Cett Paper-1 Methodology January-2011

PAPER 1 - METHODOLOGY

Copyright 2011. Hellenic American University. Office for Language Assessment and Test Development.

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PAPER 1 METHODOLOGY

Overview

This paper of the CETT tests knowledge of language teaching methodology. There are 5 sections in this paper, which cover the following areas:

Section 1 Reflecting on classroom scenarios 20 pointsSection 2 Error correction 10 pointsSection 3 Lesson planning 15 pointsSection 4 Responding to students’ writing 10 pointsSection 5 Methods and techniques in TESOL 25 points

Total 80 points

Note:

• You will have one hour and 45 minutes to complete Paper 1.• Use pen throughout the test.• Write all your answers in the test booklet.• Make sure you write your answers clearly.• You will not be assessed on your use of language in this paper.

Communicative English Teaching Test

SECTION 1: REFLECTING ON CLASSROOM SCENARIOS 4

SECTION 1: REFLECTING ON CLASSROOM SCENARIOS _____ / 20 POINTS

In this section you will read and reflect on two classroom scenarios. In note form, you should respond to each scenario with the 5 most important pieces of advice for improving the lesson and a brief rationale (justification) for each. Pay special attention to the class profile.

Example:1. Advice: Allow the students time to look over the questions before listening. Rationale: By reading the questions first, the students can get an idea of the topic of the listening and what information they are expected to focus on.

Scenario 1

Class profile: 12 pre-intermediate level students, 10 – 12-years-old

“I wanted to present and practice the Present Perfect Passive. I wrote the name of the grammar structure on the board and then gave the rule and explained the structure. Some of my explanations were in Greek as the students do not always understand the English terminology. Next I gave them two examples, which we translated:

The bridge has been built.The sentences have been read.

After this I told the students to do an exercise in their book where they transformed unrelated sentences from active to passive. They were very slow and many could not do it at all.”

1. Advice: _____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________

2. Advice: _____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________

3. Advice: _____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________

4. Advice: _____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________

5. Advice: _____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________


SECTION 1: REFLECTING ON CLASSROOM SCENARIOS 5

Scenario 2

Class profile: 12 upper intermediate students of around, 14 – 15 years old

“I wanted to develop fluency in speaking and to encourage students to cooperate by exchanging information. I began by explaining that each student would receive a card containing notes about a famous inventor and his/her invention: four inventors, one per card. I then randomly put my students into groups of 4. While I was explaining what they had to do – exchange the information that was on each card – some groups began to chat. During the activity, I monitored the groups but found that many students were not participating. Unfortunately, in the feedback stage, when I asked the class what they had learnt, most students said they could not remember.”

6. Advice: _____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________

7. Advice: _____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________

8. Advice: _____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________

9. Advice: _____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________

10. Advice: ____________________________________________________________________________

Rationale: ___________________________________________________________________________


6 SECTION 2: ERROR CORRECTION

SECTION 2: ERROR CORRECTION _____ / 10 POINTS

In this section you will read and reflect on two classroom scenarios that relate to correcting students’ spoken errors. In note form, suggest:• one possible course of action open to the teacher, explaining why it is appropriate• one remedial activity for the next lesson which is appropriate for the scenario given and is clearly

explained. The course of action and remedial activity suggested for Scenario 1 should be different from what is suggested for Scenario 2.

Scenario 1

In a pre-intermediate class of 8 adults, the teacher has presented the present perfect with the word ‘ever’, has done a controlled exercise, and now has the students doing a mingling activity in which they ask each other questions to find out what they have done at least once in their lives, e.g., “Have you ever ridden a horse?”

The teacher notices three students using the wrong form of the past participle, saying, for example, ‘Have you ever took…?’ instead of ‘Have you ever taken…?’

11. Course of action: ____________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

12. Remedial activity: ____________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________


7SECTION 2: ERROR CORRECTION

Scenario 2

An advanced level class of 10 teenagers are doing a pair work activity which will help to prepare them for a speaking test. They are asking each other questions about family, studies and free-time activities. The teacher notices that many students are using ‘of course’ inappropriately in their responses, e.g.,

- Do you have any sisters or brothers?”- * Yes, of course. I have two sisters.

13. Course of action: ____________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

14. Remedial activity: ____________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________


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SECTION 3: LESSON PLANNING _____ / 15 POINTS

In this section you will read and reflect on 3 extracts from lessons. For each one:1. Match the extract to the stage of the lesson in the box below.2. In note form, give one reason for your choice of the stage.3. In note form, give three reasons why you think the teacher chose this particular activity.

SECTION 3: LESSON PLANNING

A] In the following lesson extract, the teacher’s main aim is to present and practice tag questions that confirm information to a group of adult elementary students.

In pairs, students are asked to think of two things that they think are probably true about the teacher. The teacher gets Ss to ask her/him questions about these things. e.g., Are you from Athens? Do you drive to school?

The teacher responds but adds, in a friendly way, that if they know the answers, why are they asking her/him these questions. Then s/he adds that there is a different way they could ask their questions and gives an example,You’re from Athens, aren’t you?

15. The stage of the lesson: _______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

16. One reason for your choice of the stage:__________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

Three reasons why you think the teacher chose this particular activity:

17. ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

18. ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

19. ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

Lead-inIntroducing new languageControlled practice of new language Freer practice of new language


9SECTION 3: LESSON PLANNING

B] In the following lesson extract, the teacher’s main aim is for the students to improve their writing by focusing on their choice of adjectives. It is a low-intermediate level class of 11-13 year-olds.

The students have just read a story containing an excess of high-frequency adjectives like good, nice, fun and completed a table that practices scanning a text for information.

Now in pairs they are looking at sentences taken from the story. Their task is to replace the high-frequency adjectives by selecting other adjectives in a box that would make the story into a more successful piece of writing.


______________________________________________________________________________________


______________________________________________________________________________________


22. ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

23. ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

24. ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

Lead-inPre-readingWhile-reading Post-reading


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C] In the following lesson extract, the teacher’s main aim is to develop fluency in speaking. It is an upper-intermediate class of 14-16 year-olds.

For homework the students found pictures from magazines that represented both past experiences and activities and things which they would like to do in the future. They created individual posters with these cut-out pictures. In today’s lesson the posters have been displayed around the classroom and the students have been divided into teams A and B. Now each student from team A is standing by her/his poster and explaining the pictures to a team B student who, in turn, is asking some questions. Later, Team B students will talk about their posters.


______________________________________________________________________________________


______________________________________________________________________________________


27. ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

28. ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

29. ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

Lead-in Pre-speakingWhile-speakingPost-speaking

SECTION 3: LESSON PLANNING


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SECTION 4: RESPONDING TO STUDENTS’ WRITING _____ / 10 POINTS

A teacher has read the following two texts written by students at upper intermediate level, and has written comments for four criteria for the assessment of writing: content and development, organization and connection of ideas, linguistic range and control, and communicative effect.

