Sunday Thoughts

I've just been examining this afternoon, the CAE exam. A few thoughts that may be handy. The listening part of the Cambridge had a few dodgy accents in it. Get some practice in with Australian and US accents, as well as UK regional and Irish. They vary a lot and it can be disconcerting to hear them for the first time in the exam itself.
The speaking: the less successful students were those with no ambition. FCE spoken English is not enough and will at best get you a C. Use the vocab and complex linking devices.
Good luck in June!

Think... and Blink

My Guys,

You've got until 20th March to sign up. I was looking at the list yesterday and many of you haven't. If you don't sign up now you'll have to wait until December. I'll warn you again in class this week.... it's your call.

On a similar subject...

I was working Saturday, invigilating the FCE exams and also being an Oral examiner. Some more points:
The Writing paper is to be written in pen. Not pencil. It says so on the front of the paper and I told the students but somehow the message did not get through. I can't see Cambridge docking marks because of this but it hardly shows you in a good light if you get simple instructions wrong. And again.... HANDWRITING! None of my guys took it yesterday. Which is good for me seeing such dreadfully formed letters dancing across the page.
The Listening Paper. You need to write your name on the question sheet as well as the answer sheet. I haven't mentioned this to you before (as I didn't know). I imagine it's so that if you appeal your mark it can be moderated.
The Use of English Paper. Some guys left this exam very early. Check, check and check again, but only change an answer if you are sure. Often your first answer is the best (read BLINK, by Malcolm Gladwell. It tells us that we know stuff when we have a hunch... we just don't know why we know stuff, and often we don't trust the stuff we know because we don't know the why... if you catch my drift).
The Reading Paper. I know the notes say 'please don't write on the exam paper'. But as there's no name on the question paper (unlike the Listening) I suggest you make notes, draw diagrams, use high-lighter pens. Anything that will help you get the answer right.
The Speaking. Fossilised errors really hurt marks. Nice vocab and good, appropriate fixed phrases saved a couple of students from lower marks. Exam technique and good preparation for the interview part of this exam will get weaker students through...
Good luck in May and June... and

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP!

Brrrrrrrrrrr. Cold!

Winter, winter, winter. I can't wait for the sun. Still, as we can't go outside because of all the rain we can stay in and study! On a previous blog I mentioned Ken Robinson's talk about education. I've been exploring the site a little more recently and it's a fantastic resource for students and teachers alike. There are lectures on every subject, often transcripts are available and it's interesting too. The talks are between 5 and 25 mins usually, and are nearly all very good to excellent. I particularly liked Jamie Oliver's talk on the Western Diet. So, great, interesting listening practice for free, which is good when it's too cold to go outside.
ted.com


ps. they are fanatastic for IELTS too, as well as CAE and CPE
TED talks are great!

Burbling Cockneys

Back to school... and the classes progress at a slightly easier pace. I like this time of the school year. We have tests in the middle of Feb, the end of our semester, but I've covered most of the material and so it's revision time, which the students don't mind so much if it comes in the form of games.
I've been thinking about the Cambridge exams and how the assessment of the students works and consider it not to be a level playing field in some respects. The speaking part of the exam is examined my local teachers who are examiners and are accustomed to the accents and foibles of the local language and I think tend to be more forgiving accordingly. The listening part of the exams have phoney accents (put on by the actors) with some frankly odd intonation and seems hardest for those taught by my US and Canadian colleagues, whose laconic drawl differs most from the delivery on the CDs Cambridge use. I had one nice comment from a student yesterday which made my evening (CAE level). He spent some of his Christmas hols in London with his parents (both of whom have the FCE). He said 'Dave! I am pleased I have you as my teacher because you speak so fast!'. I asked him to clarify what he meant. He said that because he was used to my delivery he could cope with the burbling cockneys he encountered, and had to translate for his folks, and so could show off!

