Free TKT Module 1 Exam Flashcards

Open classes accept new members as the language grows: nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs. Closed classes almost never gain new members: determiners, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs. TKT tasks often ask you to name the class of a word in a sentence, so decide by the job the word is doing, not by its ending.

Tense locates the event in time - here the present. Aspect shows how the speaker views the event - here perfect continuous, an action that started earlier and is still going on. Note that English marks future time with modals ('will'), semi-modals ('be going to') or present forms rather than with a verb ending.

The first expresses possibility or deduction; the second makes a suggestion. One modal verb carries several meanings, so TKT expects you to read the context, not the form: 'could' can also mean past ability ('I could swim at five'), permission ('You could leave early') and polite offers ('She could see you now').

The main verb carries the lexical meaning; the auxiliary is the helper that builds the tense, question, negative or passive around it. In 'Did she finish?', 'did' is the auxiliary and 'finish' the main verb. 'Be', 'do' and 'have' can be either, so check the job they are doing in that sentence.

A transitive verb takes a direct object ('She wrote a letter'); an intransitive verb does not ('He arrived'). Many verbs are both, with a change in meaning ('The class ran' vs 'She ran the class'). This matters in error-correction tasks, where learners often supply or omit the wrong object.

A determiner identifies or quantifies the noun and comes first: 'the', 'a', 'this', 'my', 'some', 'both', 'three'. An adjective describes a quality of the noun and sits between the determiner and the noun: 'the big house'. Determiners are a closed class; adjectives are open.

Complex. A complex sentence has a main clause plus a subordinate clause introduced by a subordinator such as 'although', 'because', 'if' or 'when'. A compound sentence joins two main clauses of equal weight with a coordinator such as 'and', 'but' or 'so'. Subordinate clauses cannot stand alone.

Form is how the structure is built - 'be' plus verb plus '-ing' for the present continuous. Use is what speakers do with it - describing actions in progress, temporary situations, or fixed future arrangements. Learners often master the form yet still misuse the structure, so lessons need to address both.

Prefixes, added to the front and usually changing meaning ('unhappy', 'rewrite'); suffixes, added to the end and usually changing word class ('happiness', 'careful'); and compounds, two words combined into one item ('bookshop', 'sunglasses'). The affix tells you a lot about class: '-ness' and '-ment' make nouns, '-ly' usually makes adverbs.

A collocation is a pair of words that habitually occur together - 'heavy rain', 'make a decision'; the wrong partner sounds unnatural even when the grammar is correct. A lexical set is a group of words linked by topic or meaning - 'sofa, armchair, table, lamp'. Collocation is about partnership, lexical sets about category.

Homonyms - one form with two unrelated meanings. Homophones share pronunciation but differ in spelling and meaning ('their/there', 'tail/tale'); homographs share spelling but differ in pronunciation ('read' present and past). TKT lexis tasks regularly ask you to label sets of examples with the right term.

Because it is a multi-word item whose meaning is not the sum of its parts. Phrasal verbs combine a verb with one or two particles ('look up', 'put up with'); idioms are fixed expressions with figurative meaning ('under the weather'). Both must be learnt as single lexical items, not decoded word by word.

Four - /p/, /l/, /eɪ/, /s/ - despite five letters. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can change meaning, written between slashes using the International Phonetic Alphabet. English spelling and sound do not match one to one, so always count sounds, never letters.

They differ by exactly one phoneme in the same position, so that single sound carries the whole meaning difference. Minimal pairs prove which contrasts are phonemic in English and are the standard tool for diagnosing and drilling a sound a learner cannot yet hear or produce ('bat/bad', 'pen/pan').

Word stress - which syllable is prominent inside a single word, and it can shift when suffixes are added. Sentence stress is which words are prominent across an utterance, normally the content words carrying information. Unstressed syllables often weaken to the schwa /ə/, as in the second syllable of 'teacher'.

Elision - a sound is dropped when words run together. Connected speech also produces linking (an extra sound joining words, 'an apple'), assimilation (a sound changing under the influence of its neighbour, 'ten bikes' toward /tem/) and contractions ('I'm', 'don't'). This is why listening feels faster than the words on the page.

