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

List the major parts of speech (word classes) in English.

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs are 'open' (content) classes; the rest are largely 'closed' (function) classes.

Define a noun phrase and name its possible components.

A noun phrase is a group of words with a noun (or pronoun) as its head. Components: (pre-)determiner + premodifiers (adjectives, nouns) + head noun + postmodifiers (prepositional phrases, relative clauses).

What is the difference between a determiner and an adjective in a noun phrase?

A determiner (the, a, my, this, some, three) specifies/quantifies the noun and precedes adjectives; it is a closed-class function word. An adjective describes the noun's qualities and is open-class. Only one central determiner is normally allowed per NP.

In the MFU/MFP framework, what kinds of questions does the 'Form' analysis answer?

How the item is constructed: word order, auxiliaries, inflections, parts of speech, positive/negative/question forms, contractions, and written/spoken form — i.e. the grammatical 'mechanics'.

What is the purpose of Concept Checking Questions (CCQs) in teaching?

To check learners genuinely understand the meaning of a target item without using the item itself, asking simple yes/no or short questions that break the concept into components (e.g. for 'used to': 'Did he do it in the past? Yes. Does he do it now? No.').

Give three guidelines for writing good CCQs.

Keep them simple (use language below the target level); avoid using the target word/structure in the question; make them answerable with yes/no or short answers; check the key concept(s) of meaning, including time reference where relevant.

What does 'anticipating learner problems' mean in lesson planning, and what categories should be considered?

Predicting difficulties learners will have with a target item across Meaning (confusion of concept), Form (structural errors), Pronunciation (sounds, stress, weak forms), and Use (appropriacy), then planning solutions/CCQs to address them.

What is L1 interference (negative transfer) as a source of anticipated problems?

When patterns from a learner's first language are wrongly applied to English (e.g. false friends, word order, missing articles, or sounds not present in L1), producing predictable errors a teacher can pre-empt.

List the main 'aspects of word knowledge' a learner must acquire to fully 'know' a word.

Meaning (denotation/connotation), form (spelling, pronunciation, word stress), grammar (part of speech, countability, verb patterns), collocation, register/appropriacy, and word formation/derivatives (affixation).

Define collocation and give the two broad types.

Collocation is the tendency of words to occur together naturally. Types: grammatical collocation (word + grammatical word, e.g. 'depend on') and lexical collocation (content words together, e.g. 'heavy rain', 'make a decision').

Define denotation and connotation.

Denotation is a word's literal, dictionary meaning. Connotation is the emotional/cultural associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning (e.g. 'thrifty' positive vs 'stingy' negative for being careful with money).

Define the sense relations: synonym and antonym.

Synonyms are words with the same or very similar meaning (big/large). Antonyms are words with opposite meanings — gradable (hot/cold), complementary (alive/dead), or converse (buy/sell).

Define hyponymy and give an example.

Hyponymy is a 'type of' relationship: a hyponym is a more specific term included within a superordinate (hypernym). E.g. 'rose', 'tulip' and 'daisy' are hyponyms of the superordinate 'flower'.

Distinguish homonyms, homophones and homographs.

Homonyms: same spelling AND sound, different meaning (bank = riverside/finance). Homophones: same sound, different spelling/meaning (their/there). Homographs: same spelling, different meaning/sometimes sound (lead the metal/lead a team).

What is the difference between polysemy and homonymy?

Polysemy: one word with multiple related senses (the 'mouth' of a river vs a person). Homonymy: words with unrelated meanings that happen to share form (bat = animal vs sports bat).

What is 'functional language' and how does it differ from grammar-based syllabus items?

Functional language is language grouped by communicative purpose/function (e.g. inviting, apologising, requesting, giving advice) rather than by grammatical form; the same function can be realised by several different structures.

Define an idiom and explain why idioms are challenging for learners.

An idiom is a fixed multi-word expression whose meaning cannot be deduced from the individual words ('kick the bucket' = die). They are challenging because they are non-literal, fixed in form, and often register-specific.

What are the two main categories of speech sounds, and how do consonants differ from vowels?

Vowels and consonants. Vowels are produced with an open vocal tract and no obstruction of airflow; consonants involve some obstruction/constriction of the airstream. English has roughly 44 phonemes (around 24 consonants, 20 vowels).

What is a phoneme, and what writing system represents English phonemes?

