CELTA Assignment 2 Help: Language-Related Tasks — Grammar, Lexis, and Phonology Analysis

What Does CELTA Assignment 2 Require?

Assignment 2 requires analysis of a set of language items — typically a combination of grammar structures, lexical chunks, and at least one phonological item — through the FMU+P framework. The exact number and type of items is specified in your training centre's assignment brief. The analytical standard required is that of a language-aware teacher preparing to teach the item: you must be able to explain the form precisely enough to write it on a board, explain the meaning accurately enough to check it with CCQs, explain the use well enough to select appropriate practice activities, and transcribe the phonology accurately enough to model and correct pronunciation.

The assignment is not a grammar reference summary — it is an analytical demonstration of teacher knowledge. The most common criterion failure is reproducing dictionary-style definitions without the analytical depth the FMU+P framework requires: naming a structure without explaining its form notation, or stating that a word "sounds friendly" without IPA transcription or connected speech analysis. Assignment 2 distinguishes Pass A and Pass B candidates from Pass candidates primarily through the precision and completeness of the phonology section and the quality of CCQ justification.

Form Analysis: How to Describe Grammatical Structure in Assignment 2

Form analysis describes the grammatical construction of the target item in its affirmative, negative, and interrogative patterns, using word-class notation to identify each structural component. For a grammar structure, this means writing the structural formula using abbreviated notation: S (subject), aux (auxiliary verb), V (main verb), O (object), adj (adjective), adv (adverb), prep (preposition), n (noun). For example, for used to + infinitive:

Affirmative: S + used to + bare infinitive (V) — He used to play football.
Negative: S + didn't use to + bare infinitive (V) — He didn't use to play football.
Interrogative: Did + S + use to + bare infinitive (V)? — Did he use to play football?

Note the spelling change in negative and interrogative forms: used to becomes use to when the auxiliary did carries the past tense marking. This is a form detail that distinguishes accurate from inaccurate analysis. For lexical items, form analysis covers word class (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition), the item's morphological form (base form, inflected forms, derivational patterns), and any irregular forms. For a phrasal verb such as give up, form analysis covers separability: give up smoking (inseparable), not *give smoking up (incorrect separation with gerund object).

Meaning Analysis: Denotation, Connotation, and Semantic Distinctions

Meaning analysis for a grammar item addresses the semantic and temporal content the structure encodes — what situation, time frame, or relationship it describes. For used to + infinitive, the meaning is: a past habit or state that existed over a period of time in the past but which no longer exists in the present. The implied present contrast is part of the meaning: He used to play football implies that he no longer plays football now. This contrasts with the simple past (He played football), which does not carry the implication of present change.

For lexical items, meaning analysis covers denotation (the core, dictionary sense), connotation (the associations and evaluative weight the word carries), appropriacy (whether it is formal, informal, neutral, marked), and semantic prosody (whether the item typically co-occurs with positive or negative contexts). The word cause, for example, carries negative semantic prosody — we say cause problems, cause damage, cause suffering — while provide carries positive prosody. Meaning analysis must address the specific semantic distinctions that generate learner errors — for used to, the most critical distinction is from be used to + gerund (be accustomed to) and get used to + gerund (become accustomed to), which are formally similar but semantically distinct. A distinction-level submission addresses these confusable forms explicitly.

Use Analysis: Register, Frequency, Collocations, and Contrastive Analysis

Use analysis covers the contexts in which the target item appears in authentic language: register (formal, informal, spoken, written, academic, colloquial), frequency (common, rare, restricted to specific registers), and collocational patterns (the words the item typically appears with). For used to + infinitive, use analysis would note: commonly used in informal spoken English to narrate personal history; frequently accompanied by time references (when I was young, in those days, as a child); typically used with verbs of activity or state rather than momentary events. Contrastive analysis at the use level asks: when would a native speaker choose this form rather than the simple past? The answer — when they want to emphasise that the situation has changed — is the use distinction that CCQs should check.

For lexical items, collocations must be specified. Presenting a lexical item without its typical collocations is an incomplete use analysis. For example, make collocates with: make a decision, make a mistake, make progress, make an effort; it does not collocate with: *make homework, make a work, make research. These negative collocations — items that learners frequently produce incorrectly — are the most pedagogically relevant part of use analysis for lexical items. For phrasal verbs, use analysis should note whether the item is separable or inseparable, and whether the literal meaning and the idiomatic meaning co-exist or whether the idiom has displaced the literal use.

Phonology Analysis: IPA Transcription, Stress, and Connected Speech

Phonology analysis requires full IPA transcription of the target item in citation form (the form produced in careful, isolated pronunciation) and in connected speech (the form produced in natural spoken English at normal speed). For used to: citation form /juːzd tuː/, natural connected speech /ˈjuːstə/. The IPA symbols used in CELTA phonology: ˈ marks primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable), ˌ marks secondary stress. For multi-word items and phrases, stress is marked on the primary stressed syllable: /ˌedjʊˈkeɪʃən/ for education, /ɡɪv ˈʌp/ for give up.

Connected speech features that must be analysed in Assignment 2 where relevant: Elision — the omission of a sound in connected speech. In used to, the final /d/ of used is elided before the /t/ of to, producing /ˈjuːstə/. Assimilation — a sound changes to become more similar to an adjacent sound. In ten boys, the final /n/ of ten assimilates to /m/ before the bilabial /b/ of boys, producing /tem bɔɪz/. Linking — a consonant sound at the end of one word links to the vowel beginning the next word. In far away, the /r/ of far links to away, producing /fɑːrəweɪ/. Weak forms — function words are reduced in unstressed positions. The auxiliary have in I should have gone reduces to /həv/ or /əv/ in natural speech.

A candidate who transcribes only the citation form /juːzd tuː/ without addressing the natural speech form /ˈjuːstə/ has not met the phonology criterion at a satisfactory level. The phonology analysis must also address how the teacher would model the pronunciation in the classroom and what correction technique would be used if a learner produces the citation form in fluent speech contexts (over-articulation is itself a form of error in natural speech production tasks).

CCQ Construction in CELTA Assignment 2: Rules and Worked Examples

Concept Checking Questions (CCQs) are the tool for checking whether learners have understood the meaning of a language item without asking "Do you understand?" (which is unreliable) or "Can you translate it?" (which is often not possible or useful). A valid CCQ must follow four rules. Rule 1: The CCQ must not contain the target language. Asking "Do you use 'used to' for past habits?" is an invalid CCQ because a learner can answer "yes" correctly without having understood the meaning. Rule 2: The CCQ must be answerable with yes/no or a short phrase. Open questions ("What does 'used to' mean?") are not CCQs — they test production, not comprehension of meaning. Rule 3: The CCQ checks meaning, not form. Questions about grammar labels ("Is it past tense?") test metalinguistic knowledge, not communicative understanding. Rule 4: CCQs are sequenced from general to specific meaning.

Worked example for used to + infinitive applied to the sentence He used to play football:
CCQ 1: "Does he play football now?" → No. (Establishes present non-occurrence.)
CCQ 2: "Did he play football in the past?" → Yes. (Establishes past occurrence.)
CCQ 3: "Did he play once or many times?" → Many times. (Establishes habitual aspect.)
CCQ 4: "Did something change?" → Yes. (Establishes present contrast.)
This CCQ sequence checks all four semantic components of used to: present non-existence, past existence, habitual aspect, and change over time. A Pass A submission justifies each CCQ in writing — explaining which semantic component each question checks and why the sequence is ordered as it is.