The Cambridge ESOL Spain Seminar Team get coaching!

I got back to Cantabria from Madrid very late Friday night (even later than planned due to my flight being delayed - I finally got home at midnight!)  Still, the next day was Saturday, so I didn't have to run!!

The reason for my trip was to meet up with lots of the other members of the Spanish presenters team.  It's something we do every year at the start of our seminar programme, but October 2012 was going to be different.

This year we were going to be 'coached' by a trainer from Coaching y Comunicación.
Mónica Martín was our coach for the day.

Mónica

After introducing ourselves, (two new members of the team were with us too - welcome Cathy and Graham!) we shared ideas and experiences ......
and had a lot of fun, (as you can see from these photos!)

Sue, Katie, Rosie, Cathy

Katie & Helena

Mike & Caroline

Myself and Steve

Nick, Graham, Caroline 

Anne, Steve, Jane, Mike

We came up with lots of ideas and suggestions and thoughts.  In the photo above, Nick, Graham and Caroline were discussing and noting ideas for things to consider about the ideas and facts we want to present.

In my group, we were asked to talk about and write down important things to consider to ensure good communication with our audiences.

As usual, it was great to meet up with this great group of presenters, who also happen to be great people too!  

You can read about Rosie and Steve and one of their seminars on this blog in earlier posts.  We will be interviewing other members of the team for future posts.  Watch this space!

Right, let's go off and start communicating!!!!  Let's take our enthusiasm, empathy and energy and engage and empower our audiences!

Setting up a penfriend scheme with another school

When I was looking through some of the recent posts on the Cambridge ESOL South East Europe blog I told you about in my last post, I started reading about Cambridge English Penfriends.

I checked out the scheme on the Cambridge English Language Assessment website, and it looks very attractive.

Schools register to join the scheme, then Cambridge English puts two schools in touch.  The idea is that students at the two schools design and share cards on a theme.  (The current theme is Amazing Animals).

But why I am I trying to explain all these details, when the process is so well explained in the Cambridge ESOL penfriends leaflet!?

You never know, getting involved in this project may mean that like me, your students might form a lasting friendship with someone from another country.  I am still in contact with my French exchange partner, Genevieve - our friendship has lasted more than 30 years.

Last year, we met up again at her daughter's wedding!

A quick post about the Cambridge ESOL South East Europe Blog

I have just been looking through some of the posts on the Cambridge ESOL South East Europe blog.

There are so many interesting links and pieces of news on the blog, that I will be checking them out and no doubt sharing a few of them with you via this blog.

I have signed up to receive email alerts when new posts are added to the blog.  Anyone who is interested can do the same.

Correcting Writing on the Cambridge ESOL Support Forum

In my last post, I brought up the issue of what colour pen teachers choose to use for correcting written work.

I've been away for a few days, but wanted to come back to the subject of correction.

When catching up on emails, I was reading through the Cambridge ESOL Teacher Support Ezine and after following a link, I ended up reading the contributions to the debate about how best to correct writing.

Forum Index » Solving your Problems
Subject:  Correcting Writing

Messages: 134 
Offline 

Dear Colleague, I find teaching the essay, composition quite difficult, students do not seem to want to check their own compositions eagerly, they feel shy or uneasy, embarrassed with comments, do not want to evaluate their work. 

Do you have any hints or tips that can help encourage students to identify their writing errors? 

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 02/12/2011 11:52:46

Looking through the replies to this request for suggestions for encouraging students to identify their writing errors, I felt that some very useful advice was given (see here)
For example: using a correction code; giving students model answers to help them see what is needed and how to organise the content; correcting essays with the student present and discussing the mistakes; highlighting typical mistakes that students make so that they are aware of them.  


And last but not least, the fact that good language should be highlighted and not just errors!


As you are probably aware, Cambridge ESOL has recently updated all its Handbooks for the exams.

In the handbooks for Cambridge English: Key, Preliminary, First, Advanced and Proficiency, you can find the Assessment Scales used by Writing Examiners when assessing the answers to the different Writing tasks.  


The same areas are assessed in all five exams:


Four subscales are used:  Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation and Language.

Content focuses on how well the candidate has fulfilled the task, in other words if they have done what they were asked to do.

Communicative Achievement focuses on how appropriate the writing is for the task and whether the candidate has used the appropriate register.

Organisation focuses on the way the candidate puts together the piece of writing, in other words if it is logical and ordered.

Language focuses on vocabulary and grammar. This includes the range of language as well as how accurate it is.

Responses are marked on each subscale from 0 to 5.

In the Handbooks, model answers are given marks for each of these subscales. (I personally find that the fact the there is no longer one overall mark at the end of each sample makes the assessment very clear).
 Maybe one answer will contain very few mistakes and a wide range of language, but has omitted one of the content points.  Another sample answer may communicate the message but be full of spelling mistakes.

I find that making students aware of what the criteria for marking is helps tremendously.  Showing students that the skill of writing is much more than correct spelling, punctuation and grammar usually makes them think more about the message and content.  Demonstrating to them that if they use paragraphs and linkers and think about style and register, the message is clearer is an important step towards better writing skills.

Speaking tests

As I said in a recent post, we Cambridge ESOL Speaking Examiners are very busy at the moment.

For some examples of Cambridge ESOL speaking tests, you can visit the Research website.

And for some useful tips for the exam day, candidates can visit the Cambridge ESOL website here.

Good luck to all candidates and their teachers!!!

#CambExpBcn Rosie Burke: Songs and Games in the YL classroom

And today, I am delighted to have the chance to chat to Rosie Burke, another member of the Cambridge ESOL Presenters Team, who will be delivering the talk Songs and Games in the YL classroom – Spicing up your classes - without losing control! at The Cambridge Experience Barcelona , on Saturday 17th  March at CasaConvalescència UAB Campus.

Hello Rosie, why did you decide to go into English language Teaching? 

I went into English Language teaching just after training to be a secondary school teacher in 1977. 

I worked on an international summer camp near London and met a lot of students from all over Europe. Some of the teachers I worked with there were moving to Spain and I came with them, thinking that a year abroad would do me good.  And here I am, 35 years later. I started EFL with reel to reel tapes and a banda machine. I used to end every day with broken tapes and hands covered with ink.J  I have seen many changes over the years but I still love my job!!

Now I get the opportunity to travel and compare EFL in different countries and have recently visited Jordan and Brazil for work – methods can be very different but children are children wherever I go.

What is your talk about? 

Using games and songs in the young learner classroom and integrating them into every class as part of skills work while at the same time preparing the children to take a formal exam with ease.

Why do you think teachers should see your talk?

Teachers who come to this talk should go away with the idea that routines are important for primary school children – but there should still be a fun element in the class.  It is important that children use their target language in all aspects of the classroom as well as when  they are on task.  We will be looking at ideas to promote this among teachers as well as young learners.

What's your all-time top tip for English language teachers? 

Use lots of humour and positive motivation at all levels! Smile! :-) and keep up the enthusiasm.

Thanks Rosie! A pleasure... as usual!

Steve Hasler at #CambExpBcn - Cambridge English First for Schools: Speaking

Today I have the pleasure (and the time!)  to chat with my colleague Steve Hasler, member of the Cambridge ESOL Presenters Team, who will be delivering the talk Cambridge First for Schools: Speaking at the The Cambridge Experience Barcelona , next Saturday 17th of March at CasaConvalescència UAB Campus.

Steve Hasler at the Cambridge Experience Madrid 2011

* Steve, why did you decide to go into English language Teaching? 

No Damascus road experience and not even any real idea that I would make a career out of it. Back in the 1970s and early 80s Spain was a different place entirely. English Language Teaching chose you if you were “un nativo” and here for any length of time. Then came realization of how little I and almost everyone else at the time knew about the profession, so there was scope aplenty. 

Finally, a love of languages in general that ELT would let me pursue while I earned what was a surprisingly respectable salary for the time - all of 200 euro a month!

* What is your talk about? 

Cambridge First for Schools: Speaking and how to use the examination to encourage students to talk independently and to get more involved in their own learning process.

* Why do you think teachers will find your talk interesting/useful? 

I hope they’ll find it sets off a few ideas that are probably already waiting to be triggered. They should go away with a more positive idea of the examination and be more willing to embrace it not only as an assessment but also a teaching tool.

* What's your all-time top tip for English language teachers?

The more you learn about your students’ mother tongue and culture, they more they will want to learn about yours.

Thanks Steve! As usual, it has been great talking with you!

"Distraction in Listening" - Anne's talk at #TESOL2012

Hello Anne!

Forgive us (your colleagues from Cambridge ESOL) for "hacking" your blog! :-)

We have discovered that you are going to deliver a talk at TESOL 2012, which will take place in Deusto from 9th-11th of March, and we would like to know a little bit more about it.

Why did you decide to go into English language Teaching? 

I'd spent a year in France at a Primary school as a language assistant.  Loved it, so when I finished my degree, I came across to Spain for a year before going into international banking or marketing. Never became a banker or a marketer!!!

What is your talk about? 

My talk is about listening and distraction!  (The title says it all!)  

Why do you think teachers should see your talk?

Why do you think teachers will find your talk interesting/useful? What do you think teachers will get out of attending your session/talk? 

We will consider things that distract us when we are listening, how we can help our students overcome distractions when listening, recognise things in listening texts that can help steer them through a listening text, and last but not least, consider how distraction is used as a testing tool to check whether students can understand the listening texts used in the Cambridge ESOL exams.

I hope that the teachers who come to the talk will think about how they approach listening with their students and that they will find the tips and suggestions interesting, relevant and immediately usable!

What's your all-time top tip for English language teachers?

Inspire as much as you can while you teach!  That inspiration can continue even after your students have left the classroom.

 

Thanks Anne! Looking forward to see your talk! 

Anne's talk "Distraction in listening" will take place on Saturday 10th of March, 17.00 - Room 210

The provisional programme can be downloaded,  here.

English Profile

Today, Monday, as usual, I received an email from English Profile.

I hope that many of you are already familiar with this project and with the website.  If you aren't, I strongly recommend a visit.

Back in 2006, I was in Harrogate for the IATEFL conference, and was present at the cocktail launch to the teaching community of the English Profile project.  I have followed the developments and advances of the project ever since.  Various organisations are involved:  Cambridge ESOL, Cambridge University Press, the British Council, the University of Bedfordshire.


I have been subscribed to the  Word of the Week since it started.  As you can probably tell from my previous entry, I find the way language is used and how it changes fascinating.

Today's email brought an analysis of the word lead.

I always challenge myself to see what I can think of related to the Word of the Week before I click on the hyperlink to read about the word on the English Profile page.

Leap as a verb sprang to mind first - eg  He leapt at the chance to go and study abroad.

Also a noun - as in:  "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." 




As an image, being a dog owner, the following came to mind:



















When I checked and compared, I noticed that I hadn't thought of the adjective.

There was the adjective,  illustrated with both a dictionary example and an example by a student taking the Cambridge English: Preliminary exam.

 Learner example: It was Dave Grohl, the lead singer of Foo Fighters! Preliminary English Test; B1; Spanish




I thoroughly recommend you to subscribe to Word of the Week and to take advantage of this opportunity:

Subscribe for free to the A1-B2 version of the English Vocabulary Profile (for a limited time only)


If you do, you can search the database to find out about lots more words.


Enjoy!

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!