Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies (46 page)

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How do foreigners pronounce them?

Finally have an international word quiz. Get the students to guess the origin of international words used in English. For example:

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Alcohol (Arabic)

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Amateur (French)

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Boomerang (Aboriginal)

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Bungalow (Bengali)

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Hamburger (German)

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Ketchup (Chinese)

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Taboo (Hawaiian)

Spelling out abbreviations

In this age of text messaging, youngsters are very adept at finding short ways of writing down what they want to say. Why not use some well-known abbreviations to get them thinking? They may already know the gist of some, but not letter for letter and others they may have to investigate.

For instance, these abbreviations from broadcasting, texting and the world at large would make a great quiz activity:

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AKA:

Also known as

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ASAP: As soon as possible

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BBC:

British Broadcasting Corporation

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CD:

Compact disk

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Cul8r: See you later

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GMT:

Greenwich Mean Time

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IOU:

I owe you

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Lol:

Laugh out loud and lots of love

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MC:

Master of ceremonies

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MTV:

Music television

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PTO:

Please turn over

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R&B:

Rhythm and blues

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VIP:

Very important person

Even if students recognise the abbreviation, make sure that they can say it correctly. For example, they shouldn’t make VIP rhyme with ‘skip’ but say each letter.

Playing Kim’s game

This well-known game tests observation and memory. In the classroom you can use it to teach or reinforce vocabulary.

To play, you gather together 20 objects that teenagers use and lay them out on the desk but cover them with a cloth. Uncover them for two minutes or so to let students look at them, cover them up again, then get the students to write a list of what they were from memory. I like to choose things that students use every day but don’t know the name for in English, such as an eraser or ear-phones.

Offering advice with problem pages

Scores of magazines and websites offer advice to troubled teens. I use readers’ letters as a basis for reading and writing activities. Students can each become the agony aunt or even submit their own problem for another classmate to answer.

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Chapter 21

Making the Grade:

Handling Exam Classes

In This Chapter

▶ Examining the range of exams

▶ Helping students with exam skills

▶ Composing an exam course

Some students have very fixed goals for their English which often involve passing exams. Exam classes take a bit of getting used to so in this chapter you find out about the most popular exams. I include a section on how to teach the necessary skills; you can consult the chapters in Part III for more tips.

Exploring University Entrance Exams

For a large number of students higher education is the motivation for learning English. They want to take degree courses in an economically strong English-speaking country because this adds prestige to the qualification and opens up more opportunities for their future careers. However, in order to enrol on such courses, students have to prove to universities that they have sufficient language skills and this is why entrance exams in English are necessary.

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IELTS (International English

Language Testing System)

This exam started in the 1980s and is becoming increasingly well known. As the name suggests, there is a very international feel to this exam. There are a variety of accents and styles of writing in most of the papers.

IELTS is for people who:

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Want to emigrate to Canada, Australia, the UK or New Zealand.

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Professional people, especially those in the medical field, who want to practise in the UK, USA or Australia.

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Want to attend university or higher education courses in New Zealand, USA, Australia, Canada, UK, and South Africa.

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Want to undertake work experience programmes in an English-speaking country.

Once students have taken the exam, the result is usually valid for two years depending on who needs it. Language skills can fluctuate a great deal over this period of time, so in a situation where competition is intense a university is entitled to set more stringent entrance criteria. However, this is fairly rare.

The exam results are given in bands of 0 through to 9. So, 0 means that the candidate didn’t do the test and a 9 means that the candidate is an expert English user.

It isn’t usually worth taking the exam unless you can achieve a band 5.5 score at least. However UK universities sometimes ask for a score as high as 7.5, and in the USA some academic institutions ask for 8.5.

Students tend to improve by 0.5 to 1.0 on average in three months of study if they are in an English speaking country and need six months of study otherwise. For example, students who begin an IELTS course with a score of 6.0 (based on pre-course testing) typically achieve 6.5 or 7.0 by the end of the course.

Fortunately you can take IELTS more frequently than most other exams, so students can repeat the exam within weeks if they have a bad day and mess it up. It costs approximately £100 to take the exam each time.

Although IELTS is generally considered to be for higher education, the exam has two versions. One is the Academic exam and the other is the General English version. Most students need the Academic version but emigrants and work experience candidates who are applying for internships take General English.

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The listening and speaking elements of the exam are the same in both versions.

However, the reading and writing elements are somewhat more difficult in the Academic version which reflects the nature of work and study the exam candidates are in line for. A CB (computer based) Academic version is also offered in some places but this doesn’t include the speaking exam.

There is always a recording device in the room but you should advise students not to worry about this because this just supports the examiner’s work.

So the four exam papers are:

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Listening:
This is a 30 minute test in four sections. There is a conversation between two speakers, followed by a monologue. The third section involves a group conversation and finally there is a lecture or talk. The listening texts are only played once each. The questions take the form of multiple choice, short answers in three words or similar, completing sentences, notes, diagrams and flow charts.