Read the comments for each of the criteria in the box below and then look at the two texts. Decide for each of the criteria whether the teacher has chosen to write a comment from A., Strengths or B., Areas for Improvement. Write A or B for each of the criteria.

SECTION 4: RESPONDING TO STUDENTS’ WRITING

A. Strengths B. Areas for improvement

Content and Development

You have fully developed the topic.

You have included details which support your argument.

You have not fully developed the topic and so the content is limited.

Some of the content of your writing is irrelevant to the topic.

Organization and Connection of Ideas

Your writing shows appropriate, clear organization.

You have used connectors appropriately.

The organization of your writing is very basic.

Although you do use some standard connectors, your ideas are not always well connected.

Linguistic Range You use a good range of grammar and vocabulary.

You have used a limited range of structures.

Linguistic ControlYour grammar and vocabulary is mostly accurate, although there are occasional errors.

You have made frequent grammar and vocabulary errors which make your writing difficult to follow.

Communicative Effect

Your writing shows that you are aware of who the reader is and the type of text you are writing, making your text easy to follow.

You seem to have misunderstood who you are writing for and the type of text you are writing, which makes your text difficult to follow.


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Task: Letter Write a letter explaining how to increase the use of public transportation. Explain why many people are not using public transportation now. Describe specific actions the city can take to improve the situation. Start your letter, “Dear City Officials”.

Dear City Officials,

I am a high school student and I read the newspaper about “Public Transportation Campaign”. I think that I have some advices for make people leave their cars at home.

People do not use often the public transportation because are expensive and commuters not want to pay tickets all the time. Also public transportation do not the necessary chairs. Sometimes they have scratch chairs or they do not have sits for people old who needs help. I think they are not clear and people are not want to go with them. An other reason public not to use them is that always they not in the station on time. People only waste their time waiting public transportation.

If you want more people take public transportation you must to low the ticket’s price and you must to clear and fix the buses. Also you must to make again the time which the bus must be in each station and punish the bus drivers if they are late.

I hope to help you with my advice because the traffic and pollution in the city center is a harmful thing for all the people and public transportation can help solve this problem.

Sincerely yours,Alexandros Pappos

SECTION 4: RESPONDING TO STUDENTS’ WRITING

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION CAMPAIGN*

Many people who work and shop in the central area of the city drive cars to get there instead of using public transportation (buses, trains, etc.) This causes traffic and pollution problems. City officials want more people to take public transportation. They want to find out from citizens what can be done to make more people leave their cars at home.

* This writing stimulus and task have been taken from a University of Michigan ECCE sample paper

Put A or B for the following:


30.


31.

Linguistic Range

32.

Linguistic Control

33.


34.


13SECTION 4: RESPONDING TO STUDENTS’ WRITING

Task: Letter Write a letter explaining how to increase the use of public transportation. Explain why many people are not using public transportation now. Describe specific actions the city can take to improve the situation. Start your letter, “Dear City Officials”.

Dear City Officials,

I’m a student at first class in high school. I read this paragraph and I want to tell you my opinion about public transportation and how important it is.

I’m using public transportation every day because without it I can’t go to the school or other places. I think that people don’t use public transportation because they are bored to wait for about twenty minutes the bus. You wait there twenty minutes, the bus is full of people and you can’t take it. You haven’t other opinion only to wait for the other.

The big reason that people don’t use public transportation is because when you take your own car you are calm. You aren’t bored. You can go to your job fast and not wait for public transportation. I think that some people don’t use public transportation because some people are afraid to use the subway because people are very afraid of this underground ‘bus’.

For me, and I think for all people, public transportation is very big opportunity for people to use that for their movement around the city to go to work or school.

Yours,Maria Tsogas

Put A or B for the following:


35.


36.

Linguistic Range

37.

Linguistic Control

38.


39.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION CAMPAIGN*

Many people who work and shop in the central area of the city drive cars to get there instead of using public transportation (buses, trains, etc.) This causes traffic and pollution problems. City officials want more people to take public transportation. They want to find out from citizens what can be done to make more people leave their cars at home.

* This writing stimulus and task have been taken from a University of Michigan ECCE sample paper


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SECTION 5: METHODS AND TECHNIQUES IN ELT _____ / 25 POINTS

In this section you will circle the best answer to each question, based on your knowledge of effective communicative language teaching techniques.

40. Personalizing activities or examples is important because…A. it exploits the holistic approach to teaching.B. it enhances the learner’s chances of retaining the target language. C. it helps students build a richer vocabulary.

41. Lack of organization of ideas is a very common problem in student writing. The most effective way to deal with this is…A. to give students model essays to read for content.B. to have students proofread each other’s writing.C. to encourage students to produce an outline before writing.

42. In a lesson to help students develop interaction skills, upper intermediate level students are asked to discuss and prioritize a list of suggestions for a new sports center. Which of the following would be the most useful pre-activity?A. To ask the whole class whether they go to sports centers and why. B. To revise the superlative forms of the most frequently-used adjectives.C. To elicit some of the functions used to express agreement and disagreement.

43. Which of the following activities would be most effective in promoting critical thinking skills with a group of advanced level students who have read an article entitled “Alternatives to prison”?A. To ask students to find all lexical items with a negative connotation.B. To ask students to find at least one point in the text they disagree with and to be prepared to

say why.C. To ask students to work in pairs to find three quotations in the text and then do research to

find out the authors.

44. During a lesson aimed at presenting the Present Continuous for present actions, the teacher includes this example sentence in a practice exercise: “Paul’s meeting a client this evening for dinner.” A student asks if this is a present action. While planning this lesson, the teacher did not…A. want to present all uses of the Present Continuous, but should have.B. fully think about the use of the target structure in different contexts.C. use the tense appropriately in this particular sentence.

45. During an activity to develop fluency in speaking, an intermediate-level student produces the following sentence, “If I had worn a jacket to the park, I won’t be sick now.” Another student asks the teacher if it is wrong. What would be the best course of action to take?A. To interrupt the speaking activity and give an explanation to the students. B. To approach the student inconspicuously and say you’ll answer the question during the break.C. To explain to the whole class that this grammar point will be covered later.

SECTION 5: METHODS AND TECHNIQUES IN TESOL


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46. If discipline is a problem in a class of elementary-level young learners, which of the following would be the most effective way of dealing with it?A. To use a gesture recognized by all students to request silence or to stop activities.B. To write instructions for all your pair and group work activities on the board. C. To place all the more talkative students together in the front of the class.

47. When writing a lesson plan, the teacher should…A. include as many pair and group work activities as possible.B. ensure all activities contribute to achieving the lesson’s objective. C. generally focus on helping students develop one skill per lesson.

48. Which of the following criteria is the most important to consider when selecting an authentic text to use with upper-intermediate level teenagers?A. The text contains a number of useful new vocabulary items.B. The text will motivate the students to read. C. The text can be exploited for both during and post-reading tasks.

49. Which is the most effective way to develop learner autonomy in the area of vocabulary development? A. To encourage more able students to help less able students to complete vocabulary-focused

activities.B. To do an activity in which one student guesses the word a partner defines.C. To do exercises that train students to use both bilingual and monolingual dictionaries.

