Pre-Interview Task

Give yourself about 1 hour to do this task and you should not refer to any other sources! (It is not a
test on whether you get it right or wrong, rather to see what you can come up with).

I will also ask you about yourself, views of language learning and teaching, and any experience that
may be relevant to the course. The interview should take about 45 minutes.

CELTA LANGUAGE AWARENESS

1 How would you teach these words in class?

People: I will teach this word by giving example to the class such as “people of Turkey, People
present in this class”. I also will explain to them that this word is plural and we use plural “tobe”
forms. Or I can use an image of group of men or women in a place.

Politician: for this word I’d bring some pictures of well-known politicians such as presidents and
mainly the president of a country in which im teaching there
Countryside: I will tell them this word implies the places where you normally go in weekend or
holidays to spend your time or even I can show some pictures of beautiful place in countryside of
the country im teaching.
Make: because this word is somehow complicated in terms of meaning and collocations, I will
start by explaining its verb form. providing them with some examples and then write some phrases
on the board which this word normally comes to give different meanin

2 Can’t is the contracted form of ‘cannot’. Why is it important to teach contractions in

the English language classroom
A learner of English language needs to know how and when to use contractions regardless of
how much her/his level of English language. In real life situation native speakers of English
language use more contraction form of words rather than their separated form. So if a learner
wants to sounds more native like or understands native speakers, s/he needs to know how to use
them. It also implies the level of fluency of a learner .

3 How would you explain why the following are not acceptable in English?

a) I live in Istanbul for 2 weeks and then I go home.

This sentence implies a past action so it should be in past form.

b) I had been to France eight years ago.

Past perfect needs an ing form of the verb after “had been”

c) I like much kinds of music.: because kinds is countable noun we cant use “much” instead
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we use “many” for countable nouns and “much” for uncountable nouns.

4 Explain the difference in meaning or use between the following pairs of sentences.
The first have been done as an example.

He needn’t have gone to the doctor

He didn’t need to go to the doctor.

Both of the sentences mean that it wasn’t necessary for him to go to the doctor. The first one
implies that he definitely went. The second leaves this question open.

a) If I had known, I would have told you.

b) If I knew, I’d tell you.

Both of these sentences means that if the person were aware of the situation he/she would tell
about it. In the first one the situation which is past perfect i.e an impossible situation which cant be
changed and the person is saying this after its occurrence.
But in the second one which is a simple past s/he is hypothesizing about the issue. If s/he were
aware, s/he would do that

a) I remember seeing the keys on the table.

b) I remembered to lock the door

In both of this situations the person don’t remember where s/he left the keys. In the first
one the person remembers the keys were somewhere s/he saw it before but in the second
one the person remembered she used the key to lock the door but then she forgot where
s/he left them.

5 'Let's go to the cinema.'

Give examples of three further forms that could be used to make suggestions.

a. What about going to cinema instead of going to a café?

b. Why not to use starboard instead of whiteboard.

c.Would you open the window, please?

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What factors are important in deciding which of these forms to use in a particular situation?
It depends on the situation. Whether it is formal or informal. Whether the situation is
friendly or not. For me, it is the context which specify how to use and which one to
choose. We can say for the 3rd example: would you mind opening the window? Or can you
open the window? The degree of the politeness and formal or informal …

METHODOLOGY – (please write complete answers)

1 Your class has to listen to a text on Australia. What problems could they have, and
also how could you make it interesting for them?

I think if I provide them with some information of the country prior to listening to the listening it will
help them to understand it or present some pictures of the famous places of Austraila or even I can
do this by asking some question from the class about the country’s geography, history and … . the
answer for each of the question will make them ready to the listening

2 You have to take over a class that complained a lot about their last teacher. What
could be the
possible sources of the problems they had, and how would you deal with the group?

I had this situation in a class in Istanbul. Their previous teacher was not satisfying for them. Before
going directly to the issue I started the class with some friendly greetings and then I raised the
question of “ who is an ideal teacher?”. Then I gave them some time to write their ideas or to think
about it. The answer revealed their expectations and even they started giving example of the
situation they had. So I got their expectations and I planned in a way to meet their needs.
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3. Which do you think is more difficult, reading or writing? Why?

I think the later one is difficult because it is a productive process but the first one is
receptive. As you know better than me, productive skills are always difficult because they
not only need writing competence but also it need innovation and thinking about how to
write what to write and … . But reading as a receptive skill demand less effort than writing
because the student just needs to focuse on the text which is provided to her/him.

Pre-Interview Essay

Describe a good and a bad teacher you have had and how, in retrospect it affected your learning of
the subject. (Please write on this paper – approx. 800 words)

I had a teacher on Arabic Lesson. Once I were sick and absent. The next session when I
were present in the class he gave a test to us related to the previous session’s lesson
which I were absent. I told him that I were absent and already have some problems in the
grammar of that session and some question but he replied me in a way that caused my
classmates to laugh at me. It was such a bad situation. He ruined me in front of the class
just because of my absence which was due to my illness. I never enjoyed his class
anymore and after that session up to know I can the terms Arabic reminds me of the
teacher and his behaviour!! So you can guess how kind of feeling I’m getting whenever I
come across the term Arabic! He stuck as a bad teacher in my mind.
In contrast to that experience, I had a very gentleman teacher in English. He had such an
amazing character. I loved his dress and his choice of clothes. I loved his accent. He
helped me and motivated me in learning English. His manner and the way he treated the
student in the class was such an exemplary situation that I have in my mind up to now. It
was he, my English teacher who motivated me to keep study English and get interested in
English language learning. I wanted to be like him, impressive and gentleman. He had told
me that you will be a good English student and a good translator. He always gave me
positive energy. he was my English teacher for 4 years in school. I even once changed my
school because of him, he left the school because of some problems and I changed my
school.