Revised FCE and CAE exams 2015

… and above all, I shall do no harm.

Portugal 2014

Bob Obee

Professional Support Leader

Lesson Paths

Findings

• FCE and CAE in future

• over 70% of respondents wanted shorter exams

• a majority favoured a four paper format

• combined Reading and Use of English most favoured

• content should be suitable for study purposes, work/career advancement, as well as for general purposes

Summary of new FCE(fS) formatFCE and FCEfS from 2015

Paper/timing Content

Reading andUse of English75 min

Part 1 4-option MC clozePart 2 Open clozePart 3 Word formationPart 4 Key word transformationsPart 5 4-option multiple choicePart 6 Gapped textPart 7 Multiple matching

Writing80 min

Part 1 one compulsory question (essay)Part 2 one question from a choice of three (four for FCEfS). Set text option for FCEfS only

Listening40 min (approx.)

Part 1 3-option multiple choicePart 2 Sentence completionPart 3 Multiple matching Part 4 3-option multiple choice

Speaking14 min

Part 1 InterviewPart 2 Individual long turnsPart 3/4 Collaborative task and follow-up discussion

Total timing: 3 hours 29 minutes (current exam 3 hours 59 minutes)

Summary of new CAE formatCAE from 2015

Paper/timing Content

Reading andUse of English90 min

Part 1 4-option MC clozePart 2 Open clozePart 3 Word formationPart 4 Key word transformationsPart 5 4-option multiple choicePart 6 Cross-text multiple matchingPart 7 Gapped textPart 8 Multiple matching

Writing90 min

Part 1 one compulsory question (essay)Part 2 one question from a choice of three. No set text option

Listening40 min (approx.)

Part 1 3-option multiple choicePart 2 Sentence completionPart 3 4-option multiple choice Part 4 Multiple matching

Speaking15 min

Part 1 InterviewPart 2 Individual long turnsPart 3/4 Collaborative task and follow-up discussion

Total timing: 3 hours 55 minutes (current exam 4 hours 40 minutes)

FCE(fS) and CAE Reading and Use of English

• Summary of main changes

• all current FCE(fS), and most current CAE R and UE tasks retained in shortened formats (current CAE R short texts and CAE UE gapped sentences tasks dropped)

• new cross-text multiple matching task developed for CAE, enhancing the academic coverage of the test

• UE tasks before R tasks in the new format

• progression from FCE to CPE clearer

New CAE Reading task

• Four reviews of a book.

• A

• B

• C

• C

• Which reviewer

37 has a different view from the others on the confidence with which Botton discusses architecture

38 shares reviewer B’s opinion of the significance of Botton’s book

FCE(fS) and CAE Writing

• Summary of main changes

• both FCE(fS) and CAE to include new compulsory essay in Part 1

• FCEfS to include a modified ‘story’ task in Part 2, while the ‘report’ as an output text type has been dropped. There will be a single set text included, rather than the current two.

• FCE will retain the ‘report’ text type, but will not include the story. There will be no set text option.

• CAE Part 2 will no longer include ‘article’ or ‘information sheet’ as output text types. There will be no set text option.

• the output word ranges have been increased for both exams

• Writing Part 1 question

FCE Part 1 Writing question

• In your English class you have been talking about education. Now your teacher has asked you to write an essay for homework.

• Write your essay using all the notes and giving your point of view.

• Some parents teach their children at home rather than sending them to school. Is this a good or a bad thing for the children ?

• Write about • - Having a teacher as a parent• - making friends• - ___________ your own ideas.•

• Modified Speaking Part 3 Task

FCE(fS) and CAE Speaking• Summary of main changes

• FCE(fS) and CAE Part 1 Phase 2 modified to reduce the number of follow up questions. FCE(fS) includes 12 questions grouped in three categories. CAE includes eight discrete questions. Part 1 timing reduced by one minute

• FCE(fS) Part 2 the ‘listening candidate question’ (LCQ) has been extended slightly to allow for a more meaningful contribution from the listening candidate (similar to CAE)

• FCE(fS) and CAE Part 3 visuals replaced with written prompts. Task now split into two to include a discussion phase and a decision-making phase

• FCE(fS) and CAE Part 4 timing extended by one minute

• Modified Speaking Part 3 Task

CAE Part 3 extract

CAE Part 3

Impact on teaching

• Writing : • study / academic focus [discursivity]

•

Common Scale of Writing B2

Common scale of Writing C1

Essay Writing : The mechanics of discursive English

• I’d first like you to read something for me :

• A feature article for Time magazine written by Al Gore

Perfect Essay• Respect the Land When we consider a subject as sweeping as the environment, we often focus on its most tangible aspects - the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we put on the table. Those things are critically important. But to me theenvironment is also about something less tangible, though no less important. It is about our sense of community - the obligation we have to each other, and tofuture generations, to safeguard God’s earth.

Those are values I learned firsthand, as a young boy on my family’s farm in Tennessee. We didn’t call it environmentalism back then; it was simply common sense. My earliest environmental lessons came from our efforts to stop soil erosion - by stopping the formation of gullies that would wash away the vital topsoil on which our farm depended. Large farmers who leased their land for short-term profits didn’t worry about soil erosion at the time: that’s one of the reasons three hectares of prime topsoil floats past Memphis every hour, washed away for good.