50. An advanced level student writes in an essay, The legislators were gossiping about the potential shortcomings of the bill. Which of the following comments would be most helpful? A. The verb ‘gossip’ does not collocate with ‘bill’.B. The verb ‘gossip’ is too informal for this context.C. The verb ‘gossip’ is too negative to use with ‘bill’.

51. A student asks her/his teacher if ‘two’ and ‘to’ in the sentence, Two of the teachers took their students to the zoo, have exactly the same pronunciation in everyday speech. Which of the following is the best brief response?A. Sometimes they do.B. Yes, they do. C. No, they don’t.

52. “Merry birthday” is an example of what linguists call…A. an incorrect associationB. an incorrect collocationC. an incorrect connotation

53. A waiter approaches a customer who is looking at a menu and says, “What do you want?” That question is an illustration of…A. inappropriate register.B. incorrect function.C. incorrect collocation.



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54. A teacher decides to include a glossary for 2-3 key words in a reading text and not to pre-teach any vocabulary in class. The main reason for this is to…A. help the less able students in the group.B. enable the students to skim the text faster.C. enable overall comprehension of the text.

55. Beginner students have already been introduced to some irregular plural noun forms. A few weeks later a number of them produce this error: “The childs are playing.” An informed teacher sees this as an indication that the students…A. are generalizing the rule about how to make nouns plural.B. need to spend more time doing controlled practice exercises with plural nouns. C. need to be tested informally more often in the target language.

56. The speakers in a coursebook recorded listening material using many different English accents. What is the most important reason for this? A. To prepare students for the kind of variety of English they will meet outside the classroom.B. To make the listening tasks more motivating so that the students want to listen. C. To ensure that the listening tasks are challenging and cannot be done by guesswork.

57. Students can sound more natural when speaking if they are taught to …A. avoid any form of hesitation.B. fill pauses with expressions like, “You know”.C. speak quite slowly, focusing on correct pronunciation.

58. Not all advanced-level students understand the value of doing writing tasks in class. Which of the following reasons is likely to be the most convincing?A. It will help you to consolidate the language you are learning.B. It will help me - the teacher - to evaluate your progress.C. You will end up with a final version you can study from later.

59. What are the potential problems of teaching pairs of antonyms such as new / old?1. The learner may feel overwhelmed by the number of lexical items to be mastered.2. The words may have more than one opposite, depending on context.3. True antonyms are rare.4. Students may mix up the meanings.5. They are too abstract for students to visualize. A. 1 and 3 B. 2 and 4 C. 2 and 5

60. After a group of young learners (7 – 11 year olds) have become very familiar with a particular story, which of the following would the students likely find to be the most engaging? 1. Re-order the pictures of the story. 2. Act out the story using their own words.3. Talk about the use of tenses in the story.4. Invent a new title and ending to the story. 5. Write the story in their own words. A. 1 and 3 B. 2 and 4 C. 4 and 5



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61. Which of the following two techniques would help a teacher to produce the most effective instructions?1. Plan in advance what you are going to say.2. Put students into groups and then give the instructions.3. Repeat the same set of instructions twice.4. Use non-verbal gestures.5. Have a student read the instruction aloud instead of the teacher. A. 1 and 4 B. 2 and 4 C. 3 and 5

62. Which of the following are the most valid reasons for using L1 in the language classroom?1. It can be used to facilitate student-teacher relations. 2. It can be used to discuss an interesting topic above the students’ language level.3. It can provide a motivating change of focus.4. It can be used to get students to translate instructions.5. It is time-saving device to explain an unimportant word. A. 1 and 3 B. 1 and 5 C. 2 and 4

63. Which of the following would be effective concept questions to check the understanding of the Present Perfect Continuous as in the sentence: She’s been doing her homework since she got home at 3?1. When is she doing her homework?2. When did she start doing her homework?3. What has she been doing since she got home?4. Has she finished her homework?5. When did she get home? A. 1 and 5 B. 2 and 3 C. 2 and 4

64. Two main reasons for using physical activities with young learners are that . . .1. They help maintain discipline.2. They help the students learn faster.3. They absorb excess energy.4. They exploit a kinesthetic style of learning.5. They are a way of assessing the students’ comprehension skills. A. 1 and 4 B. 2 and 5 C. 3 and 4


METHODOLOGY PAPER:

CANDIDATE RESPONSES WITH COMMENTS

Note to Readers: Rather than simply providing an answer key with correct responses, we decided to go through candidate papers and provide sample responses that received full credit (1 point), as well as sample responses that received no credit (0 points). We hope that this will prove useful to candidates preparing to take the CETT. Each candidate’s paper is rated by two different raters to ensure fairness. Corrections have not been made to the language the candidates used in the Methodology paper. As a result, readers will notice language errors in many of the candidate responses below.

SECTION 1: REFLECTING ON CLASSROOM SCENARIOS _____ / 20 POINTS In this section you will read and reflect on two classroom scenarios. In note form, you should respond to each scenario with the 5 most important pieces of advice for improving the lesson and a brief rationale (justification) for each. Pay special attention to the class profile. [Grading: A total of 20 points: 1 pt. for advice x 5 pieces of advice = 10 pts., 1 pt. for rationale x 5 rationales = 10 pts.] Example: 1. Advice: Allow the students time to look over the questions before listening. Rationale: By reading the questions first, the students can get an idea of the topic of the listening and what information they are expected to focus on. Scenario 1 Class profile: 12 pre-intermediate level students, 10 – 12-years-old “I wanted to present and practice the Present Perfect Passive. I wrote the name of the grammar structure on the board and then gave the rule and explained the structure. Some of my explanations were in Greek as the students do not always understand the English terminology. Next I gave them two examples, which we translated: The bridge has been built. The sentences have been read. After this I told the students to do an exercise in their book where they transformed unrelated sentences from active to passive. They were very slow and many could not do it at all.”

One Candidate’s Responses: 1.Advice: Name of the tense on the board at the beginning is not necessary. Rationale: Metalanguage for pre-intermediate SS is discouraging.

