Cambridge English Examinations: Speaking Test

As another example, I would like to mention the speaking part of the Cambridge tests. In part 3 of the First Certificate of English (FCE), the two students are asked to talk together for three minutes given some specific questions and picture prompts.

Students are graded by two oral examiners, one is an interlocuter and the other one is not interacting, but is concentrating only on grading. What I think is good about this format of the test is that for the grading, there is a rubric based on the elements of grammar and vocabulary, discourse management, pronunciation, and interactive communication. I searched a good deal on the internet, but was unfortunately unable to find the exact scoring rubric. However, Cambridge does provide a description of the assessment criteria of the four aforementioned areas.

I have served as a Cambridge oral examiner for one day so far here in Honolulu, which was an interesting experience, but unfortunately I do not have room to explain about it here. There is a mention of Cambridge’s policy on Varieties of English in the Introduction to their introduction to FCE handbook, which states:

Candidates’ responses to tasks in the Cambridge ESOL examinations are acceptable in varieties of English, which would enable candidates to function in the widest range of international contexts. Candidates are expected to use a particular variety with some consistency in areas such as spelling, and not for example switch from using a British spelling of a word to an American spelling of the same word in the same written response to a given task.

An examination of this policy and the Cambridge test could easily be enough to discuss in a thesis, but I just wanted to point out their stated policy to accept varieties of English. In a way, I think this portion of the test is good because it tests students’ communicative ability in some ways as they speak together about pictures to answer questions and reach a decision. But this situation is stilted because these candidates have practiced for this test, there are two examiners there, and the results of this test are possibly very important for their futures. Students are probably trying to conform to the English that they think is acceptable to Cambridge in attempt to score the best they can. In this way, they are still suffering from linguistic imperialism, but the communicative aspect of the test seems like a good idea to me. Hopefully in the future Euro-English teaching material and assessment can be better than this, but something that is very complex and will undoubtedly take years to develop and implement.

Are students prepared for an exam such as Cambridge, TOEFL, or TOEIC? For example, from what I understood, one of my students from Korea said attaining a certain score on the TOEIC is important in her country to get a promotion. Are they preparing for a university entrance exam?

Are they applying to a job which requires competence in English? Once admitted, to the university or job, in what capacity will they need to use English? Is the attainment of a good score their goal? How will their performance on this test affect their future? i.e. will they be admitted to a university of hired for a job where English competence is required? What skills will they be using? With whom will they be communicating? A slew of questions, but they are important to consider.

A. Pros

a. Insert info references from H. Murray’s paper (and other papers, too)

b. Afterall, isn’t communication the key?

c. Important to consider the needs of student.

B. Cons

a. It is very challenging to change things, traditions. That is not to say that it is impossible or bad to change. Changes are often needed, but it will be a challenge and will take a long time. Some will probably resist changing.

b. Some supporters of EFL suggest that native speakers of English also readjust, such as not pronounced the weak form to using schwa, and trying to avoid using idiomatic language that English language learners would not be able to understand.

As an English language teacher, I usually try to adjust my speech so listeners can understand me. However I do not think all native speakers of English are willing to adjust. Some may be stubborn and think only the other person should adjust to them. Then again, a person like that may not travel as much and with such a narrow-minded point of view, they would not be able to communicate with as many people as a more cooperative communicator.

c. Since native speakers of English have traditionally been the authority of what is acceptable and unacceptable usage in English, they may be unwilling to accept the new breeds of Englishes.

d. Although newly trained teachers may be supportive of ELF, others in the world who are unaware of recent developments may not be willing or able to understand the ELLs in their version of English. Traditionalists may still try to correct them or think they are making errors.

e. It will take a long time and much struggle to make changes in curriculum, assessment, awareness, acceptability, and policy.

Conclusion:

In summary, this paper focused on the issue of traditional ‘standards’ in English teaching and learning in Switzerland and presented a case showing some arguments for and against the introduction of Euro-English as a new model. After presenting my teaching experience in Switzerland combined with research from leaders in the field, I conclude with my opinion that proponents of Euro-English should continue their research projects and ELF documentation to strengthen their case. Although it takes time to change old traditions, with a substantial argument such as this, I believe they will gradually be able to make people more aware of this issue. However, I think it will take a long time and much effort to change textbooks, testing, and people’s mindsets. I think some will accept the motion for Euro-English while some traditionalists may never change.

 

Instruction: Don’t borrow anything fromMercia Mcneil’s summary above. Your summary should look like this: The title of the article and the name of the author; your overview or an introductory paragraph (the introduction); the single sentences summarising the main ideas, with the key facts or figures that support the ideas. You'll need to organise all the information in the most logical way. You might also have repeated ideas or details that you'll need to delete.

Don't forget to include linking words so your reader can easily follow your thoughts. This will help your summary flow better, and help you avoid writing short sentences without any connection between them.

 

Tips for writing a summary:

1. First, read the text or article to get a general idea of the subject matter as well as the author's attitude.

2. Then read through a second time to identify the main points – either paragraph by paragraph, or heading by heading / sub-heading.

Identify the topic sentences. These are usually the first sentences of each paragraph. They give the main idea for the paragraph (with the following sentences supporting this main idea). Also look for the concluding sentence in the paragraph, as this often summarises the paragraph.

3. Now write the main idea of each paragraph (or section) in one sentence. Use your own words, rather than the author's words. This is important: if you copy what the author has written, you risk writing too much!

4. Start pulling out key facts or findings from the text which support the author's main idea (or ideas). You may need to either summarise these (if there are a lot of them) or decide which are the most important or relevant.

However, if you are summarising a number of sections of an article, start to look for common themes running through all the sections. Are the sections broadly in agreement, or do they have different points of view or findings? Choose only a few supporting details to illustrate similarity or contrast.

5. When you have written all your sentences, you should be able to get a good overview of the whole text. This overview can be your introduction to your summary. In your introduction, you'll also need to give the author's name and the title of the text you are summarising.

Important points to remember:

Don't copy the article. Instead, paraphrase. If you quote directly from the original text, use quotation marks. (Minimise how often you do this.) Don't give your opinion.

Edit what you write. Check your English grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes.