CELTA COURSE PRE-INTERVIEW TASK

PART ONE

Write about a learning experience that you have had that lasted about an hour eg a driving lesson, a lecture or workshop at school or university, learning a dance step, a sport or musical instrument lesson, a time somebody showed you how to repair something, a time somebody showed you how to do a new task at work etc

Describe in detail what the 'teacher' did and what you did. How did you feel before, during and after the experience? Do you think it was a successful learning experience? Why (not)?

AIMS OF PART ONE:
• To give you the chance to demonstrate your writing ability in English.
• To get you thinking about the learning process.

COMMENTS:
• You should write about 250 words.
• We don't expect you to write a work of literature. We hope, though, that you will be able to produce a coherent piece of writing which is more or less grammatically correct with no spelling mistakes.
• You need to send this to us by e-mail.

Think about the statements below. We will discuss some of them in the interview. Do you agree with them? Why (not)?

1. It is the job of teachers to explain and students to listen.
2. If students make mistakes, the teacher should correct them.
3. Learning a language is like learning to drive a car.
4. Pairwork and groupwork are essential in the language learning classroom.
5. When learning a language, it is more important to learn how to speak than to learn how to write in the language.
6. It is important for students of English as a Foreign Language to be exposed to a lot of English Literature as this is possibly the most perfect form of the language.
7. The teacher should never use the students' language in class.
8. Playing games in the classroom is a waste of time. The students don't learn much through playing games.
9. There are many ways to motivate students. Maybe the best way is to use lots of tests and exams.
10. Grammar isn't very important when learning a language.

AIMS OF PART TWO
• To get you thinking about some of the basic issues related to teaching English as a Foreign Language so that you feel more confident when you start the course.
• To give you a chance to think about your opinions on these issues before you come to the interview so that you feel more confident in the interview.

COMMENTS
• It's not necessary to write your answers for this task.
• You don't have to send this to us.

Look at the text below, which was written by an intermediate   student. Underline and correct the 10 most important errors (in your opinion). Underline and tick 4 or 5 phrases or sentences that you think are correct.  

Dear Mary,

How are you? In the last letter you asked me about my house and now I would answer you. I life in a small flat but it is very comfortable. Under my flat there is a big garage for to park the cars of the all family. In my house there are four rooms and four televisions, I have my own television in my bedroom. My bedroom is very small but for me is the best because there I can do all that I want, I watch the TV, I listen music, I study, I think that I am all the day closed in my room.

The kichen and the toilet have been repared two years ago, now it looks like new. But in my house it needs doing a lot of things. My house needs painting because the walls are very dirty.   The window need to be repared and cleaned. The garage needs painting and changing the door. For me, the worst thing is that the washing machine needs reparing and now I have to do the washing up every day.

I don't remember to say you that in every room there are a lots of photos   because my father is photographer and he likes doing photos.

I hope that you can go in my house someday and see it.

Best Wishes,

Nuria.

AIMS OF PART THREE
• To find out if you have potential at analysing language.
• To give you an initial insight into the kinds of language learning difficulties that our students have.

COMMENTS
• When trying to identify mistakes, you could think about grammar, inappropriate vocabulary, spelling, punctuation etc
• You should send this to us by e-mail.