2. Advice: Use of Greek should be avoided. Rationale: Even grammar can be taught in target language. Also, L1 may not be the same for all students. 3. Advice: Use examples with a specific context; personalize Rationale: SS are more interested when situation makes sense and they can relate to it. These examples are not related. 4. Advice: Adapt text material (exercises in book) to class needs. Rationale: Unrelated sentences used for controlled practice don’t motivate SS. SS are disengaged. 5. Advice: Don’t give the rule of a grammar topic. Rationale: It is better to find a real-life text where the specific structure has been used several times and allow students to deduce the rule themselves. Comments: Both raters gave these responses full marks. The advice, together with the rationale are clear and to the point, partly because the candidate use established terminology (e.g., metalanguage, L1, adapt, disengaged, deduce). They address the problems with this specific scenario. There appear to be no memorized pieces of advice that the candidate hopes will fit the scenario. Notice that the responses need not be particularly long. Some candidates think that by writing long answers they’re bound to hit on the answer at some point, but it is better to be direct and to the point, as the above examples illustrate. Various Candidate Responses to Scenario 1 [Note: Since most candidates lost marks for only one or two pieces of advice and rationales for this particular scenario, a compilation of sample responses is used to give a better idea of what constitutes a 1 and a 0.] Advice: T should start the lesson with a short warm-up activity. 1 Rationale: Warm-up activities engage Ss’ attention and create interest. 1 Advice; Deductive approach should be avoided for this level. 1 Rationale: By approaching inductively, Ss learn better. 1 Advice: T should use examples and/or pictures to help Ss understand. 1 Rationale: In a pre-intermediate level and with young learners, the use of metalanguage is not proper. 1

Advice: Avoid using the Greek language, explain with clear examples. 1 Rationale: Ss might become used to Greek and develop comprehension problems later on. 1 Advice:T should allow Ss more time to familiarize themselves with the new grammatical phenomenon by giving more examples. 1 Rationale: YLs have difficulty understanding grammar, which is abstract for them. Ss need to relate grammar with their need to communicate. 1 Advice: Refresh their memory with passive-active voice and use related sentences. 1 Rationale: Awakening the schemata is crucial as well as having a connection to the exercise sentences. 1 Comments: The advice and rationale are clear and to the point. They address the problems with this specific scenario. There appear to be no memorized pieces of advice that the candidate tries to make fit the scenario. Advice: Do more explaining of grammar on the board. 0 Rationale: In this way they would be able to understand the format of the grammar structure. 0 Advice; Have a chat with the Ss on the subject with real examples. 0 Rationale: Ss get more comfortable and familiar with the subject, STT >TTT 0 Advice: Have a free exercise instead of controlled, at least to start with. 0 Rationale: With free exercises with some good examples, they will be quick and able to understand. 0 Advice: Ask Ss to stand up at the board to make some sentences. 0 Rationale: There is a very strong kinesthetic element which Ss are very good at. 0 Advice: Ask Ss in groups to write a few sentences on the board, active and passive. 0

Rationale: Cooperating all together. 0 Advice: Jigsaw activity 0 Advice: To motivate Ss to think and find the other half. 0 Comments: The responses here are either vague, have little in connection with the particular scenario, or don’t make much sense from a pedagogical point of view.

Scenario 2 Class profile: 12 upper intermediate students of around, 14 – 15 years old “I wanted to develop fluency in speaking and to encourage students to cooperate by exchanging information. I began by explaining that each student would receive a card containing notes about a famous inventor and his/her invention: four inventors, one per card. I then randomly put my students into groups of 4. While I was explaining what they had to do – exchange the information that was on each card – some groups began to chat. During the activity, I monitored the groups but found that many students were not participating. Unfortunately, in the feedback stage, when I asked the class what they had learnt, most students said they could not remember.” One Candidate’s Responses: 1. Advice: Random assignment into groups is not always advisable. 1 Rationale: Placing stronger with weaker students might be a good idea, as the activity will go on and SS will mingle. 0 2. Advice: Explanations about task should proceed [sic – meant precede] handing out material and should be very clear and repeated if necessary. 1 Rationale: Students become disengaged if they don’t understand what they need to do. 1 3. Advice: When monitoring groups, if you realize SS are not participating, intervene. 1 Rationale: You need to change something to ensure maximum participation almost always. 0 4. Advice: Assign homework that is related to classwork. 1 Rationale: This will enable SS to recycle info and acquired language. 1 5. Advice: Vary size of groups, depending on needs. 1 Rationale: Perhaps groups of four were too large for this activity. If T sees that this is not working, switch to pairs, or even to a “whole-class” activity. 1 Comments: The advice and rationale are generally clear and to the point, but some of the responses are not. No credit was given for the first rationale, for example, because the candidate has not used the term ‘mingle’ in the sense that

it is typically used in the classroom, that is, moving about the room in order to interact/communicate with classmates as if at a party. Note that the first piece of advice, “Random assignment into groups is not always advisable” on its own would not receive a mark, but since the rationale mentions what is advisable, credit was given. This is an example of how the advice and rationale can complement each other. The rationale for Advice 3, is vague. Does it mean that the teacher has to be flexible regarding the lesson plan and may need to adapt it, depending on what is happening in the classroom? If that is the case, it needs to be stated more clearly. Advice 4 is not part of the described scenario per se. However, this candidate saw the fact that there was no homework assigned at the end of a lesson as a shortcoming, and so was given credit for the response. Various Candidate Responses to Scenario 2 [Note: Since most candidates lost marks for only one or two pieces of advice and rationales for this particular scenario, a compilation of sample responses is used to give a better idea of what constitutes a 1 and a 0.] Advice: It would be a good idea to start with a warm-up activity on the topic. 1 Rationale: Warm-up activities activate Ss’ background knowledge and prepare Ss for the while-speaking stage. 1 Advice: First give the instructions and then divide them into groups. 1 Rationale: To make sure they pay attention 1 Advice: Students should be carefully put into groups, not randomly. 1 Rationale: Weak students should be put in a group with strong ones so there is balance. 1 Advice: Groups should be of smaller size. 1 Rationale: Groups of smaller sizes or even pairs ensure that all participants cooperate and interact. 1 Make sure that all Ss participate. If not, try to motivate them, even by taking part in the groups’ interaction. 1 Some Ss might be too shy or not willing to participate. 1 Advice: The topic should be different. 1 Rationale: Ss are not interested in inventors, but singers and actors. That way they get involved to participate. 1

Comments: The advice and rationale are clear and to the point. They address the problems with this specific scenario. There appear to be no memorized pieces of advice that the candidate hopes will fit the scenario. Advice: When explaining activities students should be focused. Give them time to chat for a couple of minutes and then start. 0 Rationale: Ss chat when they are not interested. Maybe a 2-minute break where they can do as they please can be reviving. 0 Advice: Presenting linker and connector activities (puzzle). Joining scrambled sentences and reading them out to each other. 0 Rationale: Easier to remember 0 Advice: T writes what s/he wants to produce on the board. 0 Rationale: When the exercise is on the board, everyone can see and they don’t forget. 0 Advice: While monitoring, ask them a few things about what they have read so far. 0 By doing so, in the feedback stage all Ss will be able to answer. 0 Comments: The responses here either are vague, appear to have little in connection with the particular scenario, or don’t make much sense from a pedagogical point of view. SECTION 2: ERROR CORRECTION _____ / 10 POINTS In this section you will read and reflect on two classroom scenarios that relate to correcting students’ spoken errors. In note form, suggest: • one possible course of action open to the teacher, explaining why it is appropriate [Grading: 5 points for each scenario: 1 pt. for course of action, 1 pt. for explanation of why appropriate, ] • one remedial activity for the next lesson which is appropriate for the scenario given and is clearly explained.

