focus on the learner assignment celta examples

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CELTA written assignment: focus on the learner(s)

The purpose of the assignment

The CELTA handbook (5th edition) explains that this assignment allows you to demonstrate that you can:

• show awareness of how a learner’s/learners’ background(s), previous learning experience and learning preferences affect learning
• identify the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills needs
• correctly use terminology relating to the description of language systems and/or language skills
• select appropriate material and/or resources to aid the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills development
• provide a rationale for using specific activities with a learner/learners
• find, select and reference information from one or more sources
• use written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task

That's a lot to cover in 1000 words so you need to be concise and stay focused.  This is not the place to discuss general approaches to teaching.

Most centres choose one of two ways to set this assignment:

• You may be asked to focus on a specific learner from one of the teaching practice classes or
• You may be asked to focus on the whole of a teaching practice class.

You may even be given a choice.

Whichever assignment you are set, the considerations are the same but, obviously, more depth will be required in 1. than in 2.

This is in the genre of an Information Report and it has three parts:

• A brief introduction stating the basic information about the learner or the class.  Say what you are doing and who the subject of the investigation is.
• An area-by-area report giving the data you have gathered, noting strengths, weaknesses and needs as you go along.
• sources for language and/or skills development and, if it's needed, personal support
• ideas for language and/or skill focused activities Link this section carefully to the data you have gathered, explaining why you think the ideas will help.

You can combine the second and third areas if that makes sense to you so two structures are possible:

Choose one structure or the other.  Do not mix them up or you'll be incoherent.

• An example of the learner's writing.  The neatest way to get this is to write a short note to the learner saying who you are, giving a bit of background (age, background, personal details etc.) and asking the learner to respond in like manner.  That way, you get the personal stuff you need and an example of how well they can handle the simple language needed to give some personal data (name, age, occupation etc.).
• reasons for learning English
• language learning background
• student’s opinion of their strengths and weaknesses in English
• preferred class and activity types

• You can, of course, gather some of this data by designing a questionnaire.  See the guide to needs analysis to get some ideas.  There is an example of a basic needs analysis form here.
• Record the interview and listen to it again, making notes of consistent errors and the learner's communicative effectiveness.  You can provide a tapescript of some important parts of the interview to exemplify the areas you think need work in the assignment.  You will need the person's permission to do this, of course.
• If recording is not an option, make as many notes as you can on the learner's use of English as you go along.
• Learning style.  The new edition of the handbook (the 5th) has removed any explicit reference to learning styles because the theories that underlie such things have been comprehensibly debunked.  The syllabus now contains reference to learning preferences.  However, for reasons which are slightly obscure, some CELTA centres and tutors are wedded to the idea of learning styles.  Many will let you have a copy of something called a VARK questionnaire to give to the subject.  There is, of course, a guide to learning styles on this site but you should treat the area with great scepticism.  See also the article attempting to debunk the whole concept .

• You need to set out some information about the people in the class: ages, occupations, reasons for learning etc.  See the table above.  The only sensible way to do this with a group of people is via a questionnaire needs analysis.  See the guide to needs analysis to get some ideas.  There is an example of a basic needs analysis form here.
• You can investigate learning preferences but will have to identify from the data any commonalities in the class rather than details of each learner.  See point f., above.
• For the final section of the assignment where you make suggestions, you'll need to be a bit more generalised and identify common aims and needs rather than individual ones. One approach is to identify the two weakest and the two strongest students and identify appropriate activities, resources and aims for them.  That should also cover everyone in between.

• The student is studying English for no apparent  purpose at the moment.  He or she may need the language in the future for some purpose but at the moment that is not clear.  The student may also need the language as part of a general education, for access to English-language websites and for travel and tourism. This student needs General English (a GE learner).
• This student need English to settle and integrate in an English-speaking culture for an indefinite time. This student needs English as a Second or Other Language (an ESOL learner)
• This student needs English for business and commercial purposes either because his/her professional setting demands it or because she/he is intending to study Business and/or Management. This student needs Business English (a BE learner).
• This student intends to study in an English-medium institution such as a university or college. This student needs English for Academic Purposes (an EAP learner).
• This student needs English for a narrow area of concern such as access to written scientific texts, to work in a particular occupation such as the hospitality industry, air traffic control, the merchant marine, the transport industry etc. This student needs English for a Specific Purpose (an ESP learner).
• All of the above can be subdivided into a bewildering range of acronyms including, e.g., EGOP (English for General Occupational Purposes), EGPP (English for General Professional Purposes), ELF (English as a Lingua-Franca, for communication between non-native speakers of English worldwide), English in the Workplace (EiW), English for Professional Purposes (EPP) and so on.

