My Delta M1 journey – week 1

The fear

‘Gosh, there are way more terms than I had thought. And for those that I know, I can’t really describe them properly. By that I mean, explain them fully and clearly for an exam. I am not gonna make it, or will I? F&^t it, I don’t know, I’ll eat some tiramisu’ 

Anthony 08/02/2021

That was my first reaction. A few days later and some things have changed but not all of them!

Firstly, ‘The New A-Z of ELT‘ the famous dictionary of ELT terms by Scott Thornbury arrived and I finally realised why the book was a bit pricey. It’s thick! I haven’t really started reading it yet, but what I can say is that if you can get through the initial size shock, then this books looks like the DELTA candidate’s best buddy! I’m sure I will have a love & hate relationship with it towards the end of the course.

The culprit

So back to the first week, we started with the first two tasks from paper 1 which in case you don’t know it tests your knowledge of ELT Terminology. In the first task by providing the terms to the definitions and in the second by giving the definitions and providing examples. Over the years, I’ve read quite a few books related to ELT and I also have an MA in ELT so I have a relatively good theoretical background but putting terms into words accurately and clearly is a whole different story.

My issue has always been to learn things by heart. I find it a nuisance and it doesn’t really help me learn something. At the end of the day remembering is not learning. This is what we preach. But, I do understand that they need to test our understanding of the target knowledge at this level. Here, I would like to say that finding a DELTA course can save your life. Not that it’s mandatory to do so, but the amount of information is huge, and if you find it hard to motivate and organise yourself, then the courses can really put you on track. I am doing mine with ih Rome and so far so good. It has only been a week but it seems like the stages are carefully designed in order to be informative but not overwhelming at the same time.

The ‘investigators’ feedback

We received group feedback for the above tasks as opposed to individual. We did well, I guess. There were a few points about the difference between fluency and accuracy! And another one about the -nyms as in homonyms, hyponyms etc. and Scott’s probably favourite -phorics as in cataphoric, anaphoric etc. If you have no idea about what I am talking about, and you’re a DELTA candidate then go on and do your reading! (Beyond the sentence is a good place to start 😉 )

Do I feel wiser after completing the first week? Well, ignorance is bliss. The latter is a thing of the past but ignorance is still very much the dominative theme here, so I guess I am a wee bit wiser! All I can say is that I am looking forward to week two which is about Paper 1 Task 3. And now it’s about time I start studying and quite writing nonsense!

See you next week!

All the best,

Anthony

Are you doing your DELTA now, considering doing it in the future or are you a seasoned DELTA trainer? In any case, let me know of your thoughts, issues, suggestions in the comments. I am sure someone will find it useful and if they don’t I am sure I will find it useful! 😀