[Grading: 1 pt. if remedial, 1 pt. if appropriate for the given scenario, 1 pt. if clearly explained, e.g. by indicating whether the activity is done by the whole class, individually, in pairs or in small groups]

The course of action and remedial activity suggested for Scenario 1 should be different from what is suggested for Scenario 2. Scenario 1 In a pre-intermediate class of 8 adults, the teacher has presented the present perfect with the word ‘ever’, has done a controlled exercise, and now has the students doing a

mingling activity in which they ask each other questions to find out what they have done at least once in their lives, e.g., “Have you ever ridden a horse?” The teacher notices three students using the wrong form of the past participle, saying, for example, ‘Have you ever took…?’ instead of ‘Have you ever taken…?’ Candidate Response: Course of action & Explanation: While the students are mingling, write several of the verbs with an irregular past participle on the board (verbs students already know, but have gotten wrong in this activity). When mingling is finished, draw their attention to the board and ask students to provide the participle, writing both correct and incorrect answers on the board, and putting the verbs, even the incorrect ones, into complete sentences for context. Ask students to decide which is correct and have them explain why. This is appropriate because it does not interrupt student discussion, and because students greatly benefit from peer correction. Comments: This response received full marks. Only three of the eight students were using the wrong form of the past participle so the teacher decided that, rather than interrupt the activity for the others, s/he should let it continue and then deal with the errors. The fact that the teacher elicits the correct answer from the students instead of providing the answers reinforces the idea that students will remember the corrections if they make them themselves. Remedial activity: In teams or groups in class teacher could ask students to create a list of verbs they think or know are irregular. Teacher could then have a small competition between teams, awarding points for correct production of the appropriate participle. Teacher could keep running list of answers on the board for reference. Teacher could possibly award additional points to students who are able to explain their answer, to reward thought process over memorization. Comments: This response received full marks for being remedial, for being appropriate for the scenario given, and for being clearly explained. Students generate the list of irregular verbs rather than the teacher giving them such a list. Reviewing past participles through a competition heightens interest for the students, who have probably already practiced past participles through a variety of exercises and activities. The awarding of additional points to students able to explain their answer is difficult to envision for an activity with past participles, however. Candidate Response: Course of action: The teacher must encourage the Ss’ to provide more examples, but this time to try and avoid the use of ‘ever’ in their examples. Comments: This response received zero marks. The candidate has not understood that the error is with the past participle, not with ‘ever’. There is no

error correction and there is no explanation of why the course of action is appropriate. Remedial activity: The teacher prepares a group work activity in which the Ss will have to recognize the present perfect tense through a context, a reading passage for example. That way the Ss will see the use of present perfect and the different ways of its use with and without the use of the word ‘ever’. Comments: This response received zero marks in terms of being remedial, being appropriate for the scenario given, and being clearly explained. The students did not have a problem recognizing the present perfect tense; they had difficulty producing the correct form of the past participle and so that is what the remedial activity should have focused on. Scenario 2 An advanced level class of 10 teenagers are doing a pair work activity which will help to prepare them for a speaking test. They are asking each other questions about family, studies and free-time activities. The teacher notices that many students are using ‘of course’ inappropriately in their responses, e.g., - Do you have any sisters or brothers?” - * Yes, of course. I have two sisters. Candidate Response: Course of action: Since the students are preparing for a speaking test and many of them are making the error, the T should interrupt the activity. A good way to show students the wrong use of the expression “of course” is to have them listen a dialogue between two people asking these kinds of questions. Teacher will tell students to pay attention to how often these people use the expression “of course” and when they use it. By doing this kind of activity students become more aware that they were using the expression in the wrong way. Comments: This response received a mark for the course of action and for why it is appropriate. Remedial activity: Students could have for homework a script with gaps from a real-life conversation, where they should fill in the expression “of course” where’s necessary and then share and discuss their answers with a partner and with the class during the next lesson. Comments: Full marks were given for this response. Although short, it has to be seen in the context of the course of action that precedes it. If the students do the raising awareness listening activity described in the course of action, what is described as remedial follows quite nicely.

Candidate Response: Course of action: The teacher will write some of the sentences s/he heard during the pair work activity on the board and ask the Ss to try and spot the similar word in those sentences (of course). This way the teacher will explain their “mistake” easier to the Ss and also now it will be visible to Ss. Comments: The response received one point for the course of action, but zero points for the explanation of why it is appropriate. The course of action is somewhat vague, but the teacher is trying to elicit the type of mistake made from the students rather than telling them, so the response was given a point. Why this is appropriate as a correction technique for this particular scenario, however, is not explained. Remedial activity: The teacher should provide Ss with similar words to the word “of course” (indeed, absolutely, by all means…), write them on the board, ask Ss if they know any other words that can be used in the sentences they produced, write them also on the board, and tell the Ss to try and use these words on the board in sentences. That way the Ss will enrich their vocabulary and will stop using the word ‘of course’ since they now have alternatives written on the board. Comments: This response received zero marks in terms of being remedial, being appropriate for the scenario given, and being clearly explained. What the candidate has suggested is to give synonyms for of course and then ask the Ss to use these as well, even though the students have not yet learned how to use of course in the right context. The activity suggested is likely to confuse the students rather than help them learn the use of course correctly. SECTION 3: LESSON PLANNING _____ / 15 POINTS [Grading: 5 pts. for each extract x 3 extracts = 15 pts.] In this section you will read and reflect on 3 extracts from lessons. For each one: 1. Match the extract to the stage of the lesson in the box below. [1pt.] 2. In note form, give one reason for your choice of the stage. [1 pt.] 3. In note form, give three reasons why you think the teacher chose this particular activity. [1 pt. for each reason] A] In the following lesson extract, the teacher’s main aim is to present and practice tag questions that confirm information to a group of adult elementary students.

Lead-in Introducing new language Controlled practice of new language Freer practice of new language

In pairs, students are asked to think of two things that they think are probably true about the teacher. The teacher gets Ss to ask her/him questions about these things. e.g., Are you from Athens? Do you drive to school? The teacher responds but adds, in a friendly way, that if they know the answers, why are they asking her/him these questions. Then s/he adds that there is a different way they could ask their questions and gives an example, You’re from Athens, aren’t you? One Candidate’s Response:

1. The stage of the lesson: Introducing new language 2. One reason for your choice of the stage: Students appear to be familiar only

with basic question structure, and do not yet seem able to produce tag questions.

Three reasons why you think the teacher chose this particular activity: Teacher has asked students to think of questions relating to things they

know to be true to set up the implicit meaning of tag questions. Teacher has students ask questions in front of class to engage everyone,

but has them work in pairs to think of questions to promote student-student communication and take some focus off teacher.

Teacher asks in a friendly way why they are asking because s/he knows they will likely not know how to respond, and wants to keep them at ease. Teacher also wants to point out that we often ask questions to which we know the answers, and they should be approached differently.