• "I want to learn English to fit into an English-speaking culture and work and socialise." This student has Integrative Motivation (to integrate into a cultural milieu).
• "I want to learn English to use the language in business meetings / to study a subject at university." This student has Instrumental Motivation (using the language as a tool to do other things).
• "I love the language and enjoy learning it and speaking it." This student has Intrinsic Motivation (the pressure to learn comes from within).
• "I have been told to learn English by my employer / parents / sponsor." This student has Extrinsic Motivation (the pressure to learn comes from outside).

Be careful not to be too dogmatic here.  People are complicated and their motivations are often obscure, even to themselves, so try to avoid statements such as

This learner is extrinsically motivated.

Prefer, instead, something a bit more careful such as:

From the data supplied in the short questionnaire, it seems that this learners is aware of the need to learn enough English to be able to function in the workplace but is also keen to access English-speaking websites and understand something of the cultures of English-speaking societies.  She has, therefore, a mix of instrumental and integrative motivation and needs English as a tool as well as for cultural access.

There is a guide to motivation on this site but you do not need all the detail now.  If you would like a simpler guide to motivation which still gives more data than here, there is one in the TKT course materials (new tabs).

Obviously, the suggestions you make will be determined by what you have discovered about the learner(s).

• Why do you suggest it?
• What's its target?
• How will it help?
• Include both ideas for activities and ideas for materials to use and topics to focus on.
• Identify both language structure and skills needs. For example, From the data summarised in point xxx above, I would argue that a priority for this learner / these learners is to enhance his / her / their reading skills because they / he / she identify it as a weakness and this is supported by my observations.  Good reading skills are needed for study in the UK and the majority of these EAP students / this EAP student will be going on to university in the next few months.  Therefore, I suggest using xxxx in class and starting a reading club using xxxx books and resources.  The student(s) will also benefit from a specific focus on both reading for gist and reading intensively so I suggest the following activities will be helpful... or Another area of weakness I have identified in point yyyy above is the student(s)' lack of vocabulary . Therefore, I suggest a specific focus on general academic vocabulary including using yyyy as a resource and spending at least one lesson per day focusing on common academic collocations (such as reasonable to argue, arising from the data, developing the point further etc.).  This will improve the learner(s)' ability to be precise in terms of meaning and use conventional language in academic essays. The class / student will also benefit from work on cohesive devices such as therefore, firstly, finally, because, furthermore etc. as his / her / their writing shows that they avoid or misuse these structures in general (see appendix 2, and the comments in point z).  This will make the learner(s)' writing in particular more accessible, better organised and fluent.

Do not repeat yourself here.  It's not necessary and you don't have enough words to play with. What you do need to do here is identify the main facts and the most important suggestions.  In other words, prioritise .

Before you submit your assignment, here's a quick checklist.  You can have this as a PDF file by clicking here or you can mentally tick things off on the screen.

• learning preferences
• the questionnaire and a summary of the results
• samples of work
• I have identified at least 5 language problems the learner(s) have / has
• I have given examples
• general future work
• specific ideas to deal with the problems I identified

Now assess yourself against the criteria for the assignment.  Here they are again.  Have you been able to:

Your tutors will maintain a record of the work you have done on the written assignments and will grade each of the criteria as follows: NS (Not to Standard), S (at Standard) or S+ (above Standard). You need to aim consistently for S or S+ grades, naturally.

If you have managed to tick all the items, well done.  Submit the assignment and move on.

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CELTA Course Assignments: Step-by-step Guide with Real Examples

CELTA course assignments are a mystery for many people. Everyone who applies for a CELTA course has heard about them, but not many know what to expect.

For this reason, I wanted to go through the basics of the CELTA course assignments and explain what you can expect. However, I should tell you early on: every CELTA course centre has slightly different assignments.

CELTA Course Assignments: What are they?

As mentioned above, these are different for each CELTA centre so it is hard to go into too much detail here. Instead, I will give you a brief overview and some links to examples of these CELTA course assignments, available for free online (but don’t pay for any!).

You might also find that the assignment you are given is very different to any of the sample CELTA course assignments linked to below. With that in mind, it’s important to think about these assignments in terms of broad concepts, rather than specific points.

