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Preparing for the 2015 Cambridge English First Exam

Guidance, tips and strategies to approach teaching the revised exam

Roy Bennett Pearson Italia ELT Consultant

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Preparing for the 2015 Cambridge English First Exam

Guidance, tips and strategies to approach teaching the revised exam

6° November 2014 Relatore: Roy Bennett

Webinar aims

• An introduction • Guidance about what has changed • Strategies for preparing students for the new exam • Tips for exam success

• http://pearson.it/english-consultants

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Note di presentazione

Just before we get started I wanted to give you a quick overview of what we will be looking at in today’s webinar. Obviously we have a limited amount of time but if you have got any further questions relating to preparing students for assessment in general be it Cambridge English or other exams, please contact your local educational consultant at http://pearson.it/english-consultants

An introduction

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So as we said in the webinar aims we’ll start wtih a quick introduction and a few brainstorming activities to set the scene for looking at the Cambridge English First exam changes;

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The Cambridge English exams are changing!

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So, The Cambridge English exams are changing! And the next question….

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Are YOU prepared?

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Are you prepared?! But before we answer this question, let’s take a step back a second and have a think about

What challenges do exam updates give us as teachers? (2 minute brainstorm)

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For the next two minutes or so, I’d like you to share with the group what challenges exam updates give us as teachers. Allow time for text chat

Some thoughts…

• Familiarity with the exam changes and remembering them!

• Revise teaching plan to allocate the right amount of time to the exam tasks

• Ensure that students are studying and practising with the new exam format materials

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My thoughts are here

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How good is your knowledge of the new exams?

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So to start answering the question about whether we are prepared. Let’s hae a quick check of what we already know…. You may know something about the new exam, you may know very little. It doesn’t matter – we are here today to support you through these changes!

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Do you know…?

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Let’s do a quick quiz to test our knowledge. I’ll start with an easy one!

1 Which Cambridge exams have a ‘for schools’ version? A Key B Preliminary C First D Advanced

2 Which of these Cambridge exams will have a new version in 2015? A First B Preliminary C Proficiency D Key E Advanced

2 Which of these Cambridge exams will have a new version in 2015? A First B Preliminary C Proficiency D Key E Advanced

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Today we are going to concentrate on the changes to First but be aware that the Advanced exam is also due to change in 2015 too

3 From when in 2015 will the new Cambridge exam specs go live? A January B June C December

3 From when in 2015 will the new Cambridge exam specs go live? A January B June C December

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This could already pose a challenge for those of us who have been teaching students with the old exam prep materials for the past two years. Don’t worry, we will look at how you an integrate new exam materials to ensure your students are prepared

4 Which of the following are TRUE about the 2015 Cambridge First update?* A It will have a business flavour. B There will be fewer reading texts. C The writing will be computer graded. D There will only be four papers. *According to Cambridge Assessment.

5 Which of the following are TRUE about the 2015 Cambridge First update?* A It will have a more business flavour. B There will be fewer reading texts. C The writing will be computer graded. D There will only be four papers. *According to Cambridge Assessment.

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Cambridge English First for 2015

Guidance on what has changed

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So this next section of the webinar is designed to give you some guidance on what has changed in the revised First exam

Key changes: First & First for Schools

Current exam 2015 exam Change

General 4 papers Joined Reading & Use of English

5 papers

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In general: Previously there were 5 papers: Listening. Reading. Writing, Speaking and Use of English In 2015 the Reading and Use of English become one paper so there are a total of 4 papers rather than 5 Let’s have a look in more detail at the changes within the individual papers



General

Reading & Use of English

1 hr 15 mins 52 items

4 papers Joined Reading & Use of English

5 papers

Shorter texts Fewer items


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Previously Reading and Use of English were two papers in 2015 they become 1 paper with shorter texts and fewer itesm so that the exam itself becomes 30 minutes shorter. The Reading and Use of English papers have been combined. The revised paper takes 1 hour 15 minutes, which is 30 minutes shorter than the current Reading and Use of English papers combined. All the task types from both papers have been kept but the number of items in each task has been reduced. From 2015, there will be 7 parts and 52 questions. Use of English tasks come before Reading tasks so that there is a clear progression from a focus at word and sentence level to a focus on whole text content and structure.



