Oxford International

Teacher Training 2019

The Trinity College CertTESOL

0 PRE-COURSE TASKBOOK
Oxford International Teacher Training
The Trinity College TESOL Certificate

Please complete the following task book and email it back to us. If you prefer to
do it by hand, you can print and submit the written work only on day one.

Contents

2 Welcome
2 About this booklet…
3 Recommended reading list for the course
3 Other books for your TEFL career

Pages 4-19 ONLY NEED TO BE EMAILED BACK OR PRINTED OUT AND

SUBMITTED ON DAY ONE:

4 Pre-course Task – Grammatical Structures

10 Pre-course Task – Modal Verbs
11 Pre-course Task – Phonology
14 Pre-course Task – Lexical Awareness
16 Pre-course Task – Writing
17 Pre-course Task – ELT Methodology

1
Welcome from the Course Director

Dear Trainee,

It is my hope that this task book will help you make your first steps into the world of EFL
teaching.

Our team of experienced trainers will try to enable you achieve your full potential on a course
held in high regard by Trinity College London, the accrediting body.

If you have any questions about what is in this book, or about the course in general, please do
not hesitate to get in touch.

Jane Stevenson
Cert TESOL Course Director, Oxford International Teacher Training

About this booklet…

a) The pre-course task is not an assessed component of the course. However the course will
be intensive and completing the following tasks as fully as you can will help to make you aware
of certain features of English Language Learning and prepare you for the course input
sessions.

Take your time working through the task book: Any additional research you can do will benefit
you greatly!

b) When you have completed the written tasks, send them to us in an email, and after they are
received and checked, we will send back some suggested answers. Alternatively you can print
your answers out at home and bring them with you on day one.

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Recommended Reading List
a) To work in TEFL you will definitely need a comprehensive grammar book.
Different formats suit different people, so you may want to go to a major bookstore and see
what is on offer. Two we recommend are:

Leech, G. et al., (2001) An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage. 2nd edn. Pearson
Swan, M. (2016) Practical English Usage. 4th edn. Oxford University Press

b) We also strongly advise you to read an introduction to TEFL, such as:

Harmer, J. (2007) How to Teach English. New edn. Pearson

Scrivener, J. (2011) Learning Teaching. 3rd edn. MacMillan
Watkins, P. (2014) Learning to teach English. 2nd edn. Delta Publishing

Other useful publications

Other useful ‘introductions to the subject’:

Anderson, J. (2017) Trinity CertTESOL Companion. Delta Publishing

Harmer, J. (2015) The Practice of English Language Teaching. 5th edn. Pearson
Lindsay, K. and Knight, P. (2006) Learning and teaching English. Oxford University Press

Other grammar introductions:

Aitken, R. (2002) Teaching Tenses. ELB

Bolitho, R. and Tomlinson, B. (2005) Discover English. Macmillan
Seely, J. (2013) Oxford A-Z Grammar and Punctuation. Oxford University Press

You may work well with a grammar practice book aimed at foreign students:

Murphy, R. (2012) English Grammar in use. 4th edn. Cambridge University Press

Phonology is often a new topic for trainees. A detailed introduction is:

Underhill, A. (2017) Sound Foundations. New edn. Macmillan

And lastly, some useful websites to explore:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/ (British Council English Teaching Resources)
http://cambridgeenglishonline.com/ (for phonology)
http://www.onestopenglish.com/ (ELT resources)
http://www.teachitelt.com/ (ELT resources)

N.B. You may find the following references useful in completing the pre-course task book:
Section One: Leech / Swan (see under appropriate heading)
Section Two: Leech p287-289, Swan p333-337
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Section Three: Phonemic chart at the back of the task book

Pre-course Task book: Section One

Grammatical Structures

The following section looks at some of the major grammatical areas of the
language. Candidates should be aware that the course does not seek to teach
the grammatical structures of English and that the input sessions are simply
awareness-raising activities. Trainees are advised to research the main
grammatical areas prior to starting the course.

a) What are the names of the tenses contained in the following sentences?

b) How would you explain and contrast the grammatical meaning of each of the
sentences in the group?

Tip: the names of tenses always consist of at least two words.