CELTA Course Assignment 1: Focus on the Learner

Much of your assignment will also be based on an interview you do with a particular student. Remember to organise the interview early on in your CELTA course! And no, it won’t be anything like the CELTA course pre-interview task !

Hopefully you can now see clearly why this assignment is called ‘ focus on the learner’ !

CELTA Course Assignment 2: Language Related Tasks

For the second assignment on your course, you will need to focus on language skills and awareness.

For the above, your tutors will not expect you to have a very high level knowledge of English. Just remember to follow the assignment instructions and do your best!

If you take good notes during the ‘input sessions’ on your CELTA course, these will be particularly helpful here (make sure you are taking notes you can read and understand afterwards!)

You will likely have to explain, with examples, the following for each piece of vocabulary you are given:

Remember, it is for you to show what you have learnt up to this point. With this in mind, you should be able to find help or a guide in your notes from the input sessions you have already had.

Much of what you need to do in this section will be similar to the vocabulary section. You might need more background here, so I would suggest you do some reading before starting the course.

For a much more in-depth look at this, be sure to check out my dedicated article for CELTA assignment 2 here   (with worked examples!)

CELTA Course Assignment 3: Language Skills Related Tasks

With that authentic piece of language, you can then think about what you want the students to learn and make the tasks around this. You will need to explain why you have chosen this task, but this will be quite brief.

For every task you make for the skills above, you will need to give your reasoning, or rationale, for including this task in your lesson.

CELTA Course Assignment 4: Lessons from the Classroom

As this assignment comes at the end of the course, it is mostly reflecting on what you have done.

Other points which might be included in assignment 4 are things like classroom management and lesson planning, among others!

Imagine how you will feel at the end of the course; your brain might be ready to shut down!

Below is also a very detailed Slideshare presentation by Jo Gakonga of ELT Planning, an experienced EFL teacher and teacher trainer who has a fantastic website. It explains the main elements of the ‘lessons from the classroom’ assignment in detail.

Useful Links

Focus on the learner – assignment 1, celta course assignment 2: language related task, celta course assignment 3: language skills related task, celta course assignment 4: lessons from the classroom, celta course assignments: any more questions.

This handy notebook is designed with ready-made templates to make your CELTA course that much easier, giving you space to record all your key notes without you having think about how to organise or record your notes – just fill in the templates for things like observed lessons, planning, reflective diary (especially helpful for the final assignment) and more. I designed it to help CELTA course students get through the course – perhaps it can help you, too.

More Helpful Content For You:

Recent posts.

The Ultimate Guide to CELTA

CELTA Written Assignments – Focus on the Learner (FL)

Written assignments form a major part of the CELTA assessment process and are a compulsory part of the course.  There are 4 written assignments in total but some centres conflate two of them to make one larger assignment.  In this series we will look at each individual assignment and provide you with some advice and guidance as well as highlight some of the common pitfalls.

Disclaimer: All centres create their own written assignment rubrics, make sure you check with your centre exactly what is required.  We can only provide general information here, rather than specific.  With this in mind, do you think it would be wise to pay for other peoples’ assignments to help you write your own?

Although every centre creates their own written assignments, the CELTA Syllabus and Assessment Guidelines states that for the FL assignment:

The design of the assignment to include: 

• investigation of the learning context and assessment of learner needs with reference to a specific learner or group of learners
• identification of sources for language and/or skills development and, where appropriate, personal support
• suggestions for specific language and/or skill focused activities and an explanation/rationale for the use of these activities with the specific learners identified

Candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

• showing awareness of how a learner’s/learners’  background(s), previous learning experience and learning  preferences affect learning
• identifying the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills needs
• correctly using terminology relating to the description of language systems and/or language skills
• selecting appropriate material and/or resources to aid the learner’s/learners’ language and/or skills development
• providing a rationale for using specific activities with a learner/learners
• finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task

All written assignments should be 750 – 1000 words

Source: CELTA Syllabus and Assessment Guidelines

Some useful books to help you get started:

Learner English: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference and other Problems (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers)

This book looks at errors that speakers of different language make and why they make them. An example taken from the book is that in Spanish there are few consonant clusters. This means when Spanish speakers are speaking English they have difficulty in producing English clusters. As a result express might be produced as espres or breakfast as brefas. Another example, still thinking about Spanish speakers, is that in Spanish to form a negative there are no auxilliairies, so lower level speakers might say I no understand rather than I don’t understand .