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes meaning (e.g. /p/ vs /b/ in pat/bat). They are represented by the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).

What three features describe (classify) an English consonant sound?

Voicing (voiced/voiceless), place of articulation (e.g. bilabial, alveolar, velar), and manner of articulation (e.g. plosive/stop, fricative, nasal, affricate, approximant).

What is the difference between a monophthong and a diphthong?

A monophthong is a single pure vowel sound with no change in quality (/iː/). A diphthong is a glide from one vowel quality to another within one syllable (/aɪ/ as in 'my').

What is word stress and why does it matter for learners?

Word stress is the relative prominence (loudness, length, pitch, clarity) given to a particular syllable in a word. It matters because misplaced stress can make words unintelligible and because some words shift stress by part of speech (PREsent vs preSENT).

What is the schwa, and why is it central to connected speech?

The schwa /ə/ is the most common English vowel — a short, unstressed, central, neutral sound. It occurs in unstressed syllables and weak forms (e.g. 'a', 'to', 'of'), making English rhythm stress-timed.

Define the main features of connected speech: weak forms, elision, assimilation, linking, and catenation.

Weak forms: function words reduced to schwa. Elision: omission of a sound ('nex(t) day'). Assimilation: a sound changes to resemble a neighbour ('ten boys' → /tembɔɪz/). Linking/catenation: joining final consonant to next initial vowel ('an apple').

What does it mean to say English is a 'stress-timed' language?

Stressed syllables tend to occur at roughly regular intervals, and unstressed syllables are compressed/reduced (often to schwa) to maintain the rhythm — unlike 'syllable-timed' languages where each syllable takes similar time.

What is sentence stress, and which words are usually stressed?

Sentence (tonic) stress is the emphasis given to certain words in an utterance. Content words (nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs) are usually stressed; function/grammar words (articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns) are usually unstressed.

What is intonation and name its main communicative functions.

Intonation is the rise and fall of pitch across an utterance. Functions: grammatical (signalling questions vs statements), attitudinal (mood/emotion), discourse (managing turns, new vs given information), and focusing (highlighting key words).

Contrast typical uses of rising vs falling intonation in English.

Falling intonation typically signals completion, certainty, statements, wh-questions and commands. Rising intonation typically signals incompleteness, uncertainty, yes/no questions, lists, and inviting a response/politeness.

Outline a typical staged approach to teaching pronunciation of a target item.

Model the sound/word clearly, isolate and drill (choral then individual), highlight stress/sounds visually (bubbles, stress marks, phonemic script), provide controlled then freer practice, and give corrective feedback on errors.

What is 'drilling' in pronunciation teaching and name two types.

Drilling is repeated controlled practice of a model. Types include choral drilling (whole class together), individual drilling, substitution drills, back-chaining (building a phrase from the end), and open-pair/closed-pair drills.

What are 'discourse features' / cohesive devices that link a text together?

Linguistic devices creating cohesion and coherence: reference (pronouns, 'this/that'), substitution, ellipsis, conjunction/linkers (however, therefore), and lexical cohesion (repetition, synonyms, collocation).

Distinguish 'cohesion' from 'coherence' in discourse.

Cohesion is the surface-level grammatical/lexical linking between sentences (connectors, reference). Coherence is the underlying logical sense and organisation that makes a text meaningful and easy to follow as a whole.

Define 'register' and the dimensions along which it varies.

Register is the variety of language appropriate to a situation, varying by formality (formal/informal), field (subject matter/specialist vocabulary), tenor (relationship between speakers), and mode (spoken/written).

What is 'genre' in language teaching, and how does it relate to text structure?

Genre is a recognised type of text with conventional purpose, structure and language features (e.g. recipe, formal email, news report, narrative). Each genre has a typical 'staging'/move structure and characteristic register.

Name key reference resources a teacher should use for accurate language analysis.

Grammar references (e.g. 'Practical English Usage' by Swan, Murphy's 'English Grammar in Use'), learner dictionaries (e.g. Longman LDOCE, Cambridge, Oxford), pronunciation dictionaries, collocation dictionaries, and corpora/concordancers (e.g. COCA, BNC).

Why are learner (monolingual) dictionaries especially useful for analysing 'Use' and word knowledge?

They give definitions in simple defining vocabulary, mark register/formality, show countability and verb patterns, provide example sentences in context, indicate collocations and frequency, and give phonemic transcription and stress.