English Oral Proficiency Test for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
Oral
Excersise A
(20 marks)
Understand and answer
questions in English about
everyday situations
.
Excersise B
(20 marks)
Excersise C
(30 marks)
Excersise C
(30 marks)
Understand and answer general
questions in English about their
chosen subject of study in the
MTL
Speak in the form of a sustained
monologue for about a minute on
a subject from a list of topics
offered by the examiners
Candidates are expected to demonstrate
a wide range of grammatical forms and
vocabulary, respond for a suitable length,
with the appropriate pronunciation,
intonation and stress, according to the
context.
Compare, contrast, or speculate
about, one or two pictures
provided by the examiners
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
English Proficiency Test
Secondary
Sample Paper for the ORAL Test
Exercise A (20 marks):
Understand and answer questions in English about everyday situations
1.
Do you live on your own? If no, how different would your life be from how it is now if you
lived on your own or with a group of flatmates? If yes, how is your life different now to what
it was before?
2.
What do you do to manage your time well in life?
3.
Talk about some aspects of Maltese culture which you consider of worth.
4.
If you could study abroad, where would you study and why?
5.
Would you be at university if you did not have a stipend?
6.
If you were paying for your university degree, would this change your attitude to your studies
in any way?
7.
Do you feel you have any responsibilities towards the family you live with?
8.
Talk about the pros and cons of living on a small island.
9.
Why should we worry about global issues such as global warming, wars and famines, man-made
disasters, exploitation of the earth’s resources, which are happening in other parts of the world?
10. If we ignore politics, politicians will ignore us. Respond to this statement.
Exercise B (20 marks):
Understand and answer general questions about your chosen subject of study.
1.
What has attracted you to teaching?
2.
What is it that you like about your subject /s?
3.
If you could change something about your past schooling experiences, what would you
change?
4.
Do you think you will be teaching ………………… in the same way that you were taught it?
5.
What qualities must a teacher of …………………………… have in your opinion?
6.
What would you look forward to if you were accepted on this Master’s in Teaching and
Learning?
7.
Are there any role models in your life in relation to teaching?
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
Exercise C (30 marks):
Speak in the form of a sustained monologue for about a minute on a subject.
1. What I would change in my country if I could.
OR
2. Is it possible to be competent in two languages?
Exercise D (30 marks):
Compare and contrast these two pictures.
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
Test of English Proficiency for prospective secondary school teachers
Duration of Paper A – 45 minutes
Exercise A
(100 marks)
Identify and correct the mistakes
25 questions of 4 marks each
Candidates are expected to show
their knowledge of English by
correctly
identifying
and
correcting mistakes in 25 items
focussing on accuracy and
appropriacy
of
language,
including grammar, vocabulary,
syntax, spelling, and punctuation.
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
English Proficiency Test
Secondary
Sample Paper for the Written Paper A - 45 minutes
Section A (100 marks): Read the following conversation, underline the mistake in each numbered
section and write it correctly in the blank column. The mistake can be related to grammar,
vocabulary, sentence formation, spelling, and punctuation. Each correct answer is worth 4 marks.
Mrs B Could you tell me where is the Head
1.
teacher’s office please?
Mr A Yes of course, its the third door on the
2.
left.
Mrs B You are sure it’s there? I’ve looked at
3.
every door on this floor and the one
above.
Mr A Yes, I’m quite sure it’s there. Definately.
4.
Mrs B I taught it was in the old wing of the
5.
school building.
Mr A It use to be there, but they’ve moved it.
Now we have a seperate section for the
6.
7.
Administration.
Mrs B I see. I’ve come to speak to the Head
8.
about my 14 year-old daughter.
Mr A Oh. Is it about Rebecca whose in Form 2?
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
9.
Mrs B No, it’s about my other daughter, Clara,
10.
and the homeworks she’s been getting
wrong.
Infact, I was wondering if you could help
11.
too.
Mr A Unfortunatly, I am not one of Clara’s
12.
teachers this year. I do not know how
she’s getting on.
Mrs B I see. I’ll try and get some informations
13.
from the Head then. Maybe we could
speak to her teacher.
Mr A The student’s are all in class now and so
14.
are most of the teachers, but no harm in
trying.
Mrs B Yes, it’s worthed now that I’ve come all
15.
this way,
Tough I really should have phoned ahead.
16.
Mr A Hmm, yes, but perhaps you can ask the
17.
secretary and hope in a favourable reply.
Mrs B Than I had better go straight away. Now
18.
I need your help again…
Mr A For the secretary’s office? Actually, I was
19
searching her myself,
but she’s neither in her office or in the
20.
photocopying room.
Mrs B Oh dear, I think I had better come
/
/
another time.
I’ve been going around since half an hour.
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
21.
Mr A Look, here she comes now. I think she
/
/
was
helping the new receptionist to practice
22.
using the PABX system.
Ms C Hello! Are you waiting for me? It took
23.
me quiet
a long time and it was so hot because the
24.
air condition isn’t working
Mr A That’s alright. This is Mrs Borg a parent
and she’d like to speak to our Head.