Group 1: Present time

1) I get up at seven o’clock. a) ___________________

2) Water boils at 100c. a) ___________________
3) He lives in Reading a) ___________________
4) I’m living in Tenerife. a) ___________________
5) She’s working in the garden. a) ___________________

b)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

Group 2: Past time

1) He worked for a commercial bank. a) ___________________

2) I have worked as a window cleaner. a) ___________________
3) I have been studying for two years. a) ___________________
4) I was driving the car, when I saw him. a) ___________________

b)
________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________
Group 3: Future time

1) I’m seeing the doctor at two. a) ___________________

2) Tomorrow will be wet and grey. a) ___________________
3) I’ll post it as soon as I finish. a) ___________________
4) We’re going to take a holiday at Easter. a) ___________________

b)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

Group 4: Conditional structures

1) If it rains, we’ll take a taxi. a) ___________________

2) If I met the P.M., I’d be lost for words! a) ___________________
3) I wouldn’t have come, if you hadn’t asked me! a) ___________________

b)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

Group 5: Determiners: Some/any (what patterns do you notice about the

differences of when some/any are used in the sentences bellow?)

1) The postman has delivered some parcels.

2) Have you got any cigarettes?
3) Is there some milk in the fridge?
4) There isn’t any money left.

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

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Group 6a: Parts of Speech

The box below contains grammatical terms & below it are gap-fill definitions of them. Individually
select a term and put it in the correct sentence. Then write a very short sentence and underline the
example of the part of speech.

preposition article adverb verb

adjective pronoun noun conjunction

a) __________ is a word we use to refer to a person, a thing or an abstract idea such as

a feeling or a quality.
Example _____________________________________________________

b) __________ is a word used to replace a noun that has already been mentioned or
that will be mentioned later.
Example _____________________________________________________

c) __________ is a word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun.

Example _____________________________________________________

d) __________ is a word which is concerned with what people and things do, and what
happens to them.
Example _____________________________________________________

e) __________ is primarily a word that tells us more information about a verb.

Example _____________________________________________________

f) __________ is a word or group of words often used with a noun or pronoun to

indicate place, direction, source, method, etc.
Example _____________________________________________________

g) __________ is a word or group of words that join together words, groups of words
or clauses.
Example _____________________________________________________

h) __________ is a word with no meaning on its own which is used in front of a noun
or noun phrase.
Example _____________________________________________________

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Group 6b: Type of verbs
We usually recognize verbs as ‘doing words – but there are several other terms
to do with verb usage.
A ) Match the definitions a-e with the terms 1 - 5.

1. Base Form

2. Auxiliary Verb

3. Modal Verb

4. Participle

5. Gerund

a) This is used before a main verb to show a particular attitude or mood such as possibility, obligation or ability.

b) This can be used as the main verb in compound tenses (those made of more than one verb part) or as an

adjective. There are two types – the past _________________ usually ending in –ed, and the present

_________________ which always ends with –ing.

c) This is formed from a verb, ending in –ing, and used as a noun in sentences.

d) This is what we call the verb with no extra letters added to it. Often also referred to as the (bare) infinitive.

e) This is used together with a main verb to form tenses, negatives, questions etc. Has no actual meaning when
used in this way.

B) Can you now match the underlined part of the sentences below with the 5
terms above?

a) I do not really want to buy that.

b) It is really late. I should probably go home now.
c) By the way, I have sorted out that problem for you.
d) Can you believe that fishing is actually the most popular participant ‘sport’ in
Britain?
e) He was awoken at 3am by the car alarm.
f) She is playing with the kids outside.
g) I was listening to a funny story.
h) Do you like drinking beer?

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Conveying Meaning of Grammatical structures

Here are some typical grammar points that you might have to teach at some
point in your teaching career.
Without copying from a grammar book think about how you might try to explain
the difference in meaning between the two structures.

1) I had a coffee before I came to school today.

I have had three coffees already this morning.

________________________________________________________________

2) If I get the job, I’ll buy a brand new suit.

If I got the job, I would be very surprised as I don’t have the relevant
experience.

________________________________________________________________

3) I enjoy watching TV series in English.

I am watching lots of TV series in English these days.

________________________________________________________________

4) Why do you think the speaker has said sentence A instead of B?

A politician – (A) Lessons have been learnt from this situation.

(B) I have learnt lessons from this situation.

________________________________________________________________

In a hotel – (A) Breakfast is served from 7am – 10am.

(B) Someone serves breakfast from 7am – 10am.

________________________________________________________________

A reporter – (A) Ronnie Biggs was arrested at Heathrow last night.

(B) A policeman arrested Ronnie Biggs at Heathrow last night.

________________________________________________________________

A guide – (A) Tower Bridge was built between 1886 and 1894.
(B) They built Tower Bridge between 1886 and 1894.

________________________________________________________________

8
Grammar Error Correction

How would you explain some of the errors/ inaccurate use of English below?
What is the grammar mistake? What is the correct sentence?

a) I don’t get on my mother-in-law with.