Ideas for pronunciation activities:

• Ship or Sheep by Ann Baker
• Pronunciation Games by Mark Hancock
• Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill

Ideas for grammar activities:

• English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy
• Teaching English Grammar by Jim Scrivener
• Teaching Tenses by Rosemary Aitken

Ideas for vocabulary activities:

• English Vocabulary in Use by Michael McCarthy and Felicity O’Dell
• English Collocations in Use by Felicity O’Dell

Common Pitfalls

In our centre, trainees often fall foul of the following:

• identifying errors that are pre-systematic (language that has not yet been taught) and therefore require a full lesson before it can be remedied rather than a remedial activity
• provide activities that don’t remedy the error in question
• provide activities that are too high/low for the level of the learner
• forgetting to include a bibliography
• forgetting to provide a rationale for the choice of activity
• label errors incorrectly

In our centre, we encourage trainees to make a short recording of their student (with their permission of course) while having a short chat with them in the break or after class. This gives them plenty of material to analyse when tackling this assignment.

Have you already written your Focus on the Learner assignment? What tips would you add?

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Author: Emma Jones

A CELTA Tutor based in Munich and co-author of The Ultimate Guide to CELTA View all posts by Emma Jones

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CELTA Focus on the Learner Assignment

Published by awalls86 on february 13, 2021 february 13, 2021.

For more tips and advice about CELTA, click here .

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Of the four assignments that you need to write for CELTA, the focus on the learner assignment tends to require the most planning. Typically, this assignment consists of finding out about the background and needs of one or more students, identifying problems they have and suggesting relevant activities to help these students. As with other CELTA assignments, the exact details of the assignment will depend on the course provider.

What do you have to do?

• focusing on one particular learner;
• focusing on a pair of learners;
• focusing on a group of students.

Focus on one learner

If you have to focus on one learner (as I had to), you will be expected to meet up with the student and collect data about their background and needs. However, before you do that, you may have the option to choose your victim… sorry, I mean learner.

Assuming you have the choice, you want to pick wisely. I would advise picking a student who:

• speaks a major international language (e.g. Arabic, Spanish, Korean, etc.), and
• you have already noted has specific problems.

The reason for picking a student who speaks a major international language is that the problems these speakers have in English are well-documented. I am however assuming that your students are not a monolingual group. It is not necessary you know their first language, and actually if it is obvious you have picked a learner because you know their language, the CELTA tutors may take a dim view of this.

Once you have chosen your learner, don’t delay to set up an interview with them. You will then want to plan out what you will ask them about (look at the background and needs sections for ideas). Make sure you record the interview so you can listen back to it later. Most mobile phones can deal with this, but you should make sure that it is recording. It is better to have two minutes on the recording of you saying “is it working?” than finding out afterwards it didn’t record.

You should also aim to get a writing sample from the student at the interview. You could ask them to do it ahead of the interview by asking them to write a letter telling you about their experience of learning English and what they would like to do with English in the future.

As the practice students attend CELTA lessons for free, they are usually very amenable to being interviewed. However, if they are not so thrilled at this prospect, you can generally sway them by telling them they will get feedback. If you promise this, do make sure you give it though. These students often come back again and again and so another CELTA trainee will probably use them in their assignment in the future. Don’t make their life more difficult because you promised the student feedback but didn’t give any.

As well as interviewing the learner, you can also make notes when you are observing the group and when you are teaching. Note anything you hear them say wrongly (you can always analyse what the mistake is later) and difficulties they have with skills.

Focus on a pair of learners

As with focusing on one learner, if you have a choice, try to choose students with major international first languages. You still want to set up your interview as soon as possible and prepare your list of questions.

Having a pair of learners gives you an opportunity that you don’t get with just one and it is a rookie error if you don’t take it. Since you have two learners, give them a task to complete together in the interview. This gives you a much more accurate picture of what they struggle with.

In lessons, you still need to note the errors you hear them make and issues that they have with skills. Remember, you are also comparing the students, so you should consider whether these issues are common to both.

Focus on a group

If you are told to focus on a group, you probably won’t get to interview the whole group. Certainly, if you do get any time when you can do this it won’t be long. Instead you might be told to conduct a survey on the group to get this information. This is something that your teaching practice group will need to do together. 

