ACTIVITY 6

I am going to refer to the same C2 class I’ve referred to in the previous activities. This is an exam-oriented C2 level class. As I have mentioned before, there is no actual coursebook for the class apart from some C2 level testbooks I use in order to familiarize the students with the content of the exams they are taking at the end of the year. So, I am going to refer to one of the C2 tests I am using as what I call “introduction test” at the beginning of the year. This means a test that I use in order to explain to the students the format of the exam.

A.        The book is: Forget, M., Betsis, A., Succeed in ESB/UCLan Level C2 Practice Tests, Andrew Betsis ELT. The first activity of Practice Test 1 is a Listening Exercise comprised by three parts. The aim of the exercises is to assess the learners in terms of their listening ability. The first and second parts of the listening carry 10 questions all based on the same interview. In the third part there are three short dialogues on different subjects, for which the student has to answer 10 more questions. Though the listening exercises may be serving the purpose in terms of assessing the students’ ability to listen, but the truth is that in the first part of the listening the more familiar the student is with the subject of the interview, the easier it is for him/her to answer the questions even without listening to the actual interview. Are the parts if the listening sense making? Well, I’m not sure this is the purpose for which the specific book was designed. But, as I’m more often than not using the book to “introduce” different subjects to the students, I’d say using the interview on its own as a listening tool doesn’t actually make sense.

The second part of the test carries two one-page readings followed by multiple choice questions. The “problem” that appears in the first part of the listening where the more familiar someone is with the subject the easier it is for him to answer questions, makes its appearance once more. Again, this is a very static activity for which more often than not the students are advised to use a companion in order to make sense of the reading itself.

The Test proceeds with 20 multiple choice questions followed by an open close and a transformations exercise. All these are very static and overall non sense making and boring for the average teenager. At the end of the Test the students face the challenge of writing 350 words on one of the subjects discursive essays proposed to them.

B.        In general, though this first Practice Test is meant to test students on the C2 level I usually try to turn it into something more interesting. Regarding the listening part I usually introduce the subject to the students through a visual. The subjects of the C2 level exams are most of the times real