students?

Language
Imagine an English learner asks you the following. How would you respond?
a) How do you answer the phone in English?
b) What is the correct spelling: specialize or specialise?
c) What is the past of must?
d) Why can you say I’m absolutely furious but not I’m absolutely angry?
e) Is it different from or different than?
f) Do I say I didn’t use to... or I usedn’t to....?

Consider the following piece of spoken language:
Why don’t these alternatives work as well as the original
a) Your heard a sill berk
b) You heard a seal moo
c) You heard bark a seal
d) You’ve heard a seal barking
e) Would you like to hear a seal bark?
f) Dear Albert, You heard a seal bark. Yours truly, Beryl.
g) A marine pinniped mammal going bowwow was audible unto thee.
Each of the alternatives above represent ‘incompetence’ in one of the following systems. Can you match them? The first has been done for you.
Vocabulary: knowledge of what words mean and how they are used.
Syntax: knowledge of how words are ordered and sentences are constructed
Appropriacy and style: knowledge of what language is appropriate according to who one is speaking to, about what and by what means.
Phonology: knowledge of how to produce individual sounds, words and chunks of speech.
Grammar and morphology: knowledge of how words and phrases are marked for tense, person, case, etc.
Knowledge of different types of texts and their conventions (sometimes called ‘discourse competence’).
Knowledge of what forms are appropriate in order to realise one’s communicative purpose (or function).

Dictionaries often provide coded information concerning the connotation of words. The Cambridge International Dictionary of English , for example, uses the following labels:
1. Formal: words and phrases used in a serious way. Formal language is often used when people want to appear polite.
2. Informal: used with friends or family or people you know in relaxed situations. Informal words are more common in speech than in writing.
3. Slang: Informal language which might include words which are not polite.
4. Taboo: words which are likely to offend someone and are not used in formal situations.
5. Literary: words and phrases which are mainly used in literature.
6. Dated: words or phrases which sound old-fashioned.
How would you categorise the following dictionary entries using the above terms?
Knackered
Fatigued
Whacked
Buggered
Ennervated
Dog-tired

Lexis and collocations
What would you need if you were teaching the following?
To rely
To look forward
To depend
To apply

There are many types of multiword units or ‘lexical phrases’, that have become fixed and behave as if they were a single word.

They include:
- phrasal verbs (make up, get over);
- idioms and proverbs (head over heals, the grass is always greener);
- social formulae (how are you?, long time no see);
- binomials (to and fro, back to front);
- discourse markers (mind you, by the way):
- and sentence builders (the problem is that..., if you ask me...).
- There are also many semi-fixed phrases such as a month/year/hour ago; see you soon/later, etc.
Identify the multiword units in this extract from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

Question forms
Translate these questions into a language you are familiar with. Are there any significant differences of form between the way each language structures its questions? (You can skip this question if you have no knowledge of another language)
a) Is Maria Scottish?
b) Do you smoke?
c) Where has John been?
d) Why didn’t Jack come?
e) You’ve seen this film, haven’t you?
f) Could you tell me where the bathroom is?
g) Where do you want to start from?
Which of the above questions are:
yes/no questions
"wh" questions
subject questions
question tags
indirect question

The future
There are a number of ways of referring to the future in English. In each of the following phrases identify the verb phrase that has a future reference. The first one has been done as an example.
a) I reckon it’ll rain this weekend
b) The film starts at 9pm
c) After gathering all the photos I’m going to make an album
d) Maybe I’ll go out this weekend
e) I’m meeting her tonight
f) Will you give me a hand once you’ve finished your book?
In the above examples, which of the verb phrases:
expresses a request?
expresses an intention?
expresses a possibility?
expresses a prediction made by the writer or speaker?
states a fact?
reports an arrangement?

Consider the following table and the root 'love':

Rows	Love
Noun - love
Verb - To love
Adjective - Lovely
Adverb - Lovingly

a) Complete the following table for the noun 'medicine'

Rows	Medicine
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb

a) Complete the following table for the noun 'different'

Rows	different
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb

Complete the following table:

Rows	Object pronouns	Possessive pronouns	Reflexive pronouns	Possessive adjectives
I
You
He
She
It
We
They
You (plural)

Pronunciation and phonology
Look at the exercise above. What is it designed to practise?
What is the teaching objective of the exercise below? Notice the words in italics.