The function is the purpose the speaker has - inviting, apologising, refusing, speculating. The exponent is the actual language chosen to perform it: 'Would you like to join us?' and 'Fancy coming along?' are two exponents of the same function. One function has many exponents at different levels of formality.

The level of formality and the style of language chosen for a situation, audience and purpose - formal, neutral or informal. 'I regret to inform you', 'I'm sorry to say' and 'Bad news, I'm afraid' carry the same message in three registers. Register is a choice about how you say it, not about being correct.

Appropriacy - the language does not suit the context, the relationship or the purpose, even though it is accurate. TKT treats appropriacy as a separate dimension from accuracy: teaching a function means teaching which exponents fit which situation, not only which are grammatical.

The first suggests, the second advises. Suggesting proposes an action, usually including the speaker; advising recommends action to the listener based on the speaker's judgement; offering proposes to do something for the listener ('Shall I take these?'). Functions overlap in wording, so identify who acts and who benefits.

Receptive: reading and listening, where the learner takes meaning from a text. Productive: speaking and writing, where the learner creates language. Receptive skills are usually ahead of productive ones, which is why a learner may follow a lesson comfortably yet struggle to say much in it.

Scanning - reading quickly to locate specific information, ignoring everything else. Skimming is reading quickly to get the general idea or gist of a whole text. Both are fast reading subskills, but skimming answers 'what is this about?' and scanning answers 'where is that detail?'.

Deducing meaning from context. Related subskills tested in TKT include reading for detail (close reading for full understanding), inferring attitude or opinion (working out what is implied rather than stated), and predicting (using the title, pictures or layout to guess content before reading).

Accuracy - producing correct forms. Fluency is speaking at a natural speed without unnatural hesitation. The two often pull against each other, so teachers choose their focus: freer speaking tasks build fluency, and interrupting them to correct undermines it. Speaking also involves interactive subskills such as turn-taking and repair.

Coherence - the overall logic and organisation that makes the whole text make sense. Cohesion is the surface linking: reference words, conjunctions and repeated vocabulary that tie sentences together. A text can be cohesive yet incoherent, so writing tasks need to address both, alongside layout and text type conventions.

Intrinsic - motivation coming from inside the learner and from the satisfaction of the activity itself. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside rewards or pressures: a required certificate, a parent, a promotion. Intrinsic motivation tends to sustain effort longer, which is why TKT stresses making tasks meaningful rather than merely graded.

Set achievable goals so learners experience success; personalise tasks so the content relates to learners' own lives and interests; and give learners choice or responsibility in what and how they study. Varying activity types, telling learners the aim of a lesson, and praising effort specifically also raise motivation.

Focus on form - directing learners' attention to the construction and use of language. TKT treats interaction and focus on form as complements of exposure, not replacements for it: exposure and acquisition supply the input, but classroom L2 learners typically need form highlighted too. Early on, some learners go through a silent period of taking in language before producing it.

A slip - a one-off lapse the learner can self-correct because the form is already known. An error is systematic and repeated because the learner has not yet learnt or internalised the form. The distinction drives the teacher's response: slips need only a prompt, errors need teaching.

The first is interference (L1 transfer) - a structure carried across from the first language. The second is a developmental error, made by learners of any background as they over-apply a rule they are acquiring. Both are normal stages in interlanguage, the learner's own evolving system; errors that stop developing become fossilised.

Age and maturity - L2 learners usually already have a first language and abstract thinking to draw on. Exposure - L1 acquisition involves constant immersion, while classroom L2 exposure is limited in hours. Context and need - the L1 child must communicate to get needs met, whereas classroom L2 learners often need motivation and focus on form supplied by the teacher.

A strategy is something the learner deliberately does to help themselves learn - guessing meaning from context, keeping a vocabulary notebook, self-testing, noticing how speakers use a phrase. A preference (or style) is how a learner likes to receive and process information, for example through pictures, sound, or physical activity. Strategies can be taught; preferences are accommodated.

Recording and revising vocabulary through self-testing. TKT tasks describe learner behaviour and ask you to label the strategy: working out meaning from context, using a dictionary or reference source, noticing and correcting one's own language, and reviewing earlier learning are the ones that come up most often.

