Cambridge DELTA Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Developing top-down and bottom-up processing skills for listening comprehension at B2 level

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- Cambridge DELTA
- by Ricardo J M Fernandes
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- Strategic Studies, Strategy (Business), Strategy, Cambridge DELTA

In this assignment I will investigate the ability of pre-intermediate level students to understand and use prefixes and suffixes. At present, in my current workplace, which is a university in Turkey, I am teaching English to first year Health and Sciences Vocational School students who are exempted from English preparation program after they became pre-intermediate level. This course also can be seen as a continuation of English Preparatory program. Although this course can be seen as the continuation of English preparatory program, these students are constantly exposed to academic texts and are frequently required to read academic texts as they are currently studying at their departments. For this reason, it is crucial for them to comprehend the academic texts and become better readers. In order to comprehend academic texts better and to become better readers in the future, all students should learn prefixes and suffixes and use that knowledge to guess the unknown words’ meanings from context and to become more proficient in English language. As Thornbury suggested: “Students need to be able to guess from context if they want to become independent and efficient learners and users of English.” (2002)
Therefore, teaching prefixes and suffixes help students understand the meaning behind different vocabulary words and students who learn suffixes and prefixes will have the capabilities of breaking down unfamiliar words into segments that will allow them to decode the meanings of the words unknown to them. Moreover, teaching prefixes and suffixes provide students with skills that will make them autonomous learners.
Hence, working on this specific area will provide me with an opportunity to this linguistic need of my students. In this assignment, first of all, I will scrutinize the meaning, form and pronunciation of certain suffixes and prefixes. In the next part, I will analyze the problems faced by learners in learning prefixes and suffixes. The reasons of these problems and suggestions for solving them will also be shown in this section. At the end, the conclusion part of this study will take place.

- by Tim Murphey
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- Sociolinguistics, TESOL, Applied Linguistics, English as a Foreign Language (EFL)

Teaching inductively the modal verbs can and could for the function of request to Greek learners

Although there are a limited number of prepositions in English, they are vital in meaning. Any slight change in, omission or addition of a preposition to a sentence can alter its meaning altogether. English learners from different levels, educational backgrounds and nationalities face many difficulties when dealing with prepositions. This is because firstly, prepositions are “polysemous” (Lindstromberg, S. 2010); that is, they mean different things in different contexts. Secondly, difficulties arise because prepositions are different from one language to another. For example, Swan (2001) points out that good intermediate Turkish students unexpectedly omit basic prepositions because such prepositions do not exist in their L1. Moreover, and despite the importance of prepositions, “remarkably little space is devoted to prepositions in ELT coursebooks” Lindstromberg (1996: 277).

Writing, outside the academic realm, is often seen as a neglected skill in teaching English as a second or foreign language. It is perceived as boring and irrelevant by many students, and teachers, in turn, will often skip the writing sections of the course books. However, the Anglo-Saxon culture arguably relies on the written medium of communication more than many other cultures, so learners need to develop the skill. This paper looks at the practical task rather than theoretical implications of teaching a class to a group of intermediate learners of English (L1 Turkish speakers) where the students approach writing a letter of complaint (an email asking for a refund for faulty goods bought online). Since refund emails fall under the broader category of letters of complaint, which in their turn are types of formal lettersI start by exploring the genre features of these texts. I then proceed to identify the common challenges faced by English learners when faced with writing a formal text (namely, lack of genre awareness, poor proofreading and/or self-editing skills, Lack of both system and process knowledge). Finally, I conclude with putting forward suggestions to teachers seeking to overcome these challenges (these include activities to introduce topical lexis and functional language, to develop the learners' proofreading and/or self-editing skills, pre-writing strategies such as brainstorming).

Delta Module 3 Extended Assignment for the Business English (BE) specialism. I designed a course for a group of 5 high-level engineers at a Taiwanese tech company involving a multilayered, negotiated syllabus.

- by Paulina Klaudia Woźniak
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- Communication, Public Speaking, Fluency, Cambridge DELTA
- by Paulina Klaudia Woźniak
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- Cambridge DELTA, DELTA modules 2 and 3
- by Nere Jone Intxaustegi Jauregi
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- History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Computer Science
- by Ebru Öztekin Bıyıklı
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- English Grammar, Cambridge DELTA
- by Emad Elhakeem
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- Delta Module 3, Cambridge DELTA, Teaching Monolingual classes MON

- by Serpil Öz
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- Applied Linguistics, Experimental Research, Cambridge DELTA, EFL/ESL/TESOL

HELPING LEARNERS WITH EXPEDITIOUS READING FOR THE MULTIPLE MATCHING TASK OF THE READING AND USE OF ENGLISH PAPER OF THE CPE

Teaching writing plays a crucial role in improving learners’ language competence and mastery. As Walter Grauberg states (1997:213), writing “consolidates and reinforces language learnt orally”. Besides, writing—the core of “correspondence of all kinds”—offers learners “a means of individual and sometimes quite personal expression, which can be changed, revised, refined and kept as a record” (213). My learners are full scholarship learners who would like to pursue a career or apply for a graduate degree overseas. Therefore, they will definitely need to write a formal email while applying for a job/course abroad. Acknowledging the importance of writing in language teaching, this paper focuses on teaching writing a formal email.