As a teenager, I learned that such short-term thinking was causing even more serious problems. One of the books we discussed around our family table was Rachel Carson’s classic Silent Spring, about pesticide abuse. As it did for millions around the world, Carson’s book helped awaken in me that our planet’s life is too precious to squander. Today, the threats to our environment are even clearer to see – and much greater in scope and number. We live in a world where climate change, deforestation, holes in the ozone layer and air pollution are growing sources of concern. Our challenge is to find new ways to address those problems by reaching back to our oldest values of community and responsibility - by inspiring a greater respect for the land and resources we share. • • If we are to protect and preserve the environment on a global scale we must all do • our part, as nations, as families and as individuals. The need for awareness has never • been greater, and the opportunity for us to make a difference is just as great. If we • practice and teach the right kind of care and commitment for the environment it will • continue not only to bring us its natural gifts, but also to bring us together.

Is it the Perfect Essay ?

• Did it have lots of discourse markers / linkers In addition to the fact that .., Moreover .. ?

• Did it have lofty gambits like : • It is incontestably true that ... ?

• So what was the glue that held it all together and allowed to develop / flow ?

Conjunctivitis

and above all I shall do no harm

Lexicalise the links

• We can’t say in English : ‘one big therefore’ or ‘two other serious therefores’

• We can say : • This leads/has led to • This can impact on • As a direct result, economies

• But

Perfect Essay• Respect the Land

• When we consider a subject as sweeping as the environment, we often focus on its most

tangible aspects - the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we put on the table. Those

things are critically important. But to me the environment is also about something less tangible, though no less important. It is about our sense of community - the obligation we have to each

other, and to future generations, to safeguard God’s earth.

• Those are values I learned firsthand, as a young boy on my family’s farm in Tennessee. We

didn’t call it environmentalism back then; it was simply common sense. My earliest

environmental lessons came from our efforts to stop soil erosion - by stopping the formation of gullies that would wash away the vital topsoil on which our farm depended. Large farmers who leased their land for short-term profits didn’t worry about soil erosion at the time: that’s one of the reasons three hectares of prime topsoil floats past Memphis every hour, washed away for good.

• •

PunctuationWhich 4 have ‘extensive’ meaning making potential in discursive writing ?

• ! . , ’ “ ? ; : -

•

• dash• full-stop

inverted comma

• colon• comma • semi-colon • question mark• exclamation mark • apostrophe

• 1 The problems of pollution, deforestation and managing waste are low government priorities.

• 2 The truth is simple : economic needs are put before environmental ones every time.

• 3 Coastal areas should – or rather must – make use of tidal energy.

• 4 Some foods given green labels have been produced in an eco-friendly way ; others have not.

• 5 Rainforests must be preserved at all costs : they act as the lungs of the earth.

• 6 Poverty and greed, the results of modern economic policy, are the twin causes of environmental destruction.

• 7 Our parents generation has known about climate change for twenty years and done nothing. It’s shameful !

• 8 We need to be careful when using the term : ‘blame’.

• 9 Nuclear power has never had the public’s

trust – nor is it ever likely to.

• 10 If humanity has a future, it logically has to be a renewable one

such each this these neither their the other its both

both they so it here do this did

The graph shows how people in five different European countries spent TV/media viewing time in terms of live TV, social media, internet video streaming, on-demand TV and downloaded internet video in 2010. of countries show quite different patterns of viewing behaviour across the range of media Live TV was the most popular form of viewing in all counties except Sweden. , figures for social media applications and live video streaming were much higher. suggests that live TV is becoming less relevant for population and is likely to become even more in the future. The French as a nation watched the most live TV. is perhaps partly explained by the fact that watched so little on-demand TV compared to countries where presumably is more widely available or is considered better value, or .

Impact on teaching

• Writing : [discursivity]

• we will probably want to emphasise paragaph shape and paragraph development more

Paragraph Development

Coherence : putting it togetherMain ideas Shameful lack of government investment in research.  

Renewable energy is a security as well as an environmental issue.   Fossil fuel resources are rapidly depleting.  

Language for developing ideas cause and effectThis leads/has led to This can impact on As a direct result, economies explanationThis is obvious if you consider…What this means in reality is ..Thus, today ….Such problems have been made worse  evidenceOne /another example of this is …..Approximately/Only around 10 % It is estimated that …You only have to look ….

Impact on teaching

• Speaking [discursivity]

• we will probably want to emphasise turn shape and turn development more

CAE Part 3

Turn shape

• Focusing :

• Extending :

• Rounding Off :

Focusing

• My parents would say..

• Most school-leavers…

• ..I think this one is very different for men and women…

• In the past …

• For me, personally..

• What’s crucial here …

CAE Part 3

A good Part 3 candidate will..

• actively listen …• support and comment ….• seek and help to clarify• initiate and respond …• probe and question ….• help navigate …..

• …….. agreeing / disagreeing …. tend to seek closure

Encourage simple ‘across turn’ strategies for development in Parts 3 and 4

• Across turn

• …And ….But ….That’s

Cambridge English on You Tube

Speaking tests

Teacher Support websitefree resources for the classroom

www.teachers.cambridgeenglish.org

FCE, FCE for Schools and CAE from 2015