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

b) I must to do that.

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

c)Teacher: Where’s Paola today?

Student: I don’t know. She can be late I think.

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

d)Teacher: Many students in the UK have to wear a school uniform. What about
you when you were at school?
Student: When I was a student I must wear a uniform too.

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

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Pre-course Task book: Section Two
Modal Verbs

a) What is the function of the modal verb in the following sentences?

E.g. I can play the piano - expresses ability

b) Can you rephrase each sentence using a different modal or expression?

1) May I borrow your paper? – a)___________________

b)__________________________________________________________

2) You mustn’t drive through red lights! – a)___________________

b)__________________________________________________________

3) I think we might lose this match. – a)___________________

b)__________________________________________________________

4) I can’t leave work before seven o’clock. – a)___________________

b)__________________________________________________________

5) You should always have a good breakfast. – a)___________________

b)__________________________________________________________

6) Would you mind opening the window? – a)___________________

b)__________________________________________________________

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Pre-course Task book: Section Three
Phonology

The Phonetic Chart of the English Language

----------------------------------------------vowels-----------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------consonants---------------------------------------------------

During the course we will make regular use of the phonemic alphabet, which is
made up of every sound in the English language (see above).

Use this link to hear each sound –

http://www.macmillanenglish.com/methodology/phonetic-chart.htm

And see this link for a Phonetic Script typewriter – Just click on the symbols you
need, then copy and paste when required into a document.
www.e-lang.co.uk/mackichan/call/pron/type.html

a) What do you think is the purpose of such an alphabet? How might it benefit
students?

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b) Using the first chart above, work out which words the following transcriptions
represent:

/ hɑ:p /
/ paɪn /
/ nəʊz /
/ su:t /
/ taɪp /
/ swi:t /
/ pʌnɪʃ /
/ ʃed /
/ dɒg /
/ mɑ:kt /
c) When we speak, we stress both particular syllables in a word and a particular
words in a sentence. Which is the stressed syllable in the following words? Mark
the stressed syllable with a ‘o’ symbol over the vowel, or by underlining it.
o
Example : political (pronounced ‘po li tic al’)

1. umbrella
2. tortoise
3. magazine
4. awful
5. deny
6. hopeful
7. protect
8. identity

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d) Which words do we stress in the following sentences?

Example : My shoes have been cleaned.

1. He went to the shops to buy some bread.

2. I’ve been living here for ten years.

3. What do you think of this book?

4. He was the man that opened the new shop on the corner.

e) Do the stressed words seem to have anything in common?

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Pre-course Task book: Section Four
Lexical Awareness

1) What do you think might be the ten most commonly used words in spoken
English?

2) What are the underlined parts of speech in the following sentences?

E.g. I studied at Harvard. (verb)

1) He drives an enormous car.

2) Richard is working in the study.
3) She plays the piano beautifully.
4) It’s a hard job.
5) We walked to the seashore.
6) Jane and Susan are very tired.

How can you define the role of each of these parts of speech?

3) Factors such as (in)formality, (un)countability, and multiple meanings

may influence the difficulty of learning a new vocabulary item.

Can you think of a pair of examples for each category?

1) (in)formality e.g.: friend/mate (= more informal than ‘friend’)

__________________________

__________________________

2) (un)countability e.g.: furniture(an uncountable noun)

/a chair (a countable noun)

__________________________

__________________________

3) multiple meanings e.g.: a wave

/ to wave

__________________________

__________________________
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4) Often we ‘link’ vocabulary items together to make very commonly occurring
combinations or ‘collocations’ e.g. shallow + stream / grave / person. What nouns
might you say connect strongly with the following adjectives?

deep - ___________________________________________

tall - ___________________________________________

heavy - ___________________________________________

high - ___________________________________________

5) Imagine you had to teach the difference between these seemingly similar
words.
a) How would you explain/convey the difference?
b) What is the part of speech for each example?

A) She’s got a greenhouse in her garden.

a) ______________________________________________________________

b) ______________________________________________________________

B) She lives in the little, green house at the end of the street.

a) ______________________________________________________________

b) ______________________________________________________________

6) Look at this typical exercise from an English language test and fill in the gaps
with the correct word. Please note it is the same word for all the three sentences.

A) We intend to __________the magazine at older men, where we feel there is a

gap in the market.
B) Some people have no __________ in life and go from one job to another.
C) My ___________ was bad and I missed the target by at least a metre.

a) How might you describe the difference in meaning to your students?

b) What part of speech is being used (e.g. noun, verb)
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c) Can you think of synonyms for any of the uses?