Comments: This candidate received full marks for this response. The stage of the lesson is correct and the candidate’s reason for the choice makes clear that the candidates have not yet been introduced to tag questions and how they are formed. The three reasons why the teacher chose the activity are clearly explained, are different from each other, and all relate to the given extract. One Candidate’s Response:

1. The stage of the lesson: Introducing new language 2. Reason: After the warm-up comes the presentation. T makes Ss ask questions

so as to introduce another way of questioning. Three reasons why you think the teacher chose this particular activity: This activity activates Ss to ask simple questions. In pairs, they present to each other some questions and together they have

to divide them into two that later they will ask about their T. T wants Ss to understand that it’s not so meaningful to ask about things that

you already know.

Comments: The candidate received full marks for the stage of lesson and the reason. However, the raters gave zero marks for each of the three reasons for choosing the activity. While it is true that the students come up with simple questions to ask the teacher, there is no explanation offered as to why this is useful for the given extract. The second reason basically restates what is described in the extract instead of explaining how it contributes to the effectiveness of the activity. The third reason runs counter to the teacher’s purpose, i.e., the teacher wants to show that sometimes we do ask questions about things we already know in order to seek confirmation. The candidate misses this point.

B] In the following lesson extract, the teacher’s main aim is for the students to improve their writing by focusing on their choice of adjectives. It is a low intermediate level class of 11-13 year-olds.

Lead-in Pre-reading While-reading Post-reading

The students have just read a story containing an excess of high-frequency adjectives like good, nice, fun and completed a table that practices scanning a text for information. Now in pairs they are looking at sentences taken from the story. Their task is to replace the high frequency adjectives by selecting other adjectives in a box that would make the story into a more successful piece of writing. One Candidate’s Response:

1. The stage of the lesson: Post-reading 2. One reason for your choice of the stage: After reading the story, Ss have to do

a controlled activity: to replace the high-frequency adjectives by others given in a box.


The activity in pairs is very helpful. Together, they will find the answers; co-operating and exchange opinions

The box helps them to have a range of adjectives; some of them might slip out of their mind, but having them in front of them is helpful.

To enrich their adjective vocabulary Comments: This candidate’s response received full marks. The stage of the lesson is correct and the candidate’s reason for the choice makes clear that s/he understands it is post-reading. The three reasons why the teacher chose

the activity are clearly explained, are different from each other, and all relate to the given extract. One Candidate’s Response:

1. Stage of the lesson: Post-reading 2. One reason for your choice of the stage: T asks Ss to do this activity after they

have read a text. Three reasons why you think the teacher chose this particular activity:

T chooses this activity to teach Ss the use of adjectives in context. T wants Ss to identify which adjectives are used with which nouns. T wants Ss to replace adjectives so that they can make their writing

more interesting and versatile. Comments: This candidate received a mark for correctly naming the stage of the lesson. However, s/he did not receive a mark for the reason since Ss can read a text and then answer comprehension questions, which would still be considered while-reading. One mark was given for the first and third reason, but not for the second, which overlaps a great deal with the first reason. If the students see the adjectives in a context, they will see which adjectives are used with which nouns.

C] In the following lesson extract, the teacher’s main aim is to develop fluency in speaking. It is an upper-intermediate class of 14-16 year-olds.

Lead-in Pre-speaking While-speaking Post-speaking

For homework the students found pictures from magazines that represented both past experiences and activities and things which they would like to do in the future. They created individual posters with these cut-out pictures. In today’s lesson the posters have been displayed around the classroom and the students have been divided into teams A and B. Now each student from team A is standing by her/his poster and explaining the pictures to a team B student who, in turn, is asking some questions. Later, Team B students will talk about their posters. One Candidate’s Response:

1. The stage of the lesson: While-speaking 2. One reason for your choice of the stage: The creation of the posters was

preparation for this activity. The SS are actually speaking during this stage.

Three reasons why you think the teacher chose this particular activity: Individual posters means that activity was personalized – this keeps SS

interested. Team work is fun. SS will feel a sense of pride representing their team.

Also, it creates an audience, which is good for this level. Using pictures provides visuals for this exercise and keeps SS interested.

Comments: This response received full marks. The stage of the lesson is correct and the candidate successfully connects the use of the posters to the subsequent speaking activity. The three reasons why the teacher chose the activity are clearly explained, are different from each other, and all relate to the given extract. One Candidate’s Response:

1. The stage of the lesson: Pre-speaking 2. One reason for your choice of the stage: Because T had the Ss gather and

work on posters with material they will speak about. Three reasons why you think the teacher chose this particular activity:

T wants Ss to involve creativity in their lesson. T believes Ss will be more motivated to speak if they have prepared their

material beforehand. T feels Ss will have fun doing this activity and learning a language in an

entertaining way is more effective. Comments: The candidate mislabeled the stage of the lesson. The reason given relates to what the Ss do before the poster activity. The candidate has focused on the background leading up to the present activity. The present activity is indicated by the underlined word now. The first two reasons each received one mark, while the third received zero marks because the idea in the third overlaps to a large extent with the second reason. That is, “motivating” encompasses the idea of “fun and entertaining”.

SECTION 4: RESPONDING TO STUDENTS’ WRITING A teacher has read the following two texts written by students at upper intermediate level, and has written comments for four criteria for the assessment of writing: content and development, organization and connection of ideas, linguistic range and control, and communicative effect. Read the comments for each of the criteria in the box below and then look at the two texts. Decide for each of the criteria whether the teacher has chosen to write a comment from A., Strengths or B., Areas for Improvement. Write A or B for each of the criteria. [1pt for each of 5 criteria; 2 letters x 5 = 10 pts.]

A.

Strengths

B.

Areas for Improvement


You have fully developed the topic.

You have included details which support your argument.

You have not fully developed the topic and so the content is limited.

Some of the content of your writing is irrelevant to the topic.


Your writing shows appropriate, clear organization.

You have used connectors appropriately.

The organization of your writing is very basic.

Although you do use some standard connectors, your ideas are not always well connected.

Linguistic Range You use a good range of grammar and vocabulary.

You have used a limited range of structures.

Linguistic Control Your grammar and vocabulary is mostly accurate, although there are occasional errors.

You have made frequent grammar and vocabulary errors which make your writing difficult to follow.


Your writing shows that you are aware of who the reader is and the type of text you are writing, making your text easy to follow.

You seem to have misunderstood who you are writing for and the type of text you are writing, which makes your text difficult to follow.

Essay:

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION CAMPAIGN* Many people who work and shop in the central area of the city drive cars to get there instead of using public transportation (buses, trains, etc.) This causes traffic and pollution problems. City officials want more people to take public transportation. They want to find out from citizens what can be done to make more people leave their cars at home. ELI News Service * This writing stimulus and task have been taken from a University of Michigan ECCE sample paper

Letter A: Write a letter explaining how to increase the use of public transportation. Explain why many people are not using public transportation now. Describe specific actions the city can take to improve the situation. Start your letter, “Dear City Officials”.

