Hello ExamSeekers,

How are you today? Well… A  couple of weeks ago, I wrote Preparing a Lesson Plan [Part 1], and I said that I would be writing part 2 soon. However, there were some topics that I wanted to talk about first, and before continuing writing about lesson planning, I wrote a text on Pre-A1 Starters, TKT Module 1: Part 1 – Lexis, and B2: First (former FCE). Be sure to check them later.

As for today…. as promised, I bring Preparing a Lesson Plan [Part 2].

As I mentioned in part 1, preparing a lesson plan is not exclusive to the CELTA Course. When you learn how to properly prepare a lesson, you can use the model in any of your classes. However, today I am sharing one of my lesson plans for the CELTA Course.

This is the lesson plan I prepared based on a video. It was my authentic material lesson. In part 1, I mentioned the type of lesson, the number of students, and the material I would use in class. In this part, I will explain how to fill in the second part, the one with the Language Analysis.

The Language Analysis is the sheet where you provide the target lesson’s analysis in terms of form, meaning, and pronunciation. So, if you are teaching a vocabulary lesson, you have to know the denotations of the words you plan on using and the specific meaning in the context you will present these words to your students. You also have to know how to spell and how to pronounce it.

If you are teaching a Grammar lesson, you need to know the structure and how you pronounce it. For Reading or Listening lessons, you need to select some words that you plan on pre-teaching your students before they do the receptive skill task. So, you need to prepare a language analysis for all of these lessons to know what to say and what to expect from students.

This is a sample of my language analysis. As I mentioned, I was teaching a Listening lesson. Students were supposed to watch a video called Travel Tips: Real Discounts on Airfare Found by Sonia Gil. Since it was a listening lesson, I was supposed to pre-teach vocabulary in my pre-teach stage of the Receptive Skill Lesson.

As I prepared the lesson, I decided that the students would benefit from knowing the words search engine, tips, hunting, be on the lookout, scrape (the bottom of) the barrel, layover, currency, and airfare. So I wrote them on the analysis sheet, as you can see here:

As you can see, there are some single words, there are verbs, and also idioms. Let’s analyze them together.

The word I am analyzing now is Tips. In form, you will write the proper spelling of the word. You should also write the type of the word, in this case, a countable noun.

The second column is meaning. It is good to check for the meaning on a dictionary. In this case, I wrote: Plural of tip. Advice: a small piece of advice about something practical. Synonym: hint.

The form and the meaning can be found in any dictionary. For this lesson plan, I used Cambridge Online Dictionary.

Then it’s the phonology item. How do you pronounce this word? This item can also be found in a dictionary, but I used another website for that. Check out Photransedit, it’s a great helper with the English Phonetic Transcription. Moreover, dictionaries usually offer the phonemic description of one word, and sometimes we need to write the phonology of a whole sentence or a phrase (i.e., idioms, collocations, etc.), so photransedit helps a lot.

After having form, meaning, and phonology written, it’s time to think about your students. When you teach a word, you need to formulate questions to check students’ understanding. I’ve already talked about the CCQs, in this blog post, so be sure to check them out.

1. Is a tip something like a suggestion? (YES)
2. If I give you a tip, do you have to do as I say? (NO)
3. Is a tip something good? (YES)

As you can see, most of these questions require a positive answer. You can write questions that will require negative answers as well, but they are not advisable. If the answer is “no”, it’s too broad and doesn’t mean that the student knows the answer, it just means that the student knows what it is not.

So, think of good questions that will help you explain the target word, and think of the answers you expect them to give you.

The last part is Anticipated Difficulties and Solutions (in relation to language). Here, I think about possible difficulties concerning form, meaning, and phonology, to be better prepared for my lesson.

So take a look at how I prepared myself for this lesson:

P is for a possible problem and S for the solution.

After having all these items completed about the first vocab, go to the next word. It is good to have about 8 words or expressions to work with your students, no more than that.

Last thing, write the references you used:

And here it is. You have completed your Language Analyses.

I hope I have been clear, but if you still have questions, write in the comment section below! Next time I’ll talk about part 3, the steps! Also… don’t forget to follow the blog on:

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You can also listen to this post at Anchor !!!

Have a great week,
Patricia Moura