CELTA Pre-Interview Task - Need help, please

[sachiasson]

Dear Friends -

I have completed and am about to submit the CELTA Pre-Interview task, but as it's been so long since I've studied the technical side of grammar, I'm truly hoping that someone out there will be kind enough to help me out.

The questions I'm wondering about are as follows:

LANGUAGE AWARENESS. Underline the odd one out in each group and explain why in the boxes provided.

1. a. some rice
b. some wine
c. some eggs
d. some water

2. a. slurp
b. gulp
c. drink
d. sip

3. a. You can’t smoke here.
b. You don’t have to wear a suit.
c. You mustn’t be late.
d. You aren’t allowed to buy alcohol.

4. a. It was painted by Picasso.
b. He was drunk by 6 o’clock.
c. She was arrested by the police.
d. She was followed by a stranger.

B. ANTICIPATING LEARNER DIFFICULTIES. Identify and explain the general problem that learners might have with each of the following groups of words/phrases.Look at the example and the clue in (brackets) to help you.

1. (meaning)
may well go
might possibly go
probably won’t go
is likely to go
will definitely go

2. (meaning)
out of the blue
from the horse’s mouth
down in the dumps

3. (structure)
interested in
keen on
fond of
mad about


I have my own ideas of what the correct answers are, but I´m hesitant to send it until I receive confirmation from you guys. Let me thank you in advance, as I am very grateful!

Yours Truly,

Scott A. Chiasson

[prettymommy]

Dear Scott,
The answers are:

Language Awareness:
1. c some eggs. Egg is a countable noun, whereas the other three are uncountable.

2. b. gulp. To gulp is to eat or drink food or liquid quickly and in large amounts, whereas the other three means only to drink an amount of liquid.

3. b. You don't have to wear a suit. This sentence means 'you are not required to', whereas the other three mean 'you are prohibited to'.

4. b. He was drunk by 6 o'clock. 'By' here followed by an expression of time, whereas the other three 'by' followed by a doer or an agent of the action.

Anticipating Learner's difficulties:

1. All these five phrases show different degrees of certainty, from the least certain (may well go) to the most certain/definite (will definitely go). Students, particularly if English is their second language, often find this difficult to understand.

2. All these three sentences are idioms. Students may translate the meaning of an idiom word for word, which of course will not make any sense, since an idiom is a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word understood on its own.

3. certain adjectives can only go with certain prepositions. This is called collocations. For example, students may say 'interested with' instead of 'interested in', or 'keen about' instead of 'keen on'.

I hope these explanations answer your questions.

Good luck on your CELTA course!

Regards,
prettymommy

[sachiasson]

Dear PrettyMommy -

Wow! I got several of those wrong! I'm not going to embarass myself further by telling what I thought the answers were. Instead, let me thank you very, very much for your kind assistance!

God bless!

Scott

[iainmac]

I disagree with prettymommy's answer to question 4. 'He was drunk' is very unlikely to be the passive (unless he was a raw egg), whereas the other sentences certainly are.

[prettymommy]

I disagree with prettymommy's answer to question 4. 'He was drunk' is very unlikely to be the passive (unless he was a raw egg), whereas the other sentences certainly are.

Dear Scott,

Iainmac was absolutely correct. My explanation was only half correct. The word "drunk" in the sentence 'He was drunk by 6 o'clock' is not a passive verb, but rather a stative passive (it is a past participle form of 'to drink' which is used as an adjective).

iainmac, thank you for pointing that out.

Regards,
prettymommy

[prettymommy]

I disagree with prettymommy's answer to question 4. 'He was drunk' is very unlikely to be the passive (unless he was a raw egg), whereas the other sentences certainly are.

Dear Scott,

Iainmac was absolutely correct. Pardon me. My explanation was only half correct. The word "drunk" in the sentence 'He was drunk by 6 o'clock' is not a passive verb, but rather a stative passive (it is a past participle form of 'to drink' which is used as an adjective).

iainmac, thank you for pointing that out.

Regards,
prettymommy

[Soup]

Dear Scott,
The answers are:

Ahem, it's a test!