General


Writing

Compulsory essay Set text & story in for Schools only P1 and 2 140-190 words


4 papers Joined Reading & Use of English 5 papers

P1 genre = essay P2 (main exam) has fewer options P1 and 2(Longer output

Compulsory letter Optional set text Includes story 120-180 words



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Let’s have a look at the changes to the writing paper: Previously in the writing paper there was a compulsory letter in 2015 there is a compulsory essay an optional set text, in 2015 the optional set text is only in the Cambridge English First for Schools exam a story of 120-180 words in 2015 the story will only be in the Cambridge English for Schools exam but willl have a longer word count of 140 -190 words So in Part 1 the genre has changed from letter to essay Paper 2 has a longer output than previously The compulsory Part 1 question is now an essay rather than an email or letter. The word count for both parts has increased to 140–190 words. In Part 2, candidates now choose from three questions rather than five, and candidates can decide to write an article, a report, a review or an email/letter. There will no longer be questions on set texts.



General


Writing

Listening








P1 options recorded P2 1 or 2 speakers P3 5 items, 6 options

P1 text only P2 monologue P3 5 items, 8 options

P1 no audio questions P2 monologue only P3 2 more distractors

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The listening paper includes a few minor changes In the pre 2015 exam In part 1 the questions as well as the text were recorded. In the new exam just the text is recorded and students must read the question on the question paper In part 2 there used to be 1 or 2 speakers in the new exam there is only one speaker In part 3 there used to be 5 items with a multiple choice of 6. In the new exam there are still 5 items but the multiple choice has been extended to 8 options to make it more challenging. All the current listening tasks are retained. In Part 1 the options are now not read out. In the Part 3 question there are now two additional distractors – so there are three distractors in all. Speaking In the pre 2015 Sepaking exam part 3 the interaction was based on pictures. This has now been ujpdated to a text prompt or a spidergram. Overall the revised Speaking paper takes the same length of time and has the same number of parts and tasks but there are changes to each part. In Part 1, the timing has reduced from 3 minutes to 2 minutes. In Part 2, the candidate response time has increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds In Part 3, the picture prompts are replaced with written prompts. The task is now split into two to include a discussion phase and a decision-making phase. The Part 4 timing has increased by one minute.



General


Writing

Listening

Speaking

P1,2 + 4 Minor timing changes P3 based on text prompts and 2 phases




Part 3 now word spider, not pictures and a discussion + decision phase

P3 based on pictures





P1 options recorded P2 1 or 2 speakers P3 5 items, 6 options

P1 text only P2 monologue P3 5 items, 8 options

P1 no audio questions P2 monologue only P3 2 more distractors

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Speaking In the pre 2015 Sepaking exam part 3 the interaction was based on pictures. This has now been updated to a text prompt or a spidergram. Overall the revised Speaking paper takes the same length of time and has the same number of parts and tasks but there are changes to each part. In Part 1, the timing has reduced from 3 minutes to 2 minutes. In Part 2, the candidate response time has increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds In Part 3, the picture prompts are replaced with written prompts. The task is now split into two to include a discussion phase and a decision-making phase. The Part 4 timing has increased by one minute.

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What does it mean for me?

Strategies for preparing students for

the revised exam

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What do these exam changes mean for you will largely depend on whether you are teaching a new class as of now in which case you can use new updated coursebooks and practice tests as your core teaching material. If however you already started teaching students who will take the exam in 2015 before the new materials were published we would suggest that you either get students to use our new updated coursebooks and practice tests as of now, or if that isn’t possible because for example you adopted the book two years ago and can’t change it, that you look carefully at the activities in your current coursebook and ensure that you substitute obsolete ativities with the new ones. I will now give you some examples of these activities by looking at how they have changed in Pearson’s exam course Gold First. Now we’ll look in more detail at the new exam tasks with a quick «spot the difference activity». I’ll show you the old and the new activity and you identify as quickly as possible what the changes are. We’ll start with the Use of English part with activities taken from Gold First.