Personal needs (interests, learning circumstances and what motivates the individual), learning needs (the language and skills gaps the learner must close), and future professional needs (the English the learner will require for study or work). A needs analysis identifies these so the syllabus and materials can be selected to match.

A warmer is a short activity at the start to settle or energise the class and get learners speaking English; it need not connect to the lesson content. A lead-in introduces the topic or context of the lesson that follows, activating what learners already know and generating interest in the material to come.

Through a situation or context that makes the meaning clear before the form is given; through visuals, realia or mime that show meaning directly; and through a timeline or diagram that makes an abstract relationship such as time reference visible. All three establish meaning first, so learners have something to attach the new form to.

A concept checking question (CCQ) - a short, simple question that tests whether learners have grasped the meaning of the target language. Good CCQs avoid using the target structure itself and take a yes/no or one-word answer. 'Do you understand?' is unreliable because learners can answer yes without having understood.

Drilling gives repeated oral practice of a form so that pronunciation, stress and word order become automatic before freer use. Choral drilling has the whole class repeat together, which lowers anxiety; individual drilling lets the teacher hear and correct one learner; substitution drilling changes one element each time to practise the pattern rather than the sentence.

Eliciting - drawing language or ideas out of learners instead of telling them, which reveals what they already know and keeps them thinking. Prompting is helping a learner who has stalled to produce or repair language, with a gesture, a first sound or a partial cue, rather than giving the answer outright.

Controlled (restricted) practice limits learners to the target language and has predictable answers - drills, gap-fills, substitution. Freer (authentic) practice lets learners choose their own language to communicate real meaning - discussions, role-plays. Controlled practice builds accuracy, freer practice builds fluency, and lessons usually move from one to the other.

An information gap activity. Because neither learner can see the other's information, they have a genuine reason to ask and answer, so language is used to communicate rather than to display. Contrast it with a gap-fill, where the missing items are in the text and the task is written, controlled practice of form.

Presentation - the teacher introduces the target language in a clear context and checks meaning and form. Practice - controlled activities such as drills and gap-fills build accuracy. Production - learners use the language freely in a communicative task. PPP moves from teacher control toward learner independence.

In TBL learners do a meaningful task first, using whatever language they have, and the language focus comes afterwards, based on what they needed and what came up. PPP decides the target language in advance and works toward using it; TBL lets the task expose the need, which makes the language focus responsive rather than pre-set.

Test-teach-test - the first 'test' diagnoses what learners can already do, teaching targets only the gaps, and the second test checks improvement. Guided discovery is different: learners are given examples and questions and work out the rule themselves with the teacher's guidance, rather than being given it.

Total Physical Response (TPR). Learners respond with actions to spoken commands, so comprehension is demonstrated physically and speaking is not forced. This respects the silent period and suits beginners and children, but it favours language that can be acted out, so it is normally one technique within a course rather than the whole course.

The Lexical Approach - it argues that fluent language is largely made of ready-made multi-word chunks, so it teaches collocations and expressions rather than only grammar rules plus single words. Grammar-Translation is at the opposite end: explicit rules, translation of sentences between L1 and L2, heavy use of the first language and little spoken practice.

A placement test - its purpose is to assign learners to the right level or group. A diagnostic test identifies specific strengths and weaknesses so teaching can be targeted at what is missing. The two often use similar tasks; TKT distinguishes them by the decision the results are used to make.

Formative assessment happens during learning and feeds back into it, shaping what the teacher does next. Summative assessment comes at the end and sums up what was achieved, usually as a grade. Related distinctions: a progress test checks recent work during a course, while an achievement test covers the whole course syllabus at the end.

A proficiency test measures a learner's general level of English independent of any particular course or syllabus, so anyone can sit it. An achievement test measures how much of a specific course's content the learners have mastered, so it is written against that syllabus and only makes sense for people who studied it.

Peer assessment and portfolio assessment. Self-assessment is the learner judging their own work, often against 'can do' statements. All three are usually informal assessment - built into normal classroom work to inform learning - as opposed to formal assessment, which is a scheduled test producing a mark or grade on the record.