External Teacher Training

TEACHING KNOWLEDGE TEST (TKT)

PREPARATION COURSE
MODULE 1

SESSION 1: THE SYSTEMS OF THE LANGUAGE:

GRAMMAR & LEXIS
 CONTENTS

PAGE
Section 1: Introduction to language analysis.
3 Tasks 1-3
Section 2. The systems of the language: grammar.
4 Task 4: Parts of speech
5 Task 5: Grammar quiz
6 Grammar quiz answers
Section 3: The systems of the language: vocabulary.
7 Task 6: Lexical terms
8 Task 7: Lexical examples
Task 8: What’s in a word?
9 Task 9: Text examples
Task 10: Coinage words
10 Task 11: Learner errors
11-12 Sample tests
13 Homework
14 Questions for my trainer
15 Task 11: Learner errors: Answers

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 SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE ANALYSIS
Task 1: Match the terms with their definitions:

Vocabulary terms Definition

1 vocabulary A the rules that govern the way words are combined and sequences
in order to form sentences
2 grammar B the purpose for which a language item is used
3 structure C the place in the world where an instance of language occurs, or
the words surrounding it in a text
4 concept D the way that sounds are produced when speaking a language
5 function E the area of language learning that is concerned with word
knowledge
6 style F a continuous piece of speech or writing, having a communicative
purpose and a distinctive organisation
7 pronunciation G a grammar pattern that generates examples, such as the present
perfect
8 context H the way that words or structures are written or pronounced
9 text I variation in a person’s use of language due to situational factors,
such as context and degree of familiarity
10 form J the basic meaning of a word or structure, independent of context

Task 2: Read this authentic text and decide which term from the previous task
defines each feature.
When analysing language, any piece of ‘real-life’ language can be looked at from different
points of view.

Passengers are reminded that baggage must not be left unattended.

Baggage found unattended will be removed and may be destroyed.

 impersonal, formal; written in order to be read aloud = style

 warning
 stress on main information words (PASSenders, reMINDed, BAGGage, unatTENDed,...);
 intonation falls at the end of each sentence
 use of modal verbs (must, will, may) and passive voice (are reminded, be removed, be
destroyed)
 words associated with travel (passengers, baggage); verbs
associated with security practices (removed, destroyed)
 an airport
Task 3: Read the following text and identify:
a. the text type
b. the context in which it is typically found
c. its function
d. its style
e. any sets of words that relate to the topic of the text
f. any distinctive features of its grammar

For the perfect cup

Use one teabag per person and add freshly drawn boiling water.
Leave standing for 3-5 minutes before stirring gently.
Can be served with or without milk and sugar.

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 SECTION 2: GRAMMAR
In English there are at least eight parts of speech. These are:
 nouns, e.g. passengers, baggage, tea, minutes
 pronouns, i.e. words that take the place of nouns, such as it, they
 verbs, e.g. are, be, use, stirring, destroyed
 adjectives, e.g. perfect, unattended
 adverbs, e.g. freshly, gently
 prepositions, e.g. for, with, without
 determiners, e.g. the definite article the, the indefinite article a/an, and words like one,
some,
 this, which go in front of nouns
 conjunctions, i.e. words that join parts of sentences, such as and, or that

Many common words can function as different parts of speech, depending on their context.
Thus, that is a conjunction in Passengers are reminded that baggage must not be left
unattended. But it is a determiner in a sentence like Whose is that baggage? And it is a
pronoun in the sentence Whose is that?
Task 4: Identify the part of speech of each word in the following film titles.
Note that if a pair of words is contracted, for example in the case of it’s, the pair should be
analysed as two separate words: it + is.
a. It’s A Wonderful Life
b. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
c. It Happened One Night
d. A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
e. The Postman Always Rings Twice
f. I Married A Monster From Outer Space
g. And God Created Woman
h. Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot

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Task 5: Grammar quiz

Part 1: Parts of Speech

1. Which part of speech is used for ‘naming’?

2. Which part of speech is used for ‘doing’?

3. Which part of speech is used for describing something or someone?

4. Which part of speech is used for describing an action?

5. What do we call these, a, the? Which part of speech do we use with them?

6. What kind of words are in, of, after?

7. He, it, those are examples of ……………………………. What other part of speech do they
replace?

8. And is an example of a ……………………………. Can you name two more?

Part 2: Grammatical Structures

9. How many tenses are there in English?

10. Can you name them?

11. How is the regular past simple formed?

12. What are modal verbs?

13. Give five examples of modal verbs.

14. When do we use the passive voice?

15. Give an example of an imperative.

16. When is the imperative used?

17. How is the comparative formed?

18. How is the superlative formed?

19. How do we form the continuous aspect?

20. When is the present continuous used?

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Task 5: Grammar quiz: Answers