Background and Needs

The first section of your assignment deals with the learners’ background and needs. This can include (this is not an exhaustive list by any means):

• country of origin,
• occupation,
• first language,
• other languages and level,
• how long they have been learning English and how,
• level of education,
• experience of education,
• why they are learning English,
• what they use English for,
• what they would like to use English for,
• what they find easy,
• what they find difficult,
• what activities they like,
• what activities they don’t like,
• their attitude to correction.

It is fairly easy to phrase questions to get answers to these questions in an interview or on a survey. However, remember that if the student is low level you may need to word questions in a way that they can respond easily. With higher level students, you may want to ask these questions in a more open ended way to get them to talk more. You may want to script your questions to save time rephrasing them in an interview.

Once you have this information, you can begin writing it up.

The book Learner English (Smith & Swan) is invaluable here. This book looks at the problems that speakers of certain languages have when learning English. Reading the section that relates to your student(s) therefore will give you plenty of issues to write about.

Your centre will tell you how many issues you need to write about. It may specify that you need to write about issues related to each of the three knowledge areas (grammar, lexis and pronunciation) and the four skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). Alternatively, it might tell you to pick two key problems that the student should work on. Obviously, the more areas you are required to provide problems for, the less you are required to write for each problem.

If you are only required to choose a couple of problems you will need to:

• pick problems from different knowledge areas or skills (i.e. don’t have two grammar problems);
• explain why you believe this problem is particularly important. This is easy if you can link it to something in their needs – for example, you could justify working on spelling if they have stated that professional writing is high on their priorities.

This can be the trickiest part of the assignment. You know a couple of problems that they have and now you must suggest solutions that will help them to overcome these.

To pass this part, you should ensure your solutions are sufficiently clear, relate to the problem and state why they will help. For example:

Problem: Student confuses /p/ and /b/ phonemes in speech and writing e.g. I bark my car. This is a common problem for Arabic speakers, as the two sounds are allophonic in Arabic.

Solution: A list of minimum pairs containing /b/ and /p/ is included in the appendix, e.g. beach and peach. I would use these to test if the student can actually hear the difference between these sounds. Through regular testing, the student should get better at hearing the difference. When the student can do this, I would use these words to drill the student in producing these sounds.

Assessment Criteria

To pass this assignment, you need to do the following:

• show you are aware how a student’s background, learning experience and preferences affect learning.
• identify the student’s needs.
• correctly use terminology.
• select appropriate material and resources.
• provide a rationale for using these activities.
• find, select and reference information.

If you want to pass this first time around, follow these tips:

• As soon as you meet the students, note all the errors they make or problems they have that you can.
• Share your notes with your teaching practice group and they will likely do the same.
• Choose a student quickly if you need to.
• As soon as you can set up an interview with the student.
• Record the interview (make sure your device is recording).
• Write up the background as soon as possible after your interview.
• Use Learner English to identify problems. If you’re really struggling, you may well get away with saying that your student has a problem that is common to speakers of that language. This should be a last resort however.
• Make sure you have sufficiently different problems i.e. not two grammar problems, or two pronunciation problems.
• Talk to your colleagues when devising solutions. They may be able to suggest some good resources.
• Include the activities in an appendix with a clear note of where you got them.
• You aren’t supposed to explain how the activity is performed, but you can include the teachers’ instructions from the book in the appendix.
• Keep a close eye on the word count.
• If you can, have a relative or friend read your final submission through.

If you follow the advice above, you should be able to complete this assignment without too much fuss.

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Written Assignments

Written assignment cover page & resource.

Please use (and complete) a Written Assignment Cover Page for the first page of ALL of your written assignments.

ALL Written Assignments must be submitted in Word (doc or docx) format.

Download the Written Assignment Cover Page (docx)

If you don't have Word, use this Written Assignment Cover Page (Google Doc - Go to "File" (top left), then "Download" to download in various formats).

Before you get started on your Written Assignments, you can refer to this handy Written Assignment Resource that we've put together to give you a starting point for your research and other helpful resources for getting started with and completing each of the tasks below.

LSRT - Language Skills Related Task

Download the LSRT Rubric

Download the LSRT Guidelines

Download the LSRT Sample

For this assignment, choose an authentic reading text to practise and develop your learners’ reading skills. Choose a text which is suitable for one of your teaching practice classes.

Design a receptive skills lesson and describe the procedure of your lesson in prose, including the following information:

Say why you have chosen the text, comment on its suitability for use in the classroom and say which level you would use it with. Submit a sourced copy of the text with your assignment.