Spot the difference: Use of English

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2008: Use of English Part 3 10 items

2015: Reading & Use of English Part 3 8 items

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So what is the difference between the old edition task and the new edition task on the right? In this case the old book on the left has more practice items than the new exam asks for. It has 10 items instead of 8. If you are teaching with pre 2015 material I would not be overly concerned that your students have more practice items within a task as they will simple find themselves with extra time available on exam day if they have to do fewer items. Where the difference in number of items is important with when students have more distractors to choose from which is something we will look at in a minute

Spot the difference: Listening

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Let’s have a look at spot the difference in the task for the Listening this time

2008: Listening Part 3 6 options

2015: Listening Part 3 8 options (2 extra distractors)

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What is the key difference between the old exam prep task on the left and the new exam prep task on the right? In this example you have got 2 extra options compared to the old version of the book. Because adding two extra distractors makes the activity more challenging I would suggest that if you can’t change your book, you do add an extra two options so that students are practising at the same level of difficulty they will face in the exam., otherwise they will be used to working with six options and will be confronted with a more challenging task on the day of the exam. Over and above linguistic ability, students confidence is built by familiarising the with exactly what they will find in terms of exercise type on the day of the exam so it is important that where an extra challenge level has been brought in that this doesn’t come as a surprise on exam day!

Spot the difference: Speaking

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Moving on to the speaking task, can you remember what the differences were? Let’s have a look and see

Picture prompts

2008 2015

Text prompts

Single rubric task

Split rubric task

New audio

Revised language

focus

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Look at the old task type on the left and the new task type on the right. What do you notice? So what you see here is that the picture has been substituted by a spidergram text prompt and that in the old version of the book there is one long question. In the new version of the book, to reflect the exam changes there are two parts to the question. So again if you aren’t able to change your materials this year, ensure that when you are getting your students to practice Speaking part 3 that you divide the question into two parts and if possibile substitute the pictures for a spidergram

Spot the difference: Writing (1)

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Now we’ll have a look at 3 examples relating to the writing paper

Part 1 =letter/email

2008 2015 Part 1 =essay

Output =120-150 words


Revised language work

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The most obvious change here is the genre of writing students are asked to produce. Strategically speaking there is no point getting your students to practice letter or email writing for this part of the exam if they need to do an essay in the new exam. Students are also expected to produce a longer piece of writing so it is important that you increase the word limit so that they don’t unknowingly write a short written piece on the day of the exam.


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Letter/email =Part 1

Letter/email =Part 2

2008 2015

Longer input

Shorter input

Revised language work

Shorter output

Longer output

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So here you can see that the task is a letter or an email in the old version of the book and that it relates to part 1 of the exam. In the new book it relates to part 2 of the exam. The question is shorter in the new exam and the expected output from students is longer. As I mentioned before, it is important that students practice with the correct number of words allowed so that they are not knowingly selling themselves short on the exam day by writing 40+ words fewer than what is required


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Part 2 can include story

2008 2015 Part 2: no story (except in for Schools exam)

Part 2 genres = article, report, review, email/letter



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In part2 of the Writing paper the oild exam could have asked students to write a story. This is no longer the case, so once again there is no point getting students to do this acitivty. The genres for Part 2 are now an article, a report, a review and email or a letter. It would therefore be better to concentrate on one of these genres during preparation classes

What strategies would you apply in preparing students for the new exam? How would you help them prepare for it? (5 minute brainstorm)

1 In 2015 Writing P1 is essay, not letter

2 In 2015 there are fewer genres in Writing P2

3 In 2015, Speaking P3 prompts are written, not pictures

4 In 2015, Speaking P3 rubric is now split

5 In 2015, all (other) Reading & Use of English tasks are very similar (fewer items; shorter texts)

Focus on planning, structuring & language for essays

Don’t waste time on set text, stories, competition entries etc

Use new practice tasks or try to convert existing ones

Make sure students don’t reach a conclusion until asked to

Teach the same exam techniques and strategies

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Here are the main strategies I would apply to teaching students to the new exam criteria (show them one by one)

Tips for the new tasks Speaking Part 3

An Olympics medal winner

A famous actor

A celebrity chef

Somebody who finished university

A ten year old pianist

How hard might these people have had to work to achieve success?

