Teaching reading for first certificate
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This document provides an overview of strategies for teaching reading for the First Certificate exam. It discusses analyzing texts in parts 1, 2 and 3 and encouraging predictive exercises. Tips are provided like focusing on referents, using memory tricks and having students rephrase questions. The document also addresses encouraging extensive reading, upcoming exam changes and references for further reading.
Teaching reading for first certificate
- 1. .teaching reading for first certificate
- 2. .resources > For sample exams used in this presentation consult: - FCE teacher’s handbook For Reading part 1 and 2 sample papers. -FCE for schools teacher’s handbook For Reading part 3 sample paper.
- 3. .content s .introduction .exam outline .analysis + strategy for part 1 .analysis + strategy for part 2 - break – .analysis + strategy for part 3 .encouraging reading .changes to the exam .references and further support .q&a
- 4. .did you know? >Did you know? A native English adult speaker is said to have a vocabulary of between 20,000–35,000 words.
- 5. .introductio n task - first put the sentences in order. -then talk to a partner about the words which helped you. >Did you know? The word text comes from the Latin textere, meaning to weave.
- 6. .introductio n task 1. My name is Chris and I’m from Manchester. 2. I went to school there and later went to university in Newcastle. 3. I studied Linguistics there. 4. On graduating, I came to work as a teacher in Spain. 5. I’ve been doing this now for about 5 years. 6. As for FCE, I’ve been teaching it since I started. 7. I find it interesting and it’s my favourite exam to teach. 8. I hope you find today’s session useful. 9. If you do, please let us know!
- 7. .introductio n quiz 1. How many parts are there to the Reading paper? 2. How long should students spend on each part? 3. What’s the answer sheet? 4. How are marks weighted? 5. In which part of the exam might students read part of a novel? 6. Which part of the reading is said to ‘help distinguish between strong and weak candidates’? 7. In which part of the exam is an understanding of grammatical and lexical referencing most useful? 8. In which part of the exam do students need to recognise different attitudes and opinions? 9. What will happen to the FCE Reading exam in 2015? 10. What’s your experience of teaching FCE? How do you currently teach Reading?
- 8. .introduction >englishprofile.org - a free resource for teachers - identifies level at which word tends to be encountered
- 10. .introduction
- 11. .introduction task: b1 and b2? - match the descriptors with the level
- 12. .introduction
- 13. .introduction >Did you know? For the PET exam there is a vocabulary list available through Cambridge. There isn’t one for FCE (yet).
- 14. .overview
- 15. .overview >Did you know? 500 – 600 hours of guided learning hours are said to be necessary to attain a B2 level of language. Introductory Guide to CEFR, CEP.
- 16. .overview
- 17. .overview
- 19. >strategy prediction > skimming > locating and justifying > analysis >expert’s view Ask learners to guess the context after initial exposure Thornbury, Introduction to Discourse
- 22. >notes - get students to read the 1st question highlighting any key words - read the 1st paragraph, find the answer, highlight it and justify it
- 27. >task - look at one of the questions – find the answer and think about how you could help you students when you feedback. - give them a time limit
- 35. >ideas for the classroom - answer sheets - language analysis - predictive exercises
- 36. >answer sheets - get students used to exam format - pencils - a record of students’ progress
- 37. >language analysis - choose a difficult or interesting part of the text and analyse it - get students noticing things - identify gaps in their knowledge
- 38. >expert’s view For students to become better readers in English knowing vocabulary and how sentences are formed in English is more useful than practising reading skills. Walter & Swan
- 39. >language analysis e.g. Look at the text from the reading. Identify the verbs.
- 40. >language analysis - Classify them. Do you notice anything?
- 41. >language analysis - There’s lots of narrative tenses (e.g. past simple, past perfect). Now tell them they’ll have to remember the verbs.
- 42. >language analysis - Was it easy? Any ideas for productive tasks following this? - What other aspects of language might be interesting to focus on?