Part 1: Parts of Speech

1 Which part of speech is used for ‘naming’? - NOUN
2 Which part of speech is used for ‘doing’? - VERB
3 Which part of speech is used for describing something or someone? - ADJECTIVE
4 Which part of speech is used for describing an action? - ADVERB
5 What do we call these, a, the? - DETERMINERS
Which part of speech do we use with them? - NOUNS
6 What kind of words are in, of, after? - PREPOSITIONS
7 He, it, those are examples of ……………………………. - PRONOUNS
What other part of speech do they replace? - NOUNS
8 And is an example of a ……………………………. - CONJUNCTION
Can you name two more? – BUT, SO, BECAUSE, ETC.

Part 2: Grammatical Structures

9 How many tenses are there in English? - TWO
10 Can you name them? – PAST & PRESENT (There is no specially formed future tense.
Future time is indicated using: present tense, present continuous, ‘going to’, modal
verbs (will, may, might), etc).
There are also two aspects: continuous (or progressive) and perfective which can be
applied to any time.
11 How is the regular past simple formed? – ADD ‘ED’ OR ‘D’ TO VERB
12 What are modal verbs? – SPECIAL CLASS OF VERBS OFTEN FOR SPECULATING,
PREDICTING, GIVING ADVICE, ETC.
13 Give five examples of modal verbs. – MAY, MIGHT, CAN, COULD, WILL, ETC.
14 When do we use the passive voice? – TO FOCUS ON THE ACTION RATHER THAN THE
SUBJECT, e.g. ‘Mistakes were made.’ OR WHEN THE SUBJECT IS UNKNOWN e.g. ‘My
handbag has been stolen!’
15 Give an example of an imperative. – STOP! SIT DOWN! ETC.
16 When is the imperative used? – FOR ORDERS, SUGGESTIONS.
17 How is the comparative formed? – ADD ‘ER’/’MORE’ TO ADJECTIVE.
18 How is the superlative formed? – ADD ‘EST’/’MOST’ TO ADJECTIVE.
19 How do we form the continuous aspect? – CORRECT FORM OF ‘BE’ + VERB + ING
20 When is the present continuous used? – SOMETHING HAPPENING NOW, IN THE
FUTURE, OR A REPEATED ACTION.

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 SECTION 3: VOCABULARY

Task 6:
a. Match the terms with their meanings. Put your answers in the box below.
b. Find the ODD ONE OUT and state reasons for your choice.

a AFFIX 1 Words which are regularly used together, e.g. loud noise (not
big/high noise), depend on, make a plan etc

b LEXICAL SET 2 A word in the target language which looks or sounds as if it has the
same meaning as a similar word in the learners’ first language but
does not, e.g. accurate, artist, intelligent etc.

c SYNONYM 3 The basic word or part of a word from which other words can be
made by adding a prefix or suffix.

d ANTONYM 4 A prefix or suffix added to a word to make a new word.

e HOMOPHONE 5 The opposite of another word, e.g. hot ≠ cold.

f WORD FAMILY 6 A word which sounds the same as another word, but has a different
meaning or spelling, e.g. knew-new.

g HOMOGRAPH / 7 A group of words or phrases that are about the same content topic
HOMONYM or subject, e.g. weather: storm, to rain, wind, cloudy.

h BASE FORM OF 8 Words with the same spelling and pronunciation as another word,
A VERB but with a different meaning, e.g. bear; bit (past tense of ‘bite’ and
‘a little’).

i BASE / ROOT 9 A group of words (called derivatives) that come from the same root
WORD or base word, e.g. fair – unfair, fairly, fairness.

j COLLOCATION / 10 The infinitive form of a verb without ‘to’, e.g. see

CHUNK

k FALSE FRIEND 11 A word which has the same or nearly the same meaning as another
word, e.g. thin, slim, skinny

a b c d e f g h i j k

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 Task 7: In Russian there is a term словарный запас (vocabulary resource). To the Chinese,
vocabulary is a sea of words to be fished. Go fishing in the lake of words below to find
the following:

5 words with

3 words with

homophones
2 compound

collocations
3 synonyms

1 lexical set

multi-word
made of 7
antonyms
2 pairs of

2 pairs of

3 phrasal

2 idioms
prefixes
suffixes

friends
verbs/

2 false
words

words

verbs

3
unhappy rewrite illegal

put on boredom

hit the roof manhood pick up

shorten gloomy

magazine chairperson wear old dress high-heeled

teacher suit leather jacket bear right try on

be at a loose end biscuit

Task 8: What’s in a Word?

What is the relationship between the words in the following groups?
1 a big loud oval green sensitive involuntary
b make surrender understand grab belong
2 a feminine femininity feminist feminism
b ease easy easily easiness uneasy uneasily
3 a strange odd funny peculiar weird
b help assist aid lend a hand
4 a like dislike
b freezing boiling
c turn on turn off
d friend enemy
5 a goldfish trout sole eel shark
b boil fry bake roast grill braise
6 lean bank tender tap plain mean
7 a log on make dinner go away
b find fault with once in a blue moon
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Task 9: In the text below, find examples of the following:
1. 2 synonyms
2. 2 antonyms
3. 5 words belonging to the same lexical set
4. A root word and its derivative
5. 2 words derived from the same root

Sculpture
Making models and figures, or statues, is a form of art called
sculpture. Sculpture is done in two ways: by carving and moulding. In
carving, the sculptor cuts into a block of wood or stone with sharp
tools. In moulding, he makes a model in soft clay, then bakes the clay
to harden it. From the hard model he makes a mould, and pours into
it wet concrete or hot, liquid metal (such as bronze). When this
hardens, a perfect ‘casting’ of the model is left.
Today sculptors also use materials such as pieces of glass, metal and
cloth, as well as wood and stone.
From Jack A, Pocket Encyclopedia, Kingfisher books

Task 10: The following words are recent coinages in English.

Match each with its definition, and then decide what principle(s) of word formation
each one is an example of.

twigloo sport that involves descending mountain streams at high speed

internaut freely distributed computer software
dumb down a small computer application
canyoning very large place serving alcoholic drinks and food
applet make something less intellectually demanding
trainspotter habitual user of the Internet
decluttering a tree-house made of branches
shareware getting rid of unnecessary things
superpub a collector of information about train movements

Taken from How to Teach Vocabulary, Longman

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Task 11: Learner errors

Identify the errors in the following sentences and think about why the learner might have made
them.

1 Grandmother is afraid of big dogs, but she likes short ones.

2 He was wearing a half sleeve shirt.

3 She gave me some good advices.

4 I prefer light tea to strong tea.

5 We had a discussion about the matter, but we misagreed.

6 Just as we set out, there was a big downfall of rain.

7 The teacher expects us to work hardly.

8 As John got into the bath he cracked his cranium on the cupboard.

9 She had no fixed plan and decided to play it by ears.

10 He took over the car at high speed.

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 LEXIS/GRAMMAR SAMPLE TEST TASKS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

1. For questions 1–7 match the examples of vocabulary with the categories listed A–
H. Mark the correct letter (A–H) on your answer sheet. There is one extra option
which you do not need to use.

Examples of vocabulary Categories

1 traffic lights; alarm clock; seat belt A synonyms
2 childish; successfully; dependable B lexical set
3 turn up; turn off; turn into C collocations
4 catch a cold; catch a bus; catch a thief D suffixation
5 sad; miserable; unhappy E prefixation
6 ankle; stomach; knee; heart F compounds
7 like; dislike; unlikely G multi-verb words
H word family

2. For questions 8–12 match the example sentences with the grammatical terms
listed A–F. Mark the correct letter (A–F) on your answer sheet. There is one extra
option which you do not need to use.

8 Then I realised what had happened. A gerund

9 Many old houses are made of wood. B present perfect simple
10 We’ve never seen a whale before. C present perfect continuous
11 He doesn’t like playing chess. D reported speech
12 She said she was really upset. E present simple passive
F past perfect simple

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3. For questions 13-17, match the example language with the grammatical terms
listed A-F Mark the correct letter (A-F) on your answer sheet. There is one extra
option which you do not need to use.

Example language Grammatical terms

13 who, which, that A possessive adjectives
14 across, along, off B relative pronouns
15 yourself, ourselves, themselves C reflexive pronouns
16 your, his, our D demonstrative adjectives
17 above, against, by E prepositions of place
F prepositions of movement

4. For questions 18-23 choose the correct word(s) to complete each definition of
topical terms. Mark the correct letter (А, В or C) on your answer sheet.