A)______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
B)______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
C)______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

7) Your students have seen the following idiom in a reading exercise and ask you
what it means:

“We painted the town red.”

Try to explain the meaning in one short sentence.

________________________________________________________________

Pre-course Task book: Section Five

Writing

Your student has submitted a piece of writing about their home town.
a) What is the main problem with it?
b) What would you teach them to help improve their writing?
Do not worry about terminology, explain in your own words.

I come from Italy. I live in the south of Italy. I live in a small village. The village is very nice and
the village is small. In the village live a lot of old people. My grandparents live in the village. In
the village you can buy everything you need to make the dinner. You can drink the beer but
you cannot buy the clothes or go to the cinema .

a)_______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

b)_______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

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Pre-course Task book: Section Six
EFL Methodology

Read the text below.

1)What is the best headline for the article? Write your idea on the dedicated line.

_______________________________________

Language teaching methods and approaches have changed considerably over the years. Below is a brief
summary of the developments that have taken place.

Grammar translation was the most widely used method of language learning until the turn of the nineteenth
century. As the name suggests, teaching took place in the L1 and reading, writing and the translation of texts
were the key features. Reformers questioned whether spoken proficiency would not be better achieved by using
only the target language in the classroom and discarding the extensive use of translation. Students would ‘pick
up’ grammatical rules rather than having them formally explained, in a way that corresponded to a child learning a
language. This ’natural approach’ resulted in the development of the Direct Method, which is still widely employed
today, for example in Berlitz schools. The method stresses the importance of oral comprehension and makes
great use of question and answer drills to build up language in a graded progression.

The next major development was prompted by the need of the U.S. Government to teach languages to large
numbers of people, in the aftermath of World War 2. A leading behavioural psychologist, B.F. Skinner, believed
that successful language acquisition took place through developing ‘good habits’. Accordingly, his audio-lingual
method focused on students repeating key phrases. The syllabus is again carefully graded with the teacher
attempting to ensure that students do not make or hear any mistakes. Correct pronunciation and stress are also
emphasised. The influence of audiolingualism led to the widespread use of language laboratories in the 1960s.
Audiolingualism went out of favour as a result of criticisms made by the famous linguist Noam Chomsky.
Chomsky claimed that language learning is not mechanical, but creative. Everybody has the capacity to invent
completely new sentences; this ability comes from a ‘deep structure’ of language that is hard-wired into the brain.

Since the 1970’s, methodology has focused on the communicative nature of language rather than a traditional
grammar learning approach. This emphasises the need for motivation to communicate if effective learning is to
take place. Appropriacy of language and communicative functions (requests, apologies etc) are also considered.
Classroom activities will often encourage students to communicate with whatever language they have to hand.
PPP became a popular method at this time, with lessons being divided into three stages of: the teacher
presenting a language point, students practicing it and then producing the target language in a natural context.

The 1970’s also saw the emergence of several ‘humanist’ approaches that stressed that learning will only take
place under appropriate conditions and that learners must feel relaxed with the learning process. These include
‘The Silent Way’, ’Total Physical Response’ ‘Community Language Learning’ and ‘Suggestopedia’.

Recent years have seen the emergence of Michael Lewis’ lexical approach, in which he stresses the importance
of learning language in ‘chunks’, i.e. longer phrases rather than single vocabulary items; and of TBL or task-
based learning, where students are given a real life task to complete, with the teacher responding to errors or
learning gaps as they do so. The overall result of these methodological developments in practical terms has
been labeled ‘pragmatic eclecticism’- a willingness to use a variety of methods and approaches as they appear
relevant to student needs.

Key Point – Experienced EFL teachers are now in a position where the best techniques and tasks taken from
different methodologies can be utilised within the same course of lessons to achieve specific purposes depending
on the students’ needs and abilities.

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2) There are several methods and approaches to teaching mentioned in the
article.
Write a brief definition of each and mention the key techniques used.

a) Grammar translation
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

b) Direct method
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

c) Audiolingualism
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

d) Communicative approach
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

e) Humanist approaches
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

f) Lexical approach
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

g) Task-based learning (TBL)

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

h) Pragmatic eclecticism
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

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3) Write a short essay based on the article you have just read and your own
experience/opinions. (200-300 words)

What previous experience do you have of learning a foreign language and what
are your thoughts on the methods that were employed in your learning?

What makes a ‘good’ language learner?

What do you think should be the teacher’s role in the learning environment?

____________________________________________________________________________________

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