- 43. >conclusion Draw attention to, and categorise the features that bind texts together. Then, encourage learners to reproduce them in their own texts Thornbury, Introduction to Discourse
- 45. Cohesion, is the surface feature of texts, independent of the reader. Coherence results from interaction between the reader and the text. Beyond the sentence, Thornbury
- 48. strategy prediction > key words > focus on the ‘before and after’ > review > analysis
- 49. strategy prediction > key words > focus on the ‘before and after’ > review > analysis >notes - what questions might you ask learners here? What kind of predictive exercises can you think of?
- 50. strategy prediction > key words > focus on the ‘before and after’ > review > analysis >notes - what questions might you ask learners here? suggestions: What do you know about…?, Have you ever…?, Why do people…?
- 51. expert’s view It often pays to focus initially on the first sentence of a text, eg. by writing it on the board, dictating it, or having a student read it aloud, and to ‘unpack’ it, before going onto the rest of the text. Beyond the sentence, Thornbury.
- 52. strategy prediction > key words > focus on the ‘before and after’ > review > analysis
- 53. strategy prediction > key words > focus on the ‘before and after’ > review > analysis >suggestions - Has Anna always been a mountain biker? How would you describe the speed of her progress? Is she the best?
- 55. strategy prediction > key words > focus on the ‘before and after’ > review > analysis >notes - what would you focus learners on here?
- 56. strategy prediction > key words > focus on the ‘before and after’ > review > analysis >suggestion - repetition of word race, it meaning ‘race’ and the lack of success is probably going to be elaborated on
- 57. strategy prediction > key words > focus on the ‘before and after’ > review > analysis
- 58. > F is the answer. > notes - pronouns are consistent - not succeeding and finishing last are synonymous - ‘it’ is again used to refer to the race.
- 59. > Following this strategy, work out the answer to the remaining questions and think about how you could help students when feeding back.
- 60. > notes - clear linking between though and in fact. - contrast between stardom/glamour and putting up tents/muddy fields.
- 61. > notes - reader’s question is answered.
- 62. > notes - getting hurt is contrast with quickly learning - words in the same lexical set
- 63. > notes - consistency in tenses and ideas - words in the same lexical set
- 64. > notes - a race is contrast with practice sessions - words in the same lexical set (*this time it wasn’t as helpful)
- 65. > notes - contradiction of previous idea then elaborated - words in the same lexical set (*this time it wasn’t as helpful)
- 66. > ideas for the classroom - focus on referents and their use - memory tricks
- 67. focus on it - choose some sentences from the text and isolate them. Can you remember the context? What do you think it refers to? What’s missing that you need to make sense of these phrases? ‘It wasn’t an amazing success.’ ‘I say, ‘Yes it is, and I love it.’ ‘However, you quickly learn how to do it so as not to hurt yourself.’
- 68. focus on it Is it easier now? Why? My first race was in 1995. It wasn’t an amazing success. People ask me if downhill racing is scary. ‘I say, ‘Yes it is, and I love it.’ I’ve fallen off more times that I can to remember. However, you quickly learn how to do it so as not to hurt yourself.’
- 69. focus on it Is it easier now? Why? My first race was in 1995. It wasn’t an amazing success. it replace the noun phrase ‘my first race’ People ask me if downhill racing is scary. ‘I say, ‘Yes it is, and I love it.’ it replaces a noun phrase downhill racing and answers the indirectly posed question, ‘Is downhill racing scary? Yes, it is. I’ve fallen off more times that I can to remember. However, you quickly learn how to do it so as not to hurt yourself.’ it replaces the idea of ‘falling off’ (in this case the verb phrase ‘I’ve fallen off’)
- 70. focus on it Now give them a productive task. For instance, rewrite the sentence to which it refers using your own ideas __________________________. It wasn’t an amazing success. __________________________. ‘I say, ‘Yes it is, and I love it.’ __________________________. However, you quickly learn how to do it so as not to hurt yourself.’
- 71. focus on it Now give them a productive task. For instance, rewrite the sentence to which it refers using your own ideas. I tried to make a pizza last night. It wasn’t an amazing success. ‘Is that your dog?’, they always ask. ‘I say, ‘Yes it is, and I love it.’ Opening a bottle with your teeth is dangerous. However, you quickly learn how to do it so as not to hurt yourself.’