A We were robbed!
B Stripped of everything!
A They jumped out into the road...
B And when we stopped...
A They grabbed me and thumped me in the ribs...
B And said if we didn’t shut our traps...
A We’d be stabbed.
B They tied us up with ropes
A And dumped us in the back of a van
B Finally the dropped us at the bottom of these steps...
A And the polite one I’d described to you...
B Oh, yes he said he was sorry we’d been ‘disturbed’!
A And hoped the ropes weren’t too tight!
B Actually he was rather charming!

Can you explain these invented, but plausible, problems of communication?
a) I asked where the boss was, but they sent me to the bus station.
b) I asked her if she was living here, and she said no, she was staying.
c) I told him I had worked a lot over the weekend, and he asked me how many miles.

TEFL Terminology

Using the internet or a reference book, look up the answers to the following questions:
The communicative approach is one of the most applied approaches to language teaching today. Can you name some of its characteristics?
What is a false friend, in the context of EFL?
What is L1 and L2?
What is realia?
What’s the difference between a choral drill and individual drill?
What do the following abbreviations stand for?
A: ESL
B: ESP
C: TTT
D: CCQ
E: PTV
Should be Empty:

Rows	Beginner	Intermediate	Advanced
angry
mad
annoyed
cross
be in a temper
pissed off
be worked up
furious
irate
incensed
livid
seething
be on the warpath

Rows	First conditional	Phrasal verbs	Reported speech	Comparatives	The passive voice	Third conditional	Question tags	Adverbs of frequency
You’re coming, aren’t you?
stronger, worse, more difficult
I would have come if I had known
always, sometimes, never
come in, get up, push over
I’ve been paid
I’ll tell him if I see him
He said he would help

Rows	Regular	Irregular
Infinitive
Gerund
Past participle
Past simple

Rows	a fixed plan in the near future	an action in progress now	a long term action	a repeated action, often annoying
I'm meeting them tonight
She's always complaining
He's training for a marathon
I'm listening to you

Rows	Noun	Pronoun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb	Preposition	Determiner	Conjunction	Interjection
car, John, friendship
big, red, expensive
you, him, mine
go, lift, sit
quickly, here, often
in, over, on, at
Wow! Hey! Oops!
This, these, those
however, so, nevertheless

TEFL Iberia pre-course task

Classroom management

Rewrite the following instructions to make them more comprehensible to an English learner.

Language

Imagine an English learner asks you the following. How would you respond?

Consider the following piece of spoken language:

Why don’t these alternatives work as well as the original

Each of the alternatives above represent ‘incompetence’ in one of the following systems. Can you match them? The first has been done for you.

Choices often have to be made with regard to the teaching of vocabulary. For example, these words and expressions are included in the Longman Language Activator under "angry". Which of them are more likely to feature in a beginner’s course, an intermediate course and an advanced course?

How would you categorise the following dictionary entries using the above terms?

Lexis and collocations

What would you need if you were teaching the following?

Identify the multiword units in this extract from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

Question forms

Translate these questions into a language you are familiar with. Are there any significant differences of form between the way each language structures its questions? (You can skip this question if you have no knowledge of another language)

Which of the above questions are:

The future

There are a number of ways of referring to the future in English. In each of the following phrases identify the verb phrase that has a future reference. The first one has been done as an example.

In the above examples, which of the verb phrases:

Grammar

Choose the correct definition for each sentence below:

Parts of speech

Pronunciation and phonology

Can you explain these invented, but plausible, problems of communication?

TEFL Terminology

TEFL Iberia pre-course task

Classroom management

Rewrite the following instructions to make them more comprehensible to an English learner.

Language

Imagine an English learner asks you the following. How would you respond?

Consider the following piece of spoken language:

Why don’t these alternatives work as well as the original

Each of the alternatives above represent ‘incompetence’ in one of the following systems. Can you match them? The first has been done for you.

Choices often have to be made with regard to the teaching of vocabulary. For example, these words and expressions are included in the Longman Language Activator under "angry". Which of them are more likely to feature in a beginner’s course, an intermediate course and an advanced course?

How would you categorise the following dictionary entries using the above terms?

Lexis and collocations

What would you need if you were teaching the following?

Identify the multi­word units in this extract from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

Question forms

Translate these questions into a language you are familiar with. Are there any significant differences of form between the way each language structures its questions? (You can skip this question if you have no knowledge of another language)

Which of the above questions are:

The future

There are a number of ways of referring to the future in English. In each of the following phrases identify the verb phrase that has a future reference. The first one has been done as an example.

In the above examples, which of the verb phrases:

Grammar

Choose the correct definition for each sentence below:

Parts of speech

Pronunciation and phonology

Can you explain these invented, but plausible, problems of communication?

TEFL Terminology

Identify the multiword units in this extract from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: