What kinds of texts are used in the Cambridge ESOL exams?

Texts are used right from the start!

At Starters, in Part 4 of the Reading and Writing Test, students read a text about an animal or a thing and have to choose 5 words to complete the 5 gaps in the text.  (The words all have pictures to show the meaning).

For example, in the text here, Starters candidates read a text about a horse.

How can we help students read texts?

We can show them a picture 

and ask them questions:

What’s this?  (a horse)

How many legs has a horse got?  (four)

Do horses live in houses?  (no!)

What do horses eat?   (grass, carrots, …)

What can horses do?  (run, jump)

Then, students can read the text through and find what it says about horses.

Why is this useful?

In real life, we use information like the title or pictures that appear with a text to predict what we are going to read about.

When we are looking through a newspaper or magazine, we might decide to read or not read an article because of these predictions.

As students move up the levels, the texts become longer and the tasks get more challenging.

This means that it is extremely important for our students to know the best way to start reading each text.  

 Watch this blog for ideas on encouraging students to use the best approach!

Did you know?

The way the text and the questions appear is a clue!  If the questions appear first (e.g. First Reading Part 3 or Advanced Reading Part 4), then students should glance through the questions BEFORE they read the text!