- by Serkan Şen
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- Writing, Cambridge DELTA, DELTA modules 2 and 3

TEACHING VOCABULARY IN LEXICAL SETS TO GREEK EFL LEARNERS

- by Chris Harwood
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- Education, Academic Writing, Active Learning, Second Language Writing
- by Emad Elhakeem
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- Delta Module 3, Cambridge DELTA, Teaching Monolingual classes MON

The scope of this article is Prescriptive Grammar.
Any English user may need a quick reference concerning conditionals in general. However, many users have an incorrect idea that, when we use past perfect in the if clause, it is ALWAYS incorrect to use “would or would not + base form of verb” in the main clause.
Therefore, the objective of this article is:
1. to define CONDITIONAL (IF) sentences in general and their BASICs; and
2. to correct the incorrect idea that, when we use past perfect in the if clause, it is ALWAYS incorrect to use “would or would not + base form of verb” in the main clause. We use this pattern in MIXED CONDITIONAL.
Whether we use “would/wouldn’t + have + past participle” or “would/wouldn’t + base form of verb” depends on whether the event is a Third Conditional or Mixed Conditional event.

- by ARCHER BISHOP
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- Languages, English Literature, Education, Language Education
- by Paulina Klaudia Woźniak
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- Delta Module 3, Cambridge DELTA, DELTA modules 2 and 3, FCE
- by Paulina Klaudia Woźniak
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- Delta Module 3, Cambridge DELTA, DELTA modules 2 and 3, FCE

A Delta LSA background essay, with an analysis of delexicalised verbs, issues students might have with them, and possible solutions.

- by Raghdah Almadany
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- Cambridge DELTA, DELTA modules 2 and 3

This extended assignment for my Cambridge Delta Module 3 is devoted to teaching EAP in high school contexts. The paper proposes a course of academic writing targeted at Year 2 learners following the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP) in Moscow, Russia. The grade awarded by Cambridge: Pass with Merit. The full text of the assignment and all the appendices are published here.
"DELTA Module Three aims to develop candidates’ knowledge of, and competence in, course planning and assessment in relation to a specialist area, and includes: research into a specialist area; approaches to needs analysis; curriculum and syllabus design principles and different types of syllabus; course design and evaluation; and assessment of learners."

To be a proficient language user, one must learn not only about the meaning of words, “but also about the way words combine with other words.” (Sicherl, 2005). Collocations, along with the lack of a systematic order of acquisition of them, bring a certain difficulty to language learning. This essay will dissect why collocations are so difficult to learn, and how to help students navigate said difficulties, thus developing collocational competence.

Most of the learners have difficulties in reading academic texts in English. One of the most important reasons for this is their weak top-down strategies. Therefore, I aim at improving my undergraduate students’ reading skills and I have chosen to focus on two top-down reading strategies that can help them to understand the meaning of academic texts more easily: prediction and skimming.

- by Serkan Şen
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- Reading, Cambridge DELTA, DELTA modules 2 and 3, Top Down

DELTA Module 3 Extended Assignment
Teaching EAP – Reading & Writing

This is my DELTA module 3 paper for an EAP writing course from 2010. It might be helpful to those currently writing their DELTA essays. It was written at the end of an intensive 3 month DELTA course in about 3 weeks. It earned a merit.

- by James Wood
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- Delta Module 3, Cambridge DELTA

Cambridge Delta PDA PART A

Personal Strengths and Weaknesses

- by Theo Navarro
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- Cambridge DELTA, DELTA modules 2 and 3

This Cambridge DELTA Module 3 EAP Extended Assignment obtained a Distinction. A concern for an approach to language teaching based on language as it is used in academic target situations helped to develop an in-sessional EAP course for a... more

- by Ruth Marin
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- Delta Module 3, EAP, EAP pedagogy, Cambridge DELTA

A Delta LSA background essay, with an analysis of delexicalised verbs, issues students might have with them, and possible solutions. This essay received a pass.

Helping B2 learners participate in discussions by helping them select appropriate functions and helping them improve their interaction management skills.