- 72. focus on it Now get them to swap and identify the referents in their partner’s examples.
- 73. focus on it My focus was on it but you could just as usefully choose other aspects of discourse. What else might be useful?
- 74. memory tricks Come back to your exercise at the end of the class. Can you students remember the sentences that came before or after?
- 75. memory tricks
- 76. memory tricks >notes - too hard? help them. I, w, a, a, s…
- 77. memory tricks >notes - too hard? help them. I, w, a, a, s…
- 78. memory tricks Now can you remember the missing sentence? >notes - focus them on the important things. e.g. What phrase associated with success was used?
- 79. memory tricks Now can you remember the missing sentence? >notes - encourage them to notice other interesting features of language. e.g. when you use after, what form is the verb? What else do you notice?
- 81. strategy prediction > key words > skimming> justifying > analysis
- 82. >notes - what questions might you ask learners here?
- 84. >notes - how can you help activate schema here? - can you pre-empt any student problems?
- 85. >notes - look through the questions – can you anticipate any problems with language? - then find the answers to your designated questions and justify your answers. How would you explain this to students?
- 87. 16
- 89. 17
- 94. tip monitor students doing the exercise. If they struggle with one, help them make a decision by narrowing it down.
- 95. or
- 97. > ideas for the classroom - rephrasing task - text F - skimming race
- 98. rephrasing task - show students some questions again. Based on their readings, can they rephrase them? ‘they realised it would be difficult to change the band’s image.’ ‘they nearly lost the opportunity to stay in the band.’ ‘they can’t imagine giving up making music.’
- 99. rephrasing task - show students some questions again. Based on their readings, can they rephrase them? ‘they realised it would be difficult to change the band’s image.’ e.g. they knew finding a new image wouldn’t be easy ‘they nearly lost the opportunity to stay in the band.’ e.g. they were almost kicked out of the group. ‘they can’t imagine giving up making music.’ e.g. they wouldn’t know what to do without music. - what language would you draw attention to here?
- 100. rephrasing task >notes -task contains lots of 2nd conditional examples -uses they as a gender neutral pronoun -typical phrasal verbs like give up and kick out of -noun/verb collocations like ‘make music’ >summary - encourage students to notice these things themselves
- 101. text F -ask students to write text F, based on their own experiences and which encompasses one or more of the ideas in the questions.
- 102. text F -here is an example. what level is the student who wrote it?
- 103. skimming race - put the texts on the walls and make a copy of the questions for each pair/group. Cut them up and put them into piles. Give students the first one, they find the answer quickly and when they return with the right answer you give them the next question.
- 104. .encouraging reading The most valuable preparation is to ensure that students read a wide range of texts both in class and at home. FCE Teacher´s handbook
- 105. .encouraging reading class book club - choose a range of graded readers appropriate to class level - ask students to read the synopsis and the first page and make a decision together about which book to read. Bear in mind the following: For extensive reading to be beneficial to students at lower levels, texts need to be simplified. This means that around 98% of the vocabulary in the text should be familiar. Hu & Nation
- 106. .changes for 2015
- 107. .changes for 2015
- 108. .changes for 2015 > summary - doesn’t affect the way we teach reading - focuses on the close link between grammar, vocabulary and overall reading ability - for more on changes go to cambridgeenglish.org - we will run a seminar on (date) about changes to exam structure
- 109. .further reading >thanks to - Beyond the Sentence, Scott Thornbury - Extensive Reading, Silvana Richardson (Cambridge English Teacher) - Teaching reading skills: mostly a waste of time? Walter & Swan (link) - Introductory guide to the CEFR for language teachers, CEP (link) - Extensive reading activities for teaching language, Bamford & Jay
- 110. .online >check out - englishprofile.org Searchable database of vocabulary showing level at which students know it -testyourvocab.com Interesting test for students to gauge their level -cambridgeenglishteacher.org Great resource for all matters related to teaching -sporcle.com quiz on 100 most common words