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
25.
Duration of Written Paper B – 1 hour thirty minutes
Exercise
A
A reading comprehension task based on a
non-fictional, general interest text
Candidates will be tested
on their ability to
understand the purpose
of the text as a whole, as
well as at paragraph,
sentence, and word
level.
A writing task of around 300 words.
Candidates are expected to
demonstrate:
(100
marks)
Exercise
B
(100
marks)
Candidates will be tested on their ability to
write ONE of the following: (i) a reflective
piece in which they express their opinion and
/ or feelings about a topic related to
education; or (ii) a formal communication on
a stipulated topic and to a stipulated
audience.




accuracy and appropriacy
of language use,
coherence,
a wide range of
syntax, grammar, and
vocabulary.
accurate punctuation
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
English Proficiency Test
Secondary
Sample Paper for the Written Paper B – I hour 30 minutes
Exercise A (100 marks): Reading Comprehension text
Read the following article very carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Why do some countries respect their teachers more
than others?
Peter Dolton, author of the Global Teacher Status Index, which ranks the status of
teachers in different countries, shares his theories on what influences respect for
teachers
5
In the debate about how to improve educational standards, the role of teachers is
paramount. In fact, in recent years it's become a truism that attracting good quality
and well-qualified people into teaching is accepted as the essential prerequisite to
raising educational standards. In Finland and Singapore, teachers are recruited from
the most-qualified graduates, all with a second degree.
10
One obvious way these countries have attracted the best and brightest into teaching is
by paying them well. As I have established in my previous research, there is a
demonstrable link between the level of teachers' salaries in a country and their
educational track record. But the influence of teacher status – the social and cultural
forces that determine how much we respect teachers – are harder to measure.
15
However, it is vital that we try and do so since the cleverest graduates, in demand from
the best employers, will not want to join a profession that is publicly denigrated or
seen as a second-best option for graduates. Governments that are serious about
attracting the best people into teaching must look seriously at the status of teachers –
alongside other factors such as their salaries.
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
20
There have been many international comparisons of educational performance such as
the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). But teacher status has
never been examined in any comprehensive way. It's common for people to remember
a vanished age when teachers were respected, or feel that their own country alone has
stopped giving teachers the respect they deserve. But until now there has been very
25
little evidence to substantiate these perceptions.
The Varkey GEMS Foundation, aware of this gap, commissioned me to oversee
the 2013 Global Teacher Status Index, the first large-scale international comparison of
the status of teachers. Some 21,000 people were polled across 21 Asian, European,
South American and Middle Eastern countries with the same questions. To gauge the
30
social standing of teachers we asked people to rank teachers against other professions
such as doctors, lawyers and librarians. We asked a question that goes to the heart of
attitudes towards teachers: would you encourage your own child to become a teacher?
We also asked how much, in a fair world, a teacher should be paid. This survey
evidence was then condensed into the index, with rankings for each of the 21 countries
35
surveyed.
The results were not entirely predictable. Teachers had the highest status in China and
Greece and the lowest in Israel and Brazil. Most European countries including the UK
and the US ranked halfway down the index.
However, the UK came higher on the teacher status index than most other European
40
countries – including Finland – as well as other countries with a similar GDP per
capita such as Germany and France. Its secondary school teachers had the highest
status of every other European country polled. Like most other countries surveyed,
Britons were most likely to compare teachers to nurses and social workers and around
a quarter would encourage their child to become a teacher – which, though low, is a
45
higher proportion than German, France and Finland.
So why do the UK's teachers have a comparatively high status compared to other
European countries? This is hard to be definitive about but UK teachers do earn more
than in many European countries – including Italy, Portugal, Spain and France.
Secondly, UK education has focused heavily on targets in recent years so there is
50
general understanding in Britain that teaching has become a very demanding job.
Finally, the relative success of Britain compared to others in Europe could be more to
do with the unhappy mood of our neighbours. France and Germany have had intense
public debates about the quality of their education systems that may have adversely
affected the status of teachers. In both countries, after performing disappointingly in
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
55
the PISA rankings, there was a bout of national navel-gazing about education
standards that we haven't had in the UK.
In the UK, the status of head teachers was higher than in any other country. This is
perhaps because in the UK over the last few years we have had the phenomenon of the
'super head' and seen head teachers as agents of change in the education system. This
60
is different to the culture in other countries where head teachers are seen more as
administrators than pedagogical leaders.
In most countries surveyed there was a clear pecking order: head teachers were
respected most, followed by secondary school teachers and then primary school
teachers. (Though not in France, China, Turkey and the US – where primary school
65
teachers were respected more than their secondary school colleagues). In most
countries, the public felt that teachers should have higher salaries – though there were
exceptions. France, the US and Japan thought that they should be paid less.
