Cambridge English: Young Learners 2018 exam updates

Cambridge English has announced some changes for 2018 to keep Young Learners relevant to the evolving needs of learners and schools. A webinar has been provided on background information on the revision process before describing the small number of changes made to the question papers.

All three levels have changes to the question papers. For Starters: a new Part 1 Listening task means the same task type is present through all YLE exams but at the appropriate level for candidates; for the Reading and Writing, Part 1 now has both plural and singular nouns, and Part 4 has a semi-factual text instead of a riddle; for Speaking, previously there were few opportunities to speak so candidates are now asked for his or her name, and Part 1 is a conflation of old Parts of 1 and 2.

For Movers: drawing an item is dropped from Part 5 of Listening because candidates were concerned about their drawing skills, and there is also a new Listening Part 3 task that is the same as the Flyers Part 3; for Reading and Writing, the task order has been changed so that the easier tasks are earlier in the test, the total number of questions has been reduced to 35 down from 40, and the current Part 2 has been removed to allow for a new Part 6 extended writing task. For Speaking, candidates are asked their name and age, and the story now has a title and names of characters.

For Flyers: drawing an item has been dropped from Part 5 of Listening; for Reading and Writing, the task order has been changed, and part 2 has been removed to allow for the new Part 7 Writing task; for the Speaking, candidates are now asked for name, family name and age, and the Part 3 story task now has a title and names of characters.

Go www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSw8RjcHEbE&t=12s to watch the video.

Check your progress as a teacher using the Cambridge English Teaching Framework

Have you ever thought about your pathway goals as an English language teacher and how you can achieve them? With the Cambridge English Teaching Framework you can now determine what your current level is and where you can choose to go.

The Cambridge English Teaching Framework helps you identify which stage of teacher competency you are at: Foundation, Developing, Proficient or Expert. Each of these stages has five categories of teaching knowledge and skills: Learning and the Learner; Teaching, Learning and Assessment; Language Ability; Language Knowledge and Awareness for Teaching; and Professional Development and Values.

For each category, you can access a video describing it in some detail; read real-life examples of teachers from around the world; learn of ways to develop further, including videos to watch, and recommendations on books to read; and identify what actions you can take to further your skills and what professional qualifications you can gain.

Once you know your competency level, you can use the Teacher Development Tracker and take a 10-minute quiz to assess how far you have progressed. You can also download guides and templates including CPD record cards and development plans to help you to manage your own professional development and the development of teaching staff in your institution.

Go to www.cambridgeenglish.org/teaching-english/cambridge-english-teaching-framework/ to read more.

Cambridge offers free cloud-based automated writing anaylsis

Wouldn’t it be great if students’ essays could be marked automatically using a software program, and thus reduce the workload of teachers? This idea is close to being realised as Cambridge English has recently launched Write & Improve, a cloud-based program that analyses a student’s writing and gives feedback on vocabulary, spelling, grammar and writing style.

The student goes to the Write & Improve website and picks a topic which can be something as simple as writing a letter to a friend, or a harder task such as writing a descriptive essay on a student’s favourite possession. The student then submits the essay through the website and it is sent to the cloud which then processes the essay using an algorithm that assesses the quality of the student’s writing. The student is then able to get immediate feedback on the level of English and how to improve his or her writing.

The amazing feature of this service is that the more essays that are sent to the cloud, the better the service becomes because “it captures data and distills meaning from that”, according to Saul Nassé, Cambridge English Language Assessment chief executive, at the service’s launch held at the English Australia Conference in Hobart, Australia.

Cambridge English stress that the service is a “rich English resource” and is there to aid teachers as a supplementary service, but it cannot replace the vital work they do as marking still requires the human touch.

In the future, Write & Improve may include additional paid-for services.

Go to https://thepienews.com/news/cambridge-english-offers-free-writing-feedback-

online/ to read more.