CELTA Language Skills 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A CELTA trainee wants students to practice reading for specific information. Which task type best achieves this?
- Skimming the text for the main idea
- Scanning for names, dates, or figures (Correct answer)
- Reading aloud paragraph by paragraph
- Summarizing the text in their own words
Correct answer: Scanning for names, dates, or figures
Scanning is the sub-skill of reading that targets specific details such as names, numbers, or facts without reading every word.
Question 2: Which of the following listening activities develops bottom-up processing skills?
- Predicting content from the title before listening
- Identifying individual phonemes and word boundaries in connected speech (Correct answer)
- Discussing the topic with a partner before the audio plays
- Choosing the best summary from three options after listening
Correct answer: Identifying individual phonemes and word boundaries in connected speech
Bottom-up processing begins with decoding sounds, phonemes, and words rather than using context or prior knowledge.
Question 3: A student writes 'I am agree with you.' What type of writing error is this?
- Spelling error
- Punctuation error
- Lexico-grammatical error (Correct answer)
- Register error
Correct answer: Lexico-grammatical error
Using 'am' before 'agree' confuses adjectival and verbal constructions, making it a lexico-grammatical error.
Question 4: Which speaking activity is best classified as a 'fluency' task rather than an 'accuracy' task?
- Drilling a new grammar pattern chorally
- Repeating minimal pairs to distinguish sounds
- Debating a topic with a time limit and no interruption for correction (Correct answer)
- Completing a gap-fill exercise orally with teacher feedback
Correct answer: Debating a topic with a time limit and no interruption for correction
Fluency tasks prioritize communication and flow over correctness, as in unrestricted debate or discussion activities.
Question 5: In a CELTA lesson, a teacher uses a jigsaw reading. What is the primary skill aim?
- Intensive reading of a single text for detail
- Extensive reading for pleasure and general comprehension
- Exchanging information gathered from different texts to construct meaning (Correct answer)
- Identifying cohesive devices within one passage
Correct answer: Exchanging information gathered from different texts to construct meaning
Jigsaw activities involve students reading different texts and then sharing information, integrating reading with speaking skills.
Question 6: Which feature of spoken English is most likely to cause a learner difficulty when listening to native speakers?
- Formal sentence structures used in academic speech
- Slow and deliberate pronunciation at word boundaries
- Elision, assimilation, and weak forms in connected speech (Correct answer)
- Use of technical vocabulary unique to written registers
Correct answer: Elision, assimilation, and weak forms in connected speech
Connected speech features like elision and assimilation change how words sound in natural conversation, often confusing learners trained on isolated words.
Question 7: A CELTA candidate sets a 'while-listening' task. What is the primary purpose of this stage?
- To activate students' prior knowledge before the audio
- To help students focus on specific information as they listen (Correct answer)
- To check comprehension after the audio has finished
- To introduce new vocabulary that appears in the recording
Correct answer: To help students focus on specific information as they listen
While-listening tasks give learners a focused reason to listen during the audio, guiding attention to target information.
CELTA Language Skills 2
A CELTA trainee wants students to practice reading for specific information.
Which task type best achieves this?