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Reading:
This test lasts 1 hour and the question types are similar to those done in the Listening text. However, they also include choosing from a list of headings to identify paragraphs, stating whether a sentence is true, false or has an answer not given in the text, classifying information, and matching lists or phrases.

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Writing:
This test lasts 1 hour during which you have to complete two different tasks. You lose marks if you don’t finish them.

• Task 1 consists of a chart, graph or table and the candidate has to write about the information presented. Alternatively you have to describe a process from a diagram, showing how something works.

The minimum word limit is 150 words.

• Task 2 carries more marks and requires you to consider and discuss aspects of a particular topic in a formal way. The minimum word limit is 250 words and the question features international themes.

In IELTS writing, if you restate the question in the same words, those words are deducted from your word count. Hyphenated words and numbers are counted as one word and you shouldn’t use contractions.

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Speaking:
This test lasts no more than 15 minutes and takes the form of an interview with one examiner. First there is a general discussion about everyday topics. After that the examiner gives the student a topic, a pencil and some paper. The candidate has a minute to make notes about the topic and then gives a two minute presentation.

The Speaking test does not happen on the same day as the other exam papers.

It should take place within 7 days of the others though. Candidates have to do Listening, Reading and Writing papers one after the other, on the same day with no break.

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Even if a student is proficient in English they might do badly without training because the questions are a little unusual. For example, in the Reading paper candidates have to choose whether information is true, false or not given in the text. Unlike in other exams, you have to read between the lines for the meaning. In the Listening test you have to listen all the way through too because there might be a question which doesn’t follow sequentially.

TOEFL (Test of English as

a Foreign Language)

TOEFL is designed to show how well a non- native speaker can cope with English in higher education. If the student has already followed a recent course of study in English for two or more years in an English speaking country, they may be exempt from the test. It is not enough to live in an English-speaking country. Many universities in the USA require a TOEFL score to measure proficiency and the exam itself features the American variety of English. Exams fees vary according to which version of the test you take and at which centre but the payment is may be quoted in US currency and is approximately $150.

TOEFL scores are only valid for two years, after that your official report is deleted.

In this exam you need overall skills like:

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Note-taking:
Students need to be able to write down key points even if they don’t understand the content completely and then rephrase or reconstruct it in writing or speech.

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Mind mapping:
This technique of using a diagram to organise ideas around a central point helps students to organise a writing task in just a few minutes.

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Synthesising:
This means drawing together information on one topic from different sources to form a new piece of work.

Three versions of the exam exist: the IBT version is internet based, the PBT is paper based and the CBT is the computer-based test, so the version you take depends on where you sit the exam. You only need to take one version.

The IBT lasts 4 hours and has four sections which you do on the same day, as follows:

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Reading:
You have to read three to five passages on academic themes and then answer comprehension questions. It lasts 60 to100 minutes.

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Listening:
You listen to two conversations involving at least two speakers and four classroom based lectures. Then you have to answer multiple choice comprehension questions. It lasts 60-90 minutes.

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Speaking:
Candidates speak about 6 questions based on what they have heard or read for about 20 minutes in total. The information for the six questions is presented during the Speaking test.

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Writing:
There are two writing tasks in this section, one of which involves reading and listening. So after reading or listening to a lecture you write about it. The second is an essay of about 300 words reflecting your opinion on a given topic. The duration of the test is 50 minutes.

Each part attracts a score of 0-30, so the total score is 0-120.

The PBT is a little different from the IBT and involves:

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Reading:
This test lasts 55 minutes and has 50 questions based on general English.

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Listening:
The duration of the test is 30-40 minutes.

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Structure and Written Expression:
This test lasts 25 minutes and is based on using the appropriate language for standard written English.

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Writing:
There is only one topic and candidates have 30 minutes to complete it.

Candidates can take the Test of Spoken English separately.

In TOEFL PBT each paper can attract a score of 31-68 so the total is up to 677.

The CBT papers are:

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Listening:
You get 40 -60 minutes to answer a maximum of 49 questions.

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Structure and Written Expression:
There is an allocation of 20 minutes for this.

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Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension:
This is a 90 minute test.

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Essay Writing:
You get 30 minutes to write one essay.

The score is averaged out so the total is a maximum of 300.

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Going for More General English Exams

Some students have goals other than higher education and need a more general qualification which they can show to employers or use as a landmark for their progress in learning English. In this case they are likely to take a general English exam or work through several of these over a period of time.

Such exams give students something to focus on and provide motivation.

They may also enhance their career prospects.

Cambridge ESOL (English for Speakers

of Other Languages) exams

Cambridge ESOL offer a a range of exams in general English which are internationally recognised (see www.cambridgeesol.org). Students in well over a hundred countries take these exams so there is a wide acceptance from employers, educators and other bodies of these qualifications as a measure of students’ abilities in English.