developing receptive skills for exam success - etas · pdf filedeveloping receptive skills for...

Developing Receptive Skills for Exam Success

Rob Dean

Agenda: The problems with exams Cambridge Listening and Reading – what’s new? Strategies and activities for a selection of different task types Practice makes perfect

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1 The Trouble with exams

Unfamiliarity with task types

Fear of the unknown

Pressure to perform

A lot can depend on an exam

The Trouble with Exams…

Question 1

Correct the error in the sentence:

The girl were extremely intelligent.

The boy were extremely intelligent.

Question 2

Describe a member of your family.

Question 3

Write a sentence to show the meaning of the

word ‘organism’.

Help! Ongoing language and skills development. Exam practice. Training in exam strategy.

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2 Cambridge First Reading and listening – What’s changed?

Paper 1 Reading & Use of English 22 Questions (Reading)

30 Questions (Use of English) 1 hour 15

What’s changed for 2015?

Task content: no change

Paper 1 Reading

30 Questions 1 hour 2

01

4

20

15

Paper 3

Use of English 42 Questions

45 mins

Paper 3 Listening 30 questions

Approx 40 minutes

What’s changed for 2015?

Task content: no change

Paper 4 Listening 30 questions

approx 40 minutes 20

14

2

01

5

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3 Reading: Exam Strategies

What’s the Text About?

Gold First

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3a Reading Strategies – Multiple Choice

Multiple Choice – What’s being tested?

Detail, opinion, attitude,

exemplification, reference, tone,

purpose, main idea, implication…

In short, anything and everything!

Gold First

Go

ld F

irst

Types of Distractor

1.Not mentioned. Answers the question plausibly but does not relate to the text or recording.

2.Repeated words. Uses the same words but in a different context so they are not true.

3.New words. Uses new words that by implication may be associated with the text or recording but are untrue.

4.Rephrase / Paraphrase. Takes original language from the text / recording and rephrases it in a way that makes it untrue.

Go

ld F

irst

The Clues are in the Synonyms and Antonyms

cold

interesting

car

seldom / rarely

recently

remember

depart

buy

Reading Multiple Choice Strategies

Get Learners to:

• Develop awareness of synonyms / antonyms

• Always read the whole text before answering the questions

• Guess if unsure!

From Longman Matura Podstawowa, Extra Practice Material

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3b Reading Strategies – Multiple Matching

Go

ld F

irst

Go

ld F

irst

Multiple Matching – What’s being

tested?

Specific information, detail, opinion and

attitude

Gold First

The clues are in the lexical links!

A winter sport

A summer sport

A ball sport

A board game

Beginning with… S

Reading Multiple Matching Strategies

Get Learners to:

• Develop awareness of lexical links: superordinates and hyponyms

• Always read the whole text before answering the questions



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3c Reading Strategies: Gapped Text

Gapped Text – What’s being

tested?

Text structure: cohesion, coherence,

global meaning

Logical organisation

of related ideas in a

text

Mechanical linking and connections

in a text

Cohesion and coherence – what’s the difference?

coherence

cohesion

I like coffee. I drink them every day. I

don’t like tea.

I like coffee,

but I still haven’t found my missing i-

phone.

Cohesion and coherence – what’s the difference?

Coherent but not cohesive

Cohesive but not coherent

Text mapping

contrasting

exemplifying

Addition and Contrast

although but and in addition

however as well as whereas

Addition and Contrast

Although it was raining heavily,….

The flight was delayed, and in addition…

I spend most of my holidays

relaxing, whereas…

As well as earning insufficient money, teachers…

Linking Practice I know it will be hot during the day My school holidays last for two months during the summer I’m not sure about the nighttime temperatures Sleeping under canvas is very romantic I’m by no means an expert I have recently heard about attacks by bears during the night I love walking in the mountains In August I have arranged to go on holiday with a schoolfriend I have never done any climbing before I’m a keen photographer

Gapped Text: Strategies

Get students to: • ‘map’ the text and identify addition,

contrast, exemplifying, etc.