At least half of all people polled supported performance-related pay for teachers. In
two thirds of the countries surveyed, teachers were most likely to be compared to
70
social workers. Interestingly, in the US teachers were most often compared to
librarians – perhaps because libraries are located next to schools in many middle
American towns. These comparisons show that there is a lot of progress to be made
before teachers are thought of in the same bracket as lawyers and doctors.
But the starkest differences were between Eastern countries and the West. Apart from
75
the sole exception of Greece, teachers in China, South Korea, Egypt, Turkey and
Singapore had a higher status than every country surveyed in Europe and the US.
In European countries, between 10 and 25% of people tended to think that pupils
respected teachers – compared to 75% in China. Fewer than 20% of Germans would
encourage their child to become a teacher compared to nearly 50% of Chinese people.
80
Out of all the countries surveyed, only Chinese people tended to compare teachers with
doctors. Here, cultural issues seem to be at work. Teaching is treated with reverence in
Asian societies – especially in China.
The findings also have an important message for governments in these times of
austerity. There is no clear link to be found between teacher status and pupil
85
outcomes. A large part of the reason for this is that occupational status is
indistinguishable from remuneration in some countries, whereas it is entirely distinct
from pay in other countries. The upshot of these findings is that governments cannot
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
expect that improving the status of teachers will lead to better pupil outcomes in the
absence of well-remunerated teachers.
90
Presenting teaching as a vocation whose rewards are to be had from social respect
alone is doomed to fail. There is no free lunch for governments that want teachers to
do more for less. However, this is not necessarily a straightforward demand to increase
the pay of all existing teachers. What we want is for many of our most able graduates
to enter the profession who will be able to get the best from pupils. We will only be
95
able to attract them if teaching is seen as both a highly paid and high-status profession.
My own view is that in the UK we won't improve the status of teachers unless teaching
is recognised as a profession. Lawyers and doctors have their own professional bodies
such as the Law Society and the General Medical Council. These organisations
represent their professions but also regulate the conduct of their members. If a doctor
100
is found to have compromised professional standards, the GMC can take sanctions
against them. These bodies are therefore respected by the public in a way that unions
are not, because they are seen as being on the side of the public.
Others will have different ideas for how to raise the status of teaching. By publishing
the 2013 Global Teacher Status Index, we hope to encourage such debates – from
105
education ministries to staff rooms – about how we bring about the transformation in
teacher status that the next generation need, and teachers themselves deserve.
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/oct/03/teacherrespect-status-global-survey
1.
2.
3.
In the first sentence, lines 1 – 3, a part of that sentence can be removed and what
remains will still be a complete sentence. Which part is this? (4 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
What can we conclude about the educational standards in Finland and Singapore? (2
marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
In what way is it harder to measure how much teachers are respected? (4 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
4.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
What could put people off from joining the teaching profession? (4 marks)
……………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
5.
Mark the following as True / False and give reasons for your answer. (4 marks each)
T /F
a) The author believes that teachers used to be more respected in the past.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
T /F
b) If salaries are increased, it will solve the problem of attracting the best graduates to
become teachers.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
T /F
c) 21000 teachers took part in the survey
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
T /F
d) The author was surprised at the findings of the survey.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
T /F
e) Teachers in the UK enjoy a good status because they are paid more.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
T /F
f) In some countries, teachers are not highly respected even though they are well paid.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
6. From lines 20 to 35 find words that match the following meanings: (14 marks)
a) thorough
……………………………….
b) gone
……………………………….
c) to back
……………………………….
d) supervise
……………………………….
e) measure
……………………………….
f) to grade
……………………………….
g) reduced
……………………………….
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
7.
Why does the author describe one of the survey questions (line 31) as going ‘to the
heart’? (4 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
8.
What ‘index’ is being referred to in line 36? (2 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
9.
Explain the seemingly mixed finding in lines 39 - 45 which say that UK teacher status
was higher than that in other countries, and then goes on to say that secondary school
teachers had the highest status. (6 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
10. Quote a word or phrase from the text which shows that the author thinks the intense
public debates France and Germany had were not very useful. (2 marks)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
11. What sort of targets could the author be referring to in line 49? (4 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
12. List the reasons the author proposes for the high status Britain’s teachers enjoy. (6
marks)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
13. What explanation does the author give for the high status accorded to teachers in
China? (4 marks)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
14.
If you did not previously know that China is in Asia, how would you have learnt that
from this article? (4 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
15. What effect could ‘times of austerity’ have on the status of teachers? (4 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
16. Which two factors, according to the author, are essential prerequisites if we wish to
raise educational standards? (4 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
17. What do the following refer to in the text? (6 marks)
18.
a) Line 101 - them
……………………………….
b) Line 102 - these
……………………………….
c) Line 102 - they
……………………………….
How do we know that although the author proposes his own idea for improving the
status of teachers, he does not feel this is the only way? (2 marks)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Exercise B (100 marks) – Writing
Maltese schools are becoming multinational and multicultural. What benefits can you
imagine this could have to a secondary school teacher?
Write between 300 and 320 words. You have enough space to plan your writing
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Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
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Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers
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Test of English Proficiency for Prospective Secondary School Teachers