TEFL/TESOL Certificate (CELTA) Language Skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing Syllabus

What is a prediction task and what is its benefit before reading/listening?

Learners predict the content from a title, picture or topic before engaging with the text. It activates schemata, creates a reason to read/listen (to check predictions) and promotes top-down processing.

What features of connected speech make listening difficult?

Elision (dropping sounds), assimilation (sounds changing next to others), linking/catenation, intrusion, weak forms and contractions, plus sentence stress and rhythm—words sound different from their citation form.

Why is it good practice to play a listening more than once?

Listening is transient; multiple plays let learners first get the gist, then catch specific information/detail, reducing anxiety and reflecting how comprehension builds in stages.

What is the difference between 'listening for gist' and 'listening for detail' in task design?

Gist tasks ask for the overall idea/topic/speaker attitude and need only one play and broad attention; detail tasks ask for specific facts and require closer, often repeated, intensive listening.

Name three potential listening-specific challenges a teacher should consider when choosing audio.

Accent and clarity of speakers, speed/rate of delivery, audio quality, amount of background noise, number of speakers, and density of unfamiliar vocabulary.

What makes a good comprehension task (task design principles)?

It should match the sub-skill being practised, be at the right level, be clear and unambiguous, be answerable from the text, not test memory or unrelated knowledge, and give a clear reason for reading/listening.

Why should comprehension questions follow the order of information in the text?

So learners can locate answers progressively as they read/listen, supporting comprehension rather than testing memory or causing confusion.

Distinguish accuracy from fluency.

Accuracy is using language correctly (correct grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation). Fluency is using language smoothly and communicatively in real time with natural flow, even if not perfectly correct.

In speaking activities, which is prioritised in a fluency task vs an accuracy task?

Fluency tasks prioritise communication and message—the teacher avoids interrupting and corrects later (delayed correction). Accuracy tasks prioritise correctness—usually controlled practice of a target form with immediate correction.

Why should the teacher generally NOT interrupt to correct during a fluency activity?

Interrupting breaks the flow of communication, increases anxiety and undermines the goal of building confidence and natural production; errors are noted and dealt with afterwards through delayed correction.

Name common controlled-to-free speaking activity types in order of control.

Controlled (drills, repetition) → semi-controlled (information-gap, guided dialogues) → freer/fluency practice (role-plays, discussions, debates, problem-solving tasks).

What is an information-gap activity?

A speaking task where each learner has information the other lacks, so they must communicate to share it and complete the task—creating a genuine reason (gap) to use the target language.

What is a role-play in speaking practice?

An activity where learners take on roles and act out a real-life or imaginary situation (e.g. customer/shop assistant), practising functional language and fluency in a meaningful context.

What is meant by a 'communicative purpose' or 'information gap' as a condition for genuine speaking?

Real communication requires a reason to speak—an information, opinion or reasoning gap—so that learners exchange something unknown to the listener, rather than producing already-shared information.

What support strategies help learners before a speaking task ('preparing for production')?

Providing/eliciting useful functional language and vocabulary, giving planning/rehearsal time, modelling the task, setting clear context and roles, and using prompts or cue cards to reduce processing load.

What is the role of 'thinking/planning time' before a speaking task?

Giving learners time to plan content and language reduces cognitive load and anxiety, leading to more fluent, accurate and confident spoken output.

Describe the main approaches to error correction in speaking.

On-the-spot (immediate) correction—used in accuracy work; and delayed correction—errors noted during fluency work and addressed afterwards, often anonymously on the board for whole-class reformulation.

What are common techniques for eliciting self-/peer-correction of spoken errors?

Finger correction, echoing with rising intonation, gesture/facial expression, repeating up to the error, asking 'Is that right?', writing the error on the board, or naming the error type (e.g. 'tense').

Why is self-correction or peer-correction often preferred to teacher correction?

It engages learners actively, is more memorable, fosters learner autonomy and confidence, and the learner may already know the correct form—so the teacher first gives them a chance to fix it.

Distinguish the process approach from the product approach to writing.

Product approach focuses on the final text and imitating a model (form, accuracy, end result). Process approach focuses on the stages of creating writing—brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising/editing, final version.

List the typical stages of the process approach to writing in order.

Brainstorming/generating ideas → planning/organising → drafting → reviewing and getting feedback → revising/editing → final (re)drafting.

Give one strength of the product approach and one of the process approach to writing.

Product: provides a clear model and emphasises accuracy/genre conventions, useful for exam formats. Process: develops genuine writing/thinking skills, redrafting and creativity, mirroring how real writers work.

What is a 'genre' in writing, and why does genre awareness matter?

A genre is a text type with conventional structure, layout, register and language for a particular purpose/audience (e.g. email, report, narrative). Awareness lets learners produce appropriate, recognisable texts for real-world tasks.

Give four examples of common text types/genres taught in TEFL writing.

Examples: formal/informal emails or letters, narratives/stories, descriptions, reports, reviews, instructions, opinion essays/for-and-against essays, advertisements.

How do register and audience influence a writing task?

They determine formality, tone, vocabulary, contractions and structure—e.g. a formal complaint email uses formal register and set phrases, while a message to a friend uses informal, contracted, casual language.

Name key sub-skills of writing learners must develop.

Organising ideas/paragraphing, using cohesive devices/linkers, appropriate register and genre conventions, accurate grammar/spelling/punctuation, planning and drafting, and editing/proofreading.

What are cohesion and coherence in writing?

Cohesion = the grammatical/lexical links that tie a text together (e.g. linkers, reference words, conjunctions). Coherence = the overall logical flow and clarity of ideas so the text makes sense as a whole.

What are good principles for responding to learner writing?

Respond to content/message first, be selective rather than correcting everything, use a correction code so learners self-edit, give positive and constructive feedback, and focus on patterns/target areas relevant to the task.

What is a 'correction code' and why use it for written work?

A set of symbols (e.g. Sp = spelling, WO = word order, T = tense, P = punctuation) marked on a learner's text. It promotes learner self-correction and noticing rather than the teacher simply rewriting the work.

What does it mean to 'integrate' or link skills within a lesson, and give an example?

Combining more than one skill so they feed naturally into each other, reflecting real life. Example: read an article (receptive) then discuss it (speaking) and write a response (writing), with reading providing input and a model for the output.

How are receptive and productive skills typically linked in a lesson sequence, and why?

A receptive text (reading/listening) provides input, models, ideas and target language that feed into a productive follow-up (speaking/writing). This is meaningful, scaffolds the output and mirrors real-world communication where we respond to what we read or hear.