TEFL/TESOL Certificate (CELTA) Language Analysis and Awareness Syllabus

Language Analysis and Awareness syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Language Analysis and Awareness in TEFL/TESOL Certificate (CELTA), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Grammar for Teaching

   5 topics

   • Verb tenses and aspect
     • Present simple and present continuous
     • Past simple, past continuous and used to
     • Present perfect simple and continuous
     • Past perfect and narrative tenses
     • Future forms: will, going to, present continuous
   • Modality
     • Modals of obligation, permission and prohibition
     • Modals of possibility and deduction
     • Degrees of certainty
   • Conditionals and hypothetical meaning
     • Zero, first, second and third conditionals
     • Mixed conditionals and wish/if only
   • Sentence and clause structure
     • Word order and basic clause patterns
     • Relative clauses (defining and non-defining)
     • Reported speech
     • The passive voice
   • Parts of speech and noun phrases
     • Articles and determiners
     • Countable and uncountable nouns, quantifiers
     • Adjective and adverb order
2. 2

   Analysing Meaning, Form and Use (MFU)

   3 topics

   • The MFU framework
     • Identifying target meaning in context
     • Analysing form and structure
     • Use, register and appropriacy
   • Concept checking
     • Writing concept check questions (CCQs)
     • Timelines and visual concept aids
   • Anticipating learner problems
     • Common meaning and form errors
     • Solutions and clarification strategies
3. 3

   Lexis and Vocabulary

   3 topics

   • Aspects of word knowledge
     • Denotation, connotation and register
     • Collocation and chunks
     • Word formation: prefixes, suffixes, compounds
   • Sense relations
     • Synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms
     • Lexical sets and semantic fields
   • Functional and idiomatic language
     • Functional exponents (requesting, suggesting, apologising)
     • Idioms, phrasal verbs and fixed expressions
4. 4

   Phonology

   4 topics

   • Sounds of English
     • The phonemic chart and IPA symbols
     • Vowels, diphthongs and consonants
     • Minimal pairs
   • Word stress and connected speech
     • Syllables and word stress patterns
     • Weak forms and the schwa
     • Elision, assimilation and linking
   • Sentence stress and intonation
     • Stress and rhythm in utterances
     • Intonation patterns and meaning
   • Teaching pronunciation
     • Drilling techniques and choral/individual repetition
     • Integrating pronunciation into lessons
5. 5

   Discourse and Reference Tools

   3 topics

   • Discourse features
     • Cohesion and coherence
     • Reference, substitution and ellipsis
     • Linkers and discourse markers
   • Register and genre
     • Formal vs informal language
     • Spoken vs written discourse
   • Reference resources for teachers
     • Grammar reference books and learner dictionaries
     • Corpora and online language tools

Language Analysis and Awareness flashcards for TEFL/TESOL Certificate (CELTA)

18 of 56 cards from the Language Analysis and Awareness deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What are the three components of the MFU (or MFP/MPF) framework used to analyse a language item in CELTA?

   Meaning, Form, and Use (sometimes given as Meaning, Form, Pronunciation). Meaning = what the item conveys; Form = how it is constructed grammatically/written; Use = the appropriacy, context and function of the item.

2. Define 'tense' and 'aspect' and explain how they differ.

   Tense locates an event in time (present or past via verb form); aspect shows how the speaker views the action's internal time-structure (e.g. completed, ongoing, or repeated). English has two tenses (present, past) combined with two aspects (perfect, continuous/progressive).

3. Why do many linguists say English has no grammatical 'future tense'?

   Because there is no future verb inflection; futurity is expressed through other means (will + infinitive, going to, present continuous, present simple, etc.), which are modal/aspectual or lexical rather than a true tense morphology.

4. Give the structural form of the present perfect and one core use.

   Form: have/has + past participle. Core use: linking past to present — e.g. an action at an unspecified past time with present relevance, or an action continuing up to now (with 'for'/'since').

5. Contrast the meaning of the past simple with the present perfect for past actions.

   Past simple refers to a finished action at a specified/finished time, disconnected from now ('I saw her yesterday'). Present perfect refers to past action with present relevance or unspecified time ('I've seen her').

6. What meaning does the continuous (progressive) aspect typically add to a verb?

   It presents the action as in progress, temporary, unfinished or repeated/changing — emphasising duration rather than completion. Form: be + verb-ing.

7. What is a modal auxiliary verb, and name the central (core) modal verbs of English.

   A modal auxiliary expresses meanings such as ability, possibility, permission, obligation and necessity. Core modals: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must.

8. Distinguish the two broad categories of meaning that modal verbs express.

   Deontic (or 'intrinsic') modality — obligation, permission, prohibition, advice (must, should, may). Epistemic (or 'extrinsic') modality — degrees of certainty/possibility/deduction about facts (must = strong deduction, might = weak possibility).

9. What are 'semi-modals' (marginal modals)? Give examples.

   Multi-word verb phrases that function like modals but behave partly like main verbs: have to, need to, ought to, used to, be able to, be going to, had better.

10. How is the grammatical structure of a modal verb special compared with main verbs?

    Modals take no -s in third person, are followed by the bare infinitive, form negatives/questions without 'do', have no infinitive/participle forms, and cannot be doubled with another modal.

11. State the form and typical meaning of the zero conditional.

    Form: If + present simple, present simple. Meaning: general truths, scientific facts, and things always true ('If you heat ice, it melts').

12. State the form and meaning of the first conditional.

    Form: If + present simple, will + bare infinitive. Meaning: a real or likely future possibility and its result ('If it rains, we'll stay in').

13. State the form and meaning of the second conditional.

    Form: If + past simple, would + bare infinitive. Meaning: present/future situations that are unreal, hypothetical or unlikely ('If I won the lottery, I'd travel').

14. State the form and meaning of the third conditional.

    Form: If + past perfect, would have + past participle. Meaning: a hypothetical, unreal past situation and its imagined past result ('If I had studied, I would have passed').

15. What is a 'mixed conditional' and give an example.

    A conditional combining clauses from different conditional types to mix time references — e.g. past condition with present result: 'If I had taken that job (past), I would be richer now (present)' (third + second).

16. Why is the past simple used in the second conditional even though it refers to the present/future?

    It is the 'unreal' or hypothetical past — the past form signals distance from reality (remoteness) rather than past time. This is sometimes called the 'remote' or 'subjunctive-like' use of the past.

17. Distinguish a phrase, a clause and a sentence.

    A phrase is a group of words built around a head with no subject-verb pairing (e.g. noun phrase). A clause contains a subject and a (finite or non-finite) verb. A sentence is a complete grammatical unit, made of one or more clauses.

18. Distinguish an independent (main) clause from a dependent (subordinate) clause.

    An independent clause can stand alone as a complete sentence. A dependent/subordinate clause cannot stand alone and is introduced by a subordinator (because, although, when, that, which), functioning within another clause.

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