Dear City Officials, I am a high school student and I read the newspaper about “Public Transportation Campaign”. I think that I have some advices for make people leave their cars at home. People do not use often the public transportation because are expensive and people not want to pay tickets all the time. Also public transportation do not the necessary chairs. Sometimes they have scratch chairs or they do not have sits for people old who needs help. I think they are not clear and people are not want to go with them. An other reason people not to use them is that always they not in the station on time. People only waste their time waiting public transportation. If you want more people take public transportation you must to low the ticket’s price and you must to clear and fix the buses. Also you must to make again the time which the bus must be in each station and punish the bus drivers if they are late. I hope to help you with my advice, because the traffic and pollution in the city center is a harmful thing for all the people and public transportation can help solve this problem. Sincerely yours, Alexandros Pappos

Important Note: A CETT candidate is expected to write only A or B for the answer, not an explanation. The explanations provided below are only intended to help those who are preparing for the CETT to understand the reasons why the student’s writing has been rated as A or B.

Content and Development: A Addresses the different parts of the task. Explains with examples why many people are not using public transportation. Explains what can be done, i.e., specific actions the city can take to improve the situation. Organization and Connection of Ideas: A There is an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Uses also as a connector. Relies a great deal on pronoun reference for cohesion. Generally, the ideas follow in a coherent way and that makes the letter easy to read. Linguistic Range: A Although ‘people’ and ‘public transportation’ are repeated a lot, the writer uses vocabulary like commuters, scratch, punish, traffic, pollution, and harmful. Note that the result is sometimes inaccurate use or these terms, but these inaccuracies fall under Linguistic Control, not Linguistic Range.

Linguistic Control: B As stated above, vocabulary is sometimes used inaccurately (scratch chairs, low the price, do not have sits). Numerous grammatical errors (advices, for make people leave, do not use often, commuters not want to pay, do not the necessary chairs, people old, must to clear and fix the buses and so on). Communicative Effect: A Addressed properly with a formal closure appropriate for someone in position of some authority. Audience addressed is consistently City Officials.

Letter B: Write a letter explaining how to increase the use of public transportation. Explain why many people are not using public transportation now. Describe specific actions the city can take to improve the situation. Start your letter, “Dear City Officials”.

Dear City Officials, I’m a student at first class in high school. I read this paragraph and I want to tell you my opinion about public transportation and how important it is. I’m using public transportation every day because without it I can’t go to the school or other places. I think that people don’t use public transportation because they are bored to wait about twenty minutes the bus. You wait there twenty minutes, the bus is full of people and you can’t take it. You haven’t other opinion only to wait for the other. The big reason that people don’t use public transportation is because when you take your own car you are calm. You aren’t bored. You can go to your job fast and not wait for public transportation. I think that some people don’t use public transportation because some people are afraid to use the subway because people are very afraid of this underground ‘bus’. For me, and I think for all the people, public transportation is very big opportunity for people to use that for their movement around the city to go to work or school. Yours, Maria Tsogas Content and Development: B The task doesn’t ask for an opinion on how important public transportation is. It says many people are not using public transportation and the letter should explain why not and what city can do to improve the situation. Organization and Connection of Ideas: B The second paragraph deals with why people don’t use public transportation: waiting for it to come and inconvenience (crowding). The third paragraph then talks about the ‘big’ reason people don’t use it and it turns out to be the same ideas as in the second paragraph, along with a new idea, fear, which isn’t elaborated on. Lack of organization leads to reader confusion.

Linguistic Range: B There are several complex sentences. The vocabulary is quite limited, though: public transportation, people, wait repeated quite often; big opportunity; afraid twice in the same sentence. Linguistic Control: A Complex sentences are mostly accurate. Vocabulary, though limited, is used appropriately. Communicative Effect: B “I read this paragraph” in the first sentence throws the reader off. Which paragraph? What is the writer talking about? Note also the use of contractions like don’t. The closure at the end is too informal to use to address City Officials. SECTION 5: METHODS AND TECHNIQUES IN ELT (25 multiple choice items = 25 pts.)

40. B The main purpose for personalizing activities is to demonstrate to students that they can use the language they’re learning to talk about their own lives and interests. Using the language meaningfully increases the chances that the learners will retain the target language. Holistic education (A) deals with educating the whole person and makes use of experiential learning. While students may learn some new vocabulary (C) through personalization activities, the focus of such activities is more on using the vocabulary they already know to communicate information about their own lives and experiences.

41. C If students have trouble organizing their ideas while writing, learning to put their ideas in outline form first can help them decide the best order in which to present them. Reading model essays for content (A) without looking at how they are structured and organized is unlikely to help improve writing. Reliance on other Ss to proofread and point out errors (B) is only effective as a short-term measure and tends to focus on accuracy rather than on organization; in the long term, Ss need to become more autonomous and be able to critique their own writing.

42. C Students at the upper intermediate level are likely to be quite familiar with the superlative forms of the most frequently-used adjectives (B). Asking them whether or not they go to sports centers and why (A) is not likely to help them with the given task. Eliciting some of the functions used to express agreement and disagreement, however, reminds the students of useful expressions that they are likely to use as they negotiate the order of items in the list that they are creating as a group.

43. B The focus is on promoting critical thinking skills with advanced level learners. Reflecting on an author’s ideas and agreeing or disagreeing with them demonstrates that the students are thinking critically about the text. Asking them to find quotations and research the authors (C) requires basic research skills, e.g., googling the quotation to determine the author, rather than critical thinking skills. Finding lexical items with a negative connotation (A) is a

vocabulary exercise which, despite requiring some thought, is not a critical thinking activity per se.

44. B Students at an elementary level are first presented with the Present Continuous for actions in progress at the time of speaking. Such students would be overwhelmed if the teacher presented all uses of the Present Continuous (A). The sentence Paul’s meeting a client this evening for dinner uses the Present Continuous tense correctly (C) to refer to a scheduled future event. What the teacher should have done was realize that the use of the Present Continuous in the sentence refers to a planned future action. S/he should have limited the example sentences to only those referring to action in progress at the time of speaking.

45. B The focus of the activity is on developing fluency in speaking. Interrupting the activity to talk about the form of the conditional (A) would detract from that focus. The teacher telling the class that the sentence is wrong but that they will deal with that grammar point later (C) will not satisfy some students, who are likely to want to know why it is wrong and what the correct form is. The best course of action in this case is for the teacher to continue with the speaking activity and tell the student who asked question to talk to him/her during the break.

46. A Elementary-level young learners are unlikely to understand a set of written instructions in the target language on the board (B). Placing all the talkative students together (C) is likely to be counter-productive and does not make for effective class dynamics. If the students have been taught a gesture that indicates silence is required, the teacher shouldn’t have to shout to get their attention.

47. B The activities in a lesson should all contribute to achieving the overarching objective of the lesson. Pair work or group work are a means to an end; that is, will doing the activity in pairs or groups contribute to the students’ learning the language the teacher has planned for them to learn? That is more important than the number of pair or group work activities (A). A lesson plan that integrates skills can reinforce both language structures and vocabulary, often more than focusing on just one skill can (C).

48. B Many teenagers need to be motivated to read. One way to motivate them is find texts that interest them and that they can relate to. The other two answer choices (A and C) deal with what the teacher would like to achieve with the reading and do not take into consideration the interests of the students.

