Delta Module One pre interview task

Please do all of the activities that follow and return this document completed to the ITI person who
sent it to you. Save it by adding your name to the end of the file name
e.g. ITIModuleOnepreinterviewtaskJeremyHarmer.docx
When you have your interview you will need to be able to see a copy as you will talk about some of
the things you have written.
You do not need to get all the answers right to get a place on the course - this task is to enable us
to get a picture of your ELT background knowledge.

Name Reham Omar

A. Read the following and complete the boxes with information about form and meaning

Email is a (0) severely limited medium when it comes to conveying tone, (1) which is why
angry emails are never a good idea. More often than not, they just create more (2) anxiety –
and more email. Occasionally, writing an angry email (3) can be therapeutic. If this is the
case, (4) get it off your chest, and then delete the email. When a confrontation is
(5) brewing, a conversation in person (6) or on the phone is almost always best. Emails
(7) leave too much room for misunderstanding.

http://99u.com/articles/6975/email-etiquette-for-the-super-busy

0: severely

form : adverb (regular, formed from the adjective serious with the suffix -ly)
meaning and / or function : seriously – here it is modifying the meaning of limited, making it stronger

1. which
form :relative pronoun (often refers to nouns in an independent clause. The word “which” is also used as a
question word to ask about choices)
meaning and / or function :used to join a dependent clause to an independent clause. “which” refers to the
entire independent clause in this sentence, as opposed to modifying a single noun.

2. anxiety
form :noun (can be transformed to the adjective anxious or the adverb anxiously)
meaning and / or function anxious means: worried/ not calm, especially when waiting for something. The
word anxiety serves as an object in this example.:

3. can
form : modal verb (modal verbs are followed by the base form of another verb, and remain in the same form
themselves, which means we cannot add “s” to them)
meaning and / or function :the verb “can” in this example is used to indicate possibility, (means: it is
possible) the verb “can” is also used to express ability in other cases, and its past form is: could.

4. get it off your chest

form : idiom (a proverbial phrases which is used in specific contexts, and is derived from cultural
practicies rather than linguistic rules)
meaning and / or function : means: say something you’ve wanted to say for a long time, to get some
relief.

5. brewing
form : present participle (preceded by an auxillary verb to indicate that an action is in progress)
meaning and / or function : means starting to develop. In this example, the participle “brewing” is
preceded by “is” to form a present continuous form.

6. or
form : coordinating conjunction, refers to different choices/possibilities in a sentence by connecting
two clauses.
meaning and / or function : or is used to join two clauses of equal rank/importance.

7. leave
form : present simple verb (this verb refers to the plural noun “emails” in the example)
meaning and / or function : leave can have a multiple meanings depending on context. It means; allow
in this sentence (especially when collocated with “room”)

B. Read the following text. It was written by an intermediate level Turkish learner on a pre-
sessional course for an MBA. It is the first paragraph (of three) in response to the
composition title ‘What does success mean to you ?;
What is the learner doing well and what should they work on ? Name two strengths and two
weaknesses.

Success means to do something which you want to do good. If you have some goals, you want to
success them. For example, I want to found own job. If I do it one day, I will be successful. I am
doing something for this. I work in different jobs. I invest my and other people’s money in capital
market. I give some hand made things for women who they are housewife to do. I help my husband
for his job and I will open a shop next month in Nisantasi about jewelleries.
Strength
Forming a proper conditional sentence to express something possible in the future (If I do it one day, I will be
successful), this indicates that the student knows how to use “if” in the first conditional.

Strength
The student accurately connected two clauses using a relative clause in the first sentence. “success means to
do something which you want to do”. He/she also used the relative pronoun “who” to describe women who are
housewives, although the rest of the sentence contains major errors. The student also used correct
collocations on multiple occasions (have-goals, invest-in, work- jobs)

Weakness
Using “good” as an adverb instead of “well”. The student used an adjective in place of an adverb in the clause:
success means to do something which you want to do -good-. The student needs to review how to transform
adjectives to adverbs, especially in irregular cases (without adding “ly”)

Weakness
The student needs to work on their use of prepositions. They used the wrong preposition in the following
examples:give some handmade things “for” women (instead of:to women), help my husband “for” his job
(instead of: in his work), open a job “about” jewelleries (instead of: for jewelleries)

C. There are some lacks and inaccuracies of spelling and punctuation in the following. Please write it out
correctly in the space provided.

by taking the students though multiple itertions of producing roughly the same output they should
become more fluent producing their utterences faster and with fewer hesitations and pauses
thornbury 2005 6 time limits can discourage over monitoring and encourage faster production ibid
11 but can also make learners more anxious which reduces fluency thornbury 2005 25 if the
learners as a hole seem insufficiently challanged by the activity I can increase the sense of urgency
by emposing decreasing time limits each time they switch partners otherwise I can simply monitor
the activity and have learners swap partners just before engagement begins to flog

thurnbury s 2005 how to teach speaking essex England person education

By taking the students through multiple iterations of producing roughly the same output, they should become
more fluent in producing their utterences faster, and with fewer hesitations and pauses. (Thornsbury, 2005, p.
6). Time limits can discourage over-monitoring and encourage faster production (Ibid.,11), but can also make
learners more anxious, which reduces fluency. (Thornsbury, 2005, p.25). If the learners as a whole seem
unsufficiently challenged by the activity, I can increase the sense of urgency by imposing a decrease in time
limits each time they switch partners. Otherwise, I can simply monitor the activity, and have learners swap
partners just before their engagement begins to flog.

Thornsbury, S. (2005). How to Teach Speaking. Essex, England: Pearson Education.

 D. What do you understand by the term task based learning ? Do you practice it in your
classroom ? Sometimes ? Never ? Why or why not ? Explain in 150-200 words.

Task based learning was the cornerstone of my CELTA training, and I’m a staunch supporter of its use in
lesson-planning and execution. I believe that students can only retain new knowledge when they are
immersed in learning experiences that are meaningful. Meaningful learning experiences are those that are
derived from real life situations, so they challenge students’ critical thinking, and encourage the use of target
language in an authentic setting. I try to base my lessons on task-based learning by selecting (and often
designing) activities that follow the “triple P” modal (present, practice, production), which gives students
ample opportunities to apply the new information in multiple contexts during the practice and production
stages. I also ensure that practice activities are student-centered, and based on the students’ varied interests,
so they can retain the new language by associating it with what they already know. Furthermore, I embed
evaluation in the learning process, by including feedback at the end of the performance stage. In a nutshell,
What I understand by TBL is that an ESL lesson must be contextualized, interactive, and based on authentic
material which students can relate to.

Click here to enter text.

E. In the interview you may well be asked about

 Why you want to do Delta

 What you last read in the field of ELT
 When you last wrote something of 1000 words or more in length (and why)
 How you keep yourself up to date
 When you were last observed and for what reason
 How you would teach some points / sub skills

As with the tasks above, it is not that you have to be seen to give certain answers. We have
included these ideas so you could think them through before you talk to us, but we would like
you to tell us about your actual situation (not what you might think an interviewer would want
to hear). If you haven’t been observed at all in the past ten years, be honest about that as
the person interviewing you will probably make some suggestions about things you can do in
preparation for your course.