• recognise clues from linking words

• Become familiar with linking words and expressions

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4 Listening – some issues

…how is the listening skill different from the reading

skill?

In the classroom…

More stressful!..... Why?

• Perceived as ‘testing’

• Pace dictated by recording

• Speed of delivery

• Background noise

• Regional accents

• Lack of visual cues (paralinguistic features)

• THE TASKS WE SOMETIMES SET!!

The Trouble with Listening

A listening task

How could it be more student friendly?

• Speaker 6: What year was she born?

• Speaker 1: Who wants everything to be perfect?

• Speaker 3: Who does he go to the gym with?

• Speaker 4: How many close friends has she got?

• Speaker 2: Where’s the market?

A listening task

How could it be more student friendly?

Ways of helping learners with listening

1. Use an effective receptive skills procedure (gist task first then detailed)

2. Gear the TASK to the level of the students.

3. Pause the recording during the activity

4. Allow students to control the recording


1. Use an effective receptive skills procedure (gist task first then detailed)

2. Gear the TASK to the level of the students.

3. Pause the recording during the activity

4. Allow students to control the recording

5. Allow students to confer – encourage peer support

6. Keep task responses simple – avoid turning a listening activity into one focussing on writing.

7. Bring in the visual where possible (use DVD or Youtube)

8. Practise little and often

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5 Listening: Exam Strategies:

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5a Strategies: Multiple Choice

Part 1 Multiple Choice:

What’s being tested?

One of the following: main point, detail, purpose or location

of speech, relationship of

speakers, attitude or opinion of speakers

… not that they’re unfriendly…

I’d only ever bring up something related to the project that we’re working on.

… a lot more serious and focused…

There was so much gossip…

You hear an extract from a

radio play. Where is the conversation taking place?

… and now the other way round:

M: Can I help?

W: Yes, I’d like to be moved to the back so I’m not disturbed so much by the noise of the traffic.

M: Well it is the holiday period Madam, so we’re fully booked, and…

W: I appreciate that, but if I’d known how much noise there’s be, I would have gone somewhere else. I might as well put my bed on the motorway.

M: I’ll see what can be done. Would you like to take a seat in the bar while I have a word with the manager?

W: I’m just on my way to the dining room actually.

M: Very well madam.

You hear an extract from a radio play. Where is the

conversation taking place?

a) In a hotel reception

b) In a restaurant

c) In a motorway cafe

Listening Multiple Choice Strategies (Part 1)

Get Learners to:

• Develop awareness of synonyms / antonyms and lexical links

• Underline key words before answering the questions



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5b Strategies: Sentence Completion

Sentence completion:

What’s being tested?

Specific information, detail, stated

opinion

Using reading / thinking time

profitably

What can we predict about the missing word(s)?

The use of dictogloss is well documented in English Language teaching methodology,

The use of dictogloss is well documented in English Language teaching methodology, and it is a useful tool for exam strategy training as well. This is because it trains students to note down key words only, and thus not become dispirited when they are unable to write everything down at once. They then have to recreate the text, ensuring that what they write is grammatically correct. Again, this is excellent training as, on occasion, the words that are heard have to be rewritten to ensure that the completed sentence makes grammatical sense. Clearly, this approach is based on old dictation methodology, but because it is old does not necessarily mean it is redundant.

Sentence Completion Strategies

Get Learners to:

• Use thinking time effectively – predict possible answers

• Make notes during the first listening; make corrections during second


• CHECK! CHECK! CHECK!


FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS

OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE

EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

Read the following sentence only once. How many letter F’s are

there?

There are 6

The materials

New! Now with

Practice makes Perfect

Thank You

[email protected] www.pearsonelt.com

developing receptive skills for exam success - etas · pdf filedeveloping receptive skills for...

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