Celta Assignment 1, Language-Related Task
CELTA ASSIGNMENT 1
LANGUAGE-RELATED TASK
1st pair of sentences:
1a) She’s lived there for years.
1b) She lived there for years.
Form:
1a)’s conventional grammar term is ‘present perfect’, and its constituent parts are: subject + auxiliary verb has (conjugated here for ‘She’ i.e. has) + _____ed (i.e. past participle)
1b)’s conventional grammar term is ‘past simple’, and its constituent parts are: subject + ______ ed (i.e. past tense)
The meaning of 1a) is that ‘she’ lived ‘there’ in the past, she lives there now, and she will presumably be living there for some indeterminable time in the future, whereas the meaning of 1b) is that ‘she’ lived ‘there’ in the past, for some years, and is not living there now.
Generative context
An estate agent, after showing somebody around a house.
This could be just a dialogue on a CD, a video or on paper, with pictures:
Interested party A) So, when was the last time someone lived there then?
Estate agent B) Hmmmmm, well, it was lived in briefly a couple of years ago by a mother and her young son, but before that, well that takes us back a few years…. From 1976 there was a lady - she lived there for years.
It’s a lot to take on – there’s a lot of improvements to be made… Do you know anything about the neighbours?
Well there’s a lovely family next door that side… they’ve only lived here for a year or two, but in that house there, (points) there’s an old chap – he’s lived there for years…
Anticipated problems with form
• The contractions of ‘has’ to ‘s and ‘have’ to ‘ve in the present perfect maybe difficult for learners to deal with, therefore they may avoid using them, consequently appearing too formal. • Irregular verbs.
…with meaning
• The different times present perfect is used, and the meanings it can infer.
• With the past simple, the meaning is more straightforward, but deciding which of the two to use may cause problems therefore
LANGUAGE-RELATED TASK
1st pair of sentences:
1a) She’s lived there for years.
1b) She lived there for years.
Form:
1a)’s conventional grammar term is ‘present perfect’, and its constituent parts are: subject + auxiliary verb has (conjugated here for ‘She’ i.e. has) + _____ed (i.e. past participle)
1b)’s conventional grammar term is ‘past simple’, and its constituent parts are: subject + ______ ed (i.e. past tense)
The meaning of 1a) is that ‘she’ lived ‘there’ in the past, she lives there now, and she will presumably be living there for some indeterminable time in the future, whereas the meaning of 1b) is that ‘she’ lived ‘there’ in the past, for some years, and is not living there now.
Generative context
An estate agent, after showing somebody around a house.
This could be just a dialogue on a CD, a video or on paper, with pictures:
Interested party A) So, when was the last time someone lived there then?
Estate agent B) Hmmmmm, well, it was lived in briefly a couple of years ago by a mother and her young son, but before that, well that takes us back a few years…. From 1976 there was a lady - she lived there for years.
It’s a lot to take on – there’s a lot of improvements to be made… Do you know anything about the neighbours?
Well there’s a lovely family next door that side… they’ve only lived here for a year or two, but in that house there, (points) there’s an old chap – he’s lived there for years…
Anticipated problems with form
• The contractions of ‘has’ to ‘s and ‘have’ to ‘ve in the present perfect maybe difficult for learners to deal with, therefore they may avoid using them, consequently appearing too formal. • Irregular verbs.
…with meaning
• The different times present perfect is used, and the meanings it can infer.
• With the past simple, the meaning is more straightforward, but deciding which of the two to use may cause problems therefore