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Remember there are now two parts to thsi question in the new exam: First of all discuss the options that relate to the question and then decide which people have to work the hardes to achieve success. When candidates have to discuss the various options in part 3 where they are given a text prompt like the one you see here. It is useful to treat the spidergram as a clock face and discuss the various options in a clockwise order to ensure that candidates produce enough of a variety of language to be assessed and don’t spend all the time available on one of the options. Another reason for doing this is to ensure enough options are discussed in order to choose which options they would choose out of the 5 available in the second part of the question. Remember there are no right or wrong answers when reaching a decision. Students are not marked on their opinions but on their language production. If necessarly they should invent opinions

Tips for the new tasks Listening Part 3

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A multiple choice of 8 items 5 of which correspond to the five short extracts in the recording. 1 Listen once and mark the letter of the option appropriate to the extract next to the Speaker nuber 2 On the second listening check your answers 3 Guess any you aren’t sure of.

Tips for the new tasks Writing part 1

• Practice writing the essay in exam conditions (time allowed and word length)

• Practice developing for and against arguments, giving an opinion and supporting an opinion with reasons

• 4 areas to remember:

• Content

• Organisation

• Language

• Communicative achievement

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Remember both parts carry equal marks in the writing paper so the time students allocate should reflect this to ensure they have enough time for part 2 Studnets are marked on spelling, punctuation, the right length, paragraphing and legile handwriting in both parts of the test. It is important to practice delivering a handwritten essay in the digital age writing things by hand is not a default setting for our students! The essay needs to be balanced with for and against arguements and the giving of opinions backed up by reasons. Referring to model answers and working on «useful language» is helpful here Regarding the 4 areas to remember: these should really be a checklist: 1 Conntent: Does the answer include the 3 points required including one created by the candidate? Are all the points in the essay linked to the task? 2 Organisation – is the content organised so that the sentences and paragraphs connect in a logical way? Have you used a variety of words and phrases to link sentences and paragraphs, not just basic linking words like «but»? 3 Language: Have you used a range of language including less common vocabulary? Have you used some complex structures using linnking words and different tenses? Have you checked that the grammar and vocabulary is correct? 4 Communicative achievement – IS the style appropriately formal? Remember this is an essay! Have you communicated yoru ideas in an effective way. Will the reader of your essay understand all your arguements? TIP When students write essays get them to work with a partner to discuss the content and the organisation and also to correct each other’s language errors.

Tips for the new tasks Writing part 2

• Read as widely as possible to increase vocab

• Consult articles, reviews, reports and letters in English-language newspapers

• 4 areas to remember:

1. Content

2. Organisation

3. Language

4. Communicative achievement

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As I mentioned before, both parts of the writing exam carry equal marks so it is important that students leave enough time to answer part 2! The first part of the tips here are suggestions to help students improve their wealth of vocabulary and awareness of the organisational structure of the various genres: reviews, reports, letters etc The 4 areas to remember are the same as for part 1 but with a slightly different perspective 1 Content – Have you included all the information required in the task and is the content relevant to the task? Do all the points relate clearly to the question’ 2 Organisation – as before:: Have you organised the piece in clear paragraphs and used a range of linking words beyond the simple ones like «but» 3 Language – as before: Is there a range of language, is the grammar and vocabulary correct. Have you used some complex structures using linking words and diferent tenses? 4 Communciative achievement – Here we are looking at format and style. Have you used the correct format (eg an article) and the correct style? (Formal/semi-formal)

Examples taken from Gold First & Gold First New Edition

Published 2012 100% new material For 2008 exam specs

Published 2014 Light update (& new components) For 2015 exam specs

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The examples that we have shown you in today’s webinar were taken from Gold First 2012 and the revised edition where we looked at spot the difference activities and also from

Examples taken from Cambridge English First Practice Tests Plus 2

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The revised Practice Tests Plus 2 for the New Cambridge Englsih First. If you would like to see more of our First preparation materials please contact your local agent or your locall ELT consultant at (show next slide)

http://pearson.it/english-consultants

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