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) format
FCE and FCEfS from 2015
Paper/timing
Content
Reading
and
Use of English
75 min
Part 1 4-option MC cloze
Part 2 Open cloze
Part 3 Word formation
Part 4 Key word transformations
Part 5 4-option multiple choice
Part 6 Gapped text
Part 7 Multiple matching
Writing
80 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
Listening
40 min (approx.)
Part 1 3-option multiple choice
Part 2 Sentence completion
Part 3 Multiple matching
Part 4 3-option multiple choice
Speaking
14 min
Part 1 Interview
Part 2 Individual long turns
Part 3/4 Collaborative task and follow-up discussion
Total timing: 3 hours 29 minutes (current exam 3 hours 59 minutes)
Summary of new CAE format
CAE from 2015
Paper/timing
Content
Reading
and
Use of English
90 min
Part 1 4-option MC cloze
Part 2 Open cloze
Part 3 Word formation
Part 4 Key word transformations
Part 5 4-option multiple choice
Part 6 Cross-text multiple matching
Part 7 Gapped text
Part 8 Multiple matching
Writing
90 min
Part 1 one compulsory question (essay)
Part 2 one question from a choice of three. No set text option
Listening
40 min (approx.)
Part 1 3-option multiple choice
Part 2 Sentence completion
Part 3 4-option multiple choice
Part 4 Multiple matching
Speaking
15 min
Part 1 Interview
Part 2 Individual long turns
Part 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.
• Which reviewer
• A
37 has a different view from the others on
the confidence with which Botton
discusses architecture
• B
38 shares reviewer B’s opinion of the
significance of Botton’s book
• C
• C
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
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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 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.
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.
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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 ?
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.
•
•
•
,
, 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
-which
by stopping the formation of gullies that would wash away the vital topsoil on
our farm depended. Large farmers who leased their land for short-term
Those are values I learned firsthand
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.
•
•
! . , ’
“ ? ;
:
-
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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 both they so it here do
their the other its both
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 together
Main ideas
Language for developing ideas
Shameful lack of government
investment in research.
cause and effect
This leads/has led to
This can impact on
As a direct result, economies
Renewable energy is a security as
well as an environmental issue.
explanation
This is obvious if you consider…
What this means in reality is ..
Thus, today ….
Such problems have been made worse
Fossil fuel resources are rapidly
depleting.
evidence
One /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..
• For me, personally..
• What’s crucial here …
• Most school-leavers…
• ..I think this one is
very different for men
and women…
• In the past …
CAE Part 3
A good Part 3 candidate will..
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•
•
•
•
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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 website
free resources for the classroom
www.teachers.cambridgeenglish.org
FCE, FCE for Schools and CAE from
2015