Design a lead-in , saying how you would raise your learners’ interest in the topic of the text.

Design an initial reading task and state which sub-skill(s) it practises. Include the task (with answers) on a separate handout.

Design a second reading task and state which sub-skill(s) it practises. Include the task (with answers) on a separate handout.

Design one or two productive skills follow-up tasks (speaking or writing) which capitalise on the interest generated by the text. Include the task(s) with your assignment.

Provide a rationale for doing each stage and task. Reference at least one methodology text to support your ideas.

Assessment criteria

The assignment should be written in continuous prose, with clear headings and paragraphing.

Cambridge English specifies that for the Language skills related tasks assignment, successful candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

correctly using terminology that relates to skills and sub-skills

relating task design to language skills practice

finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task.

Word count: 750 – 1000 words

LRT - Language Related Task

Download the LRT Rubric

Download the LRT Guidelines

Download the LRT Sample

Download the LRT Rubric and you will see a typical text that you might get students to read in class. It contains some useful language for Part 1 of your assignment. ( Your TP Language Analysis Sheets will be Part 2 ; read the rubric for details – link above).

Look at the items from the text in the box below. Choose one of the grammar structures and do the following:

analyse the meaning , describing how you would check students’ understanding. Use concept checking questions and some other clarification techniques if necessary, e.g. timelines, personalisation.

highlight the form

highlight key pronunciation features

focus on appropriacy where necessary

anticipate problems that students might have with meaning, form, pronunciation and appropriacy and suggest solutions . The solutions for problems with meaning could include some of the same techniques you used to analyse meaning, e.g. concept checking questions, timelines and personalisation

state which references you have used to help you in your analysis.

…everything that has happened to us during the day. (grammar)

…but sooner or later we have to sleep . (grammar)

If scientists invented a pill which, if you took it, would keep you awake for ever, would you take it ? (grammar)

Two example answers, one grammar and one lexis, have been done for your guidance. These can be found in the Guidelines for Assignment 2 link above.

Cambridge ESOL specifies that for the Language related tasks assignment , successful candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

analysing language correctly for teaching purposes

correctly using terminology relating to form, meaning and phonology when analysing language

accessing reference materials and referencing information they have learned about to an appropriate source

using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task.

FOL - Focus on the Learner

Download the FOL Rubric

Download the FOL Guidelines

Download the FOL Sample

In this assignment it is possible to focus on an individual adult learner or a group of adult learners (age 18+).

Part A: Write a profile of the learner(s)

In the profile it is important to include the following information about the learner(s):

Level, nationality and mother tongue.

Background and learning experience, with particular regard to learning English.

Reasons / motivation for learning English and what you consider to be their needs.

Preferred learning style(s) and the activities which they enjoy most and benefit from in class.

Details of their strengths and weaknesses. There should be a balance of grammar, lexis, pronunciation and the four skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). This analysis will help you prepare for the second part of the assignment.

Refer to at least one reference book to support your observations.

Word count for part A: 550-700 words

Part B: Identify language problems and provide suitable activities from published material to address these.

For this part of the assignment choose two specific language problems. Use your analysis of the strengths and weaknesses in part A to help you identify two key areas which the learner(s) need help with. Focus on problems with grammar, lexis and pronunciation, but avoid choosing two problems from the same area, e.g. two problems with grammar.

Find one activity that could be used with your learner(s) for each problem . You need to find two activities in total. You should hand these in with your assignment. These activities must be from other published material, and not from coursebook material you are using, or have used, on the course. Give a rationale for why you chose each activity stating:

Why you have chosen to focus on that area of grammar, lexis or pronunciation.

What exactly the activity you have chosen practises. Do not include a description of how you would use the activity.

Why you believe the activity is appropriate for your learner(s). Consider whether it is engaging, meaningful and culturally suitable.

Word count for part B: 200-300 words

The assignment should be written in continuous prose, with clear headings and paragraphing. Although it might be necessary to discuss and share data with your colleagues, assignments must be written independently.

Cambridge English specifies that for the Focus on the learner assignment, successful candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

showing awareness of how a learner’s / learners’ background(s), previous learning experience and learning style(s) affect learning

identifying the learner’s / learners’ language/skills needs

correctly using terminology relating to the description of language systems and language skills

selecting appropriate material and / or resources to aid learner’s / learners’ language development

providing a rationale for using specific activities with a learner / learners

finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources.

Total word count: 750 – 1000 words

LFC - Lessons from the Classroom

Download the LFC Rubric

Download the LFC Guidelines

Download the LFC Sample

This assignment is linked to your own experiences and progress in teaching practice, your observation of peers, your ‘live’ observations of experienced teachers and the filmed lessons in the Observation Room .

Please organise your assignment under the following headings:

Your teaching strengths Identify at least three areas of teaching which you have improved on during the course and state how you have achieved this progress. You should include specific examples from lessons you have taught and feedback comments from trainers, other trainees and your teaching practice students.

Areas for improvement Identify at least three areas of teaching you need to work on and make suggestions on how to improve on these after the course. Give examples from your teaching and include comments from trainers, other trainees and your teaching practice students to justify your suggestions.

Observations of other trainees and experienced teachers Identify particular strengths and skills you have observed, commenting on both your peers and experienced teachers. You should include specific examples of skills and techniques you would like to use in the future, and say how you will incorporate them into your own teaching.

Further development after the course Say how you intend to increase your knowledge of ELT after the course. State which sources you intend to use to find out information about new methods and approaches. You should also say how you intend to develop your teaching skills in the future.

Cambridge English specifies that for the Lessons from the classroom assignment, successful candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

noting their own strengths and weaknesses in different situations in light of feedback from learners, teachers and tutors

identifying which ELT areas of knowledge and skills they need further development in

describing in a specific way how they might develop their ELT knowledge and skills beyond the course

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CELTA Assignment 1 Focus on the Learner (1)

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• Oct 10, 2023

Focus on the Learner - help with CELTA Assignment One

Updated: Apr 26

On a CELTA course , you'll have to complete four written assignments. Each assignment is between 750-1000 words. The assignments can be assigned in any order, but most typically, the Focus on the Learner assignment comes first.

The first part of the assignment is a profile of the learner, or learners. Your tutors may set this up in a number of different ways, and might ask you to write a profile of one student or of a group of students. You may be asked to collect an example of the student's writing or to record them speaking. Then you'll have to write a profile of the student.

Typically, you're asked to give some general background facts, like age, nationality and occupation. This should be easy! You're then asked to give some more specific information that might inform how these students learn or what they want or need to learn. This will include their first language and their previous learning experiences, but you will also probably be asked to comment on motivations and possibly on learner preferences or styles.

If you're discussing motivations, it's good to mention the idea of intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Learner styles aren't really seen as very valid any more, but if you've been asked to mention them, the most common ones to discuss are visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.

I've used words like 'comment' and 'mention' because the important thing to remember is that you're not writing an in-depth profile of the student or students. You're writing a short profile of two or three hundred words. This is not a research paper for a masters degree and so if you've only collected a little information about the student(s), that's OK.

Because it's the first section, I've noticed that many CELTA trainees tend to spend a long time writing this part of the assignment, and then less time on the later sections. However, in my experience, it's the later sections of the assignment that tend to be the parts that people are asked to resubmit, so make sure to give the later sections plenty of time as well.

In the middle part of the assignment, you'll probably be asked to identify some of the student's (or students') strengths and weaknesses. You might be asked to comment on their ability with the skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) or just with language items (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation). Make sure to read the question given carefully, so you know exactly what you're being asked for. There's no point in listing ten points about a student's grammar mistakes if you were asked about their reading and listening skills.

The final, crucial, sections of the assignment are the ones that most often cause trainees to be asked to resubmit. You will be asked to identify errors that the students have made or language areas that they need to work on. The main mistake here is when a CELTA trainee is vague. You can't simply say that that the student gets tenses wrong. You need to say which tenses the student is mixing up. You can't say that they often mispronounce words. You need to say which sound they're pronouncing wrongly.

If you are specific in your analysis of the students' errors, then the final step should be easy. This is where you're asked to identify appropriate materials for students to help them with this error/language area. Again, in different CELTA centres you might be asked to do different things - some will ask you to find a freer practice activity, others will be fine with any exercise. What is essential is that it focuses exactly on the error the student has made and/or the need you have identified. You should also make sure that the exercise or activity you've found is appropriate to the learner's level and learning preferences that you described earlier in the assignment.

In summary, to succeed in your Focus on the Learner assignment:

make sure you read the instructions from your tutors and follow them.

don't spend too much time on the general profile at the start -- make sure it's clear and then move on to the later, more focused parts.

make sure your description of the students' language needs/errors is specific

make sure the activities or exercises match the needs/errors as exactly as possible.