18 ……… is a group of words which together mean something different from the meanings of
individual words.
A an idiom B a phrase C a clause

19 Colloquial English contrasts with ……… English.

A formal B accurate C spoken

20 Two or more words that often go together are called ……… .

A comparatives B collocations C conjunctions

21 Homophones are words that have the same ……… .

A spelling B sound C meaning

22 Synonyms are words with ……… meanings.

A opposite B similar C several

23 An appropriate ……… is the style of language that best fits a particular situation.
A rhythm B context C register

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Key to Lexis/Grammar Sample Test Tasks:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

F D G C A B H F E B A D

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

B F C A E A A B B B C

NB!
a compounds – lifetime, baseball
b demonstrative adjectives / pronouns – this, that, these, those
c possessive adjectives – my, your, his, her
d possessive pronouns – mine, yours, his, hers

SESSION 1 HOMEWORK:
A. Look through and complete the tasks in your TKT book pages 8-20, Units 1 and 2.
B. Do the following practical exercise.

↓
Exercise 1
Look at the underlined words (1-20) in the sentences A-F at the bottom of the page.
Match the words with a specific term from the box below. Some of the words may have more
than one term.
a modal verb i reporting verb q modal auxiliary
b possessive pronoun j auxiliary verb r transitive verb
c countable noun k adverb of time s subject pronoun
d adjective l compound noun t exclamation
e possessive adjective m object pronoun u preposition of place
f indefinite article n proper noun v comparative adjective
g collective noun o personal pronoun w intransitive verb
h determiner p uncountable noun

A (1) She (2) always moves the (3) furniture when she does the (4) housework.
B (5) Robert is (6) taller than James and (7) his hair is longer.
C (8) Can you buy a (9) good (10) book for Jim?
D I'll give it to (11) him for his birthday (12) tomorrow?
E (13) Ouch! You're (14) standing on (15) my foot.
F John (16) saw Fred last week (17) in town. I (18) didn't see him myself but he (19) said
he was carrying (20) a suitcase.

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Key to Exercise 1:
1. She subject pronoun, personal pronoun 2. always adverb of frequency 3. furniture
uncountable noun, collective noun 4. housework uncountable noun, compound noun 5. Robert
proper noun 6. taller comparative adjective 7. his possessive pronoun, determiner 8. Can
modal verb, modal auxiliary 9. good adjective 10. book countable noun 11. him object
pronoun 12. tomorrow adverb of time 13. Ouch! exclamation 14. standing intransitive verb
15. my possessive adjective 16. saw transitive verb 17. in preposition of place 18. didn’t
auxiliary verb 19. said reporting verb 20. a indefinite article

 Note down any questions for your trainer in the box below so that you don’t forget to
ask them next time!

Questions for my trainer...

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Task 11: Learner errors (p 10): Answers

Identify the errors in the following sentences and think about why the learner might have made
them.

1 Grandmother is afraid of big dogs, but she likes short ones.

Comment: big/short – short is a synonym of small, but not a good antonym for big.
2 He was wearing a half sleeve shirt
Comment: half/short – clear case of L1 interference. English uses ‘short’, other
languages ‘half’.
3 She gave me some good advices.
Comment: uncountable – advice is never plural no matter how much is given (use
‘piece’ to count.)
4 I prefer light tea to strong tea.
Comment: Light/strong tea – confusion over antonyms and collocation – possibly
from L1 inteference. It’s better to use ‘weak tea’ in this context.
NB! In the United States, "light tea" sounds like something from a label on a bottled
tea. It can mean ‘containing enough milk or cream to produce a light color’.
However, in England, "light tea" refers to a type of afternoon tea meal. True to its
name, light tea is lighter than "full tea" (which includes finger sandwiches and/or
other savories) and is closer to a heavy snack than an actual meal.
(http://coffeetea.about.com/od/historyculture/a/Light-Tea.htm)
5 We had a discussion about the matter, but we misagreed.
Comment: disagreed/misagreed – good guess, but wrong choice of prefix.
6 Just as we set out, there was a big downfall of rain.
Comment: ‘downfall’ – wrong choice of compound word, i.e should be ‘downpour’.
7 The teacher expects us to work hardly.
Comment: ‘hardly’ – part of speech, over-generalising the ‘add ly to form adverb’
rule.
8 As John got into the bath he cracked his cranium on the cupboard.
Comment: register – ‘cranium’ is a medical term which is normally only used by a
doctor.
9 She had no fixed plan and decided to play it by ears.
Comment: mislearning of ‘to play by ear’ – idioms can be very difficult to use
correctly.
10 He took over the car at high speed.
Comment: multiword verbs (to get over sth) – both word order and choice of
preposition can make multiword verbs difficult.

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