Books in the Gym

I get bored very easily when I exercise. I find exercise boring. I have some very good friends who seem to love lifting those weights at the gym, doing those martial arts or pounding the pavements and get the rush off the second wind as the blood pumps etc etc.
Not me. But I have to work out otherwise I would turn into a big ball of lard. Not surprising considering my love for cheese, beer and pizza. Hmmmmmm, perhaps my diet doesn't help. Anyway, I DO go to the gym, a lot. How do I stave off the boredom?
Audiobooks. Talking Books. Books on Tape. Three of the most common names for those story tapes/CDs what have you that you can get for all the best novels written. And not only novels. There's nonfiction too. And podcasts. You name it and you can get it.
All of which are a marvelous resource for listening practice! They are all out there. Some available as torrents, often legally, so be good and watch people's copyrights etc. But remember to choose something you are interested in rather than something worthy, as you're more likely to listen to it all, and enjoy it more too.

Steven Pinker MP3 for listening practice. Brilliant

Here's a brilliant speech, excellent listening practice for CPE and good CAE students. I can't attach an mp3 but you can download it from the link below. Here's the blurb from the site and the link:

http://uc.princeton.edu/main/index.php/component/content/article/3330


Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.
Image

(Jun 5, 2008 at the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA))

Chair: Matthew Taylor, chief executive, RSA

For Steven Pinker, the brilliance of the mind lies in the way it uses just two processes to turn the finite building blocks of our language into infinite meanings. The first is metaphor: we take a concrete idea and use it as a stand-in for abstract thoughts. The second is combination: we combine ideas according to rules, like the syntactic rules of language, to create new thoughts out of old ones.

How can a choice of metaphors start a war, impeach a president, or win an election? How does a mind that evolved to think about rocks and plants and enemies think about love and physics and democracy? How do we control the amount of information that we absorb? And what good does this actually do us?

Join Steven Pinker as he tries to answer these questions and many more, unlocking the hidden workings of our thoughts, our emotions and our social relationships and showing us that language really can tell us unexpected and fascinating things about ourselves.

Please be advised that this audio MP3 file contains very strong language.

Under-Utilised Language Resource Available near YOU!

In your house I am certain that you have an under-utilised resource to help with your English language learning. I imagine that you have ten, twenty, thirty or even more of these. 'What are you talking about Dave?' I hear you cry. I am talking about DVDs.
If you're anything like me then you buy a DVD of a film you saw at the cinema and really liked or one that a friend said was good, watch it twice at the most, then stick it on the shelf to join the collection. Occasionally you lend them to friends... and that's it. What a waste. If English is not your first language you may have either been watching a dubbed version or watching a version with subtitles in your own language. No!!!!
By all means watch it the first time in your L1 (first language), but any subsequent viewings should be done in English. You have an exam to pass here, and a vital component part of that is listening. Often, but sadly not always, you have the option to have subtitles too. In English. Do that! If you have a choice go for the subtitles for the hearing impaired, as for some reason they often seem to be better and more accurate than regular subtitles. So, get the popcorn, sit back and watch your film. Enjoy, and all the while your brain picks up new language and helps absorb the language you already know all the more.

Cambridge Site Link and Dictionary.com

I've added a couple of very useful links below. You'll see the Cambridge site itself, from where you may download the handbooks which will give you an insight into the exams themselves, and also includes details about timing and what it actually is they are looking for in the tests when they are marking them. Particularly useful are the sample papers, whereby you can judge what you need to focus on to push your marks up and maybe bump your self up a grade or two at the same time.
I've also added a link to dictionary.com. It's very useful and you'll also notice sound links so you can hear the pronunciation of words. A note on pron and accents - Cambridge does like to mix these up a bit in the listening so try and familiarise yourself to as many accents as you can. Usually students find standard American easiest, because of the movies, TV etc, with standard British not far behind, but be aware that there are loads of accents out there, and that Cambridge does make use of them in its listening exams. So try and hear Scots, Irish, Australian, Canadian, Jamaican, Kiwi (New Zealand) accents whenever you can. That would be a good start!