49. C Students who learn to use dictionaries on their own become autonomous in the sense that they can find the meanings of words and expressions by themselves, without asking anyone for an explanation. Guessing the word a partner defines (B) is a way to practice vocabulary, but does not demonstrate autonomy. Neither does one student helping another to complete a vocabulary activity (A).

50. B The sentence contains examples of vocabulary used in a more formal context: legislators, potential shortcomings, bill. Gossiping is too informal a word for this context. A better choice would be were criticizing the bill or were critical of the bill, both of which imply negative opinions about the legislation.

One could say that gossip collocates with about since they occur together when the object of the gossip is mentioned, e.g. gossiping about the new neighbors, gossiping about his/her friend.

51. C In isolation, i.e. when not part of a phrase or sentence, the two words are pronounced the same. In everyday speech, though, the preposition to is unstressed and so the vowel loses its full value, making the pronunciation of two and to different, unless the word is stressed to create a contrast, as in the following sentence: Two of the teachers took the students TO the zoo (as opposed to FROM it). Such a contrast is unlikely to be the case for the given sentence, however. In fact, in the overwhelming majority of utterances used in everyday conversation, the two words are pronounced differently. The question asks for the best brief response, that is, one that does not require a lot of further explanation. So, regarding most everyday conversation, the answer is “No, they don’t (have the same pronunciation).”

52. B “Happy birthday” and “Merry Christmas” are collocations, words that commonly occur together, so “Happy Christmas” would be an incorrect collocation. An incorrect connotation (C) would be someone saying, for example, The director criticized the report (pointed out its negative aspects) when what the speaker actually wanted to say was, The director looked at the report critically (assessed it in terms of both good and bad points). That is, criticize carries a negative connotation, while look at critically does not. An example of an incorrect association (A) would be, for example, knowing that the plural of alumnus is alumni and associating that pattern with other words ending in –us, such as virus, which actually takes the plural ending –es.

53. A A waiter saying “What do you want?” would likely sound rude to a customer because of inappropriate register. Using a more formal (and more polite) register would lead to, “What would you like to order?” For an incorrect collocation (C), see number 52 above. An example of an incorrect function (B) would be a speaker giving a de facto order when s/he intended to make a request, for example, saying “You must help me, Teacher.” instead of “Could you help me, Teacher?”

54. C The glossary is made up of only 2-3 words, but those words are key words, thus considered important for comprehending the text. By knowing the meaning of those words, students should be able to comprehend the text better. There is no indication that the more able students know the words any better than the less able ones (A). Answer choice B implies that not knowing those 2-3 key words will slow the students down while they are skimming, which shouldn’t be the case since by skimming they are only getting a general idea of what the text is about.

55. A The students are beginners. They are sorting out in their mind how to form plural nouns in general and how to form irregular plural nouns. It is a natural process that takes time to sort itself out. The students who say *childs are using the most common plural form and generalizing the –s ending to any noun, including irregular ones. More controlled practice exercises (B) may help in the short term, but it takes the learners time to sort out the rules and what

the exceptions are. Informal testing (C) doesn’t give the students the time to sort out the rules, either.

56. Α Εnglish is not uniform the world over. There are World Englishes. Students need to familiarize themselves with a variety of accents in order to deal with this reality. While it is true that listening to texts where the speakers use a variety of accents may initially be more challenging (C) for the students, that is not the primary reason the teacher uses them. And accents may in fact discourage, rather than motivate (B), students.

57. B Speakers whose L1 is English also hesitate when speaking, so there is no reason to avoid hesitations (A). Speaking quite slowly (C) may be frustrating for the listener and will, in any case, sound unnatural. If the students learn to fill the moments they hesitate with expressions like You know, their speech will end up sounding more natural.

58. A If the students see writing as a way to better grasp the language they are learning, that is, they see that there is some value for them in doing it. B is focusing on the benefit to the teacher, which the students probably won’t be interested in. As for C, students are likely to benefit most from studying how their ability to write has developed over time rather than looking at a final version of their writing.

59. B Pairs of antonyms like new/old may have more than one opposite, e.g., young/old and students may mix up the meanings and say, “Which one of the two, old or young, means not living on this earth for a long time?” The number of pairs taught can be limited so as not to overwhelm the students. The adjectives can be presented through visuals and need not be abstract. There are enough adjectival opposites and, even if not always true antonyms (not cold could be warm or hot, for example), presenting them in pairs can still be a useful way to learn their meanings.

60. B The young learners know the story well, so in order to engage them, they need to be doing something that allows them to use what they know in either a more cognitively-challenging way, such as inventing a new title and ending to the story, or in a more dynamic way, such as acting out the story using their own words. The other possibilities listed either focus on form (text organization, grammar) or require the students to produce a piece of writing that does not appear to have any communicative purpose.

61. A Planning out the instructions in advance would increase the chances the instructions were clear and to the point. The use of non-verbal gestures, such as pointing or motioning, gives visual clues to the students about where to move, what to do, and so on. As students move into groups, the focus on the teacher is lost, so it usually works better for a teacher to give the instructions first and then put the students into groups. If the students haven’t understood the instructions the way they were said the first time and they are repeated the same way, it suggests the teacher hasn’t reflected on what went wrong the first time and how to make the instructions better the second time. Having a student read the instructions aloud instead of the teacher doing so may result in less comprehension, not more, especially if the student reading the instructions has problems with pronunciation and reading aloud.

62. B L1 can be effective in the classroom if used in the right situations. It can strengthen the bond between teacher and students and it can be a time-saving device to explain a low-frequency word that is not important to understanding a text. If the topic is above the students’ language level, then the problem is with the choice of topic or with the questions being asked about that topic. It does not need to be used to motivate students since there are many other ways to motivate them. The students shouldn’t have to translate instructions to demonstrate understanding of what to do. Even if the activity or task is complicated, it can usually be broken down into a series of comprehensible steps.

63. B The question asks about effective concept check questions for She’s been doing her homework since she got home at 3. The action has a starting point in the past and continues till now. When did she start doing her homework? focuses on the starting point and the question Has she finished her homework? is No, she hasn’t and thus highlights the fact that the action is still in progress. If the students can answer both these questions, they are likely to have grasped how the present perfect continuous tense is used in this particular context. When is she doing her homework? would likely confuse the students because she is doing it now, but was also doing it in the past. The answer to the question What has she been doing? has homework as an answer and does not focus at all on the tense. Besides, it uses the same tense that the teacher wants to find out if the students understand. The question When did she get home? focuses on the act of coming home and not on the point at which the homework was started.

64. C Physical activities allow young learners the opportunity to expend some of their energy and they enable the teacher to reach out to those students whose learning is enhanced by doing or acting out words, phrases, or sentences in English. Physical activities can easily get out of hand with an inexperienced teacher and it is often a struggle to maintain discipline. The students may or may not learn faster, depending among other things on the preferred learning style of the student. Although physical activities can be one way of assessing a student’s comprehension skills, there are many other ways to do it as well, so this is not a main reason for using them.

Documents

Cett Paper-1 Methodology January-2011