About the author :

Dr Connor O'Donoghue  hails from Ireland and he started teaching English as a foreign language in Poland in 2003 and he became a CELTA trainer in 2008. He has taught and trained in Ireland, the UK, France, Italy, Slovenia, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. Connor also holds a Masters and a PhD in Education from Trinity College in Dublin. He has previously managed large teacher training centres in Vietnam and in London before founding DC Teacher Training.

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Celta Assignment 1: Focus On The Learner Essays Examples

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Students , Learning , English , Communication , Business , Motivation , Skills , Language

Published: 12/07/2021

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PART A Learning Background Hamza has attended the English training facility for six months. Hamza is currently attending the ITI Institute. He knows Arabic and French as his native language, L1 and L2. Hamza has never travelled, studied or lived abroad, but aims to visit the USA or UK to expand his business after becoming affluent in English.

The student wants to learn English because he understands the importance of communication and considers English as the main source of communication. He believes that globalization has provided him with the opportunity to expand his family business in the global context and hence, he is inclined towards the acquisition of the English language. The reason that account for the business expansion in the global market is the example of extrinsic motivation due to its adherence towards the long-term monetary benefits, whereas, the reason related to the expansion of familial business in order to support family and contribute in the strengthening of the familial business accounts for the extrinsic motivation (Benabou and Jean 492). The students is focused on the business opportunities and is considered to be highly motivated due to his focus on his future development. The observation during the communication activities indicated that he tends to share his information about the prevailing opportunities related to the business and talks about his future business objectives, which eventually indicates his firm motivation to understand the international language to achieve his business related objectives.

Learning Styles

The kinesthetic learning style is considered as the dominant style to facilitate learning within the group due to the fact that it enhances the learning ability by providing the students with the activities in which they can communicate, reminisce and enhance their working memory. The kinesthetic learning style incorporates the learning activities in which drama, role-play and debate are conducted in groups due to which students become highly involved in the activities and learn the expressions and feelings behind the sentences and words. In this way, the students gain confidence and become adept at remembering the sentence structure and vocabulary (Reid 97). The variations amongst the individual members is not observed because the student is found to be engaged in the learning activities with his respective partners due to which his communication skills enhance and he develops confidence during the personal communication. The student is found satisfied with the current learning style due to the extent of involvement and practice with peers which eventually provides the learning and supportive environment to the learner.

Learning Preferences

The student likes the activities in which he engages with his peers and practice the learning concepts. The student is comfortable in the communication and learning activities with his peers and prefers the friendly and supportive environment in order to enhance the process of language acquisition. The student likes to work with peers and dislikes individual activities because he believes that he learns more in group or peer activities.

Specific Problems and Suggested Solutions The students is learning English as L3 due to which he finds difficulty in expressing himself in English as opposed to his fluency in L1 and L2. He lacks speed in the identification of the correct word to be used in a sentence because he indulges in switching from L1 and L2. The student performs better when he is working with his peers and hesitates while interacting in English with the teacher, which eventually indicates his lack of capability to communicate in English out of his comfort zone. The gap in the student’s communication skills in English is identified on the basis of the following criteria:

In accordance with the predetermined criteria, it is observed that Hamza is good in reading and writing, whereas, he lacks skills in communication by means of speaking and listening skills.

The student is motivated to learn the English language and understands the importance of English in the global context and hence, he is highly inclined and engaged in the learning activities. Therefore, it is predicted the students will become a successful English learners and will overcome the problems that he is facing. However, in order to overcome the pertaining problems observed in the communication, it is required that the learning activities should include the communication activities with the teacher so that the student develop confidence. The audio and visual aid in enhancing the pronunciation extent is also suggested. In this manner, the listening skills of the student will be improved and he will be able to recall the vocabulary in due to the continuous reminiscing of the vocabulary through the audio visual aid (Kim and David 117).

Benabou, Roland, and Jean Tirole. "Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation." The Review of Economic Studies 70.3 (2003): 489-520. Kim, Daesang, and David A. Gilman. "Effects of text, audio, and graphic aids in multimedia instruction for vocabulary learning." Journal of educational technology & society 11.3 (2008): 114-126. Reid, Joy M. "The learning style preferences of ESL students." TESOL quarterly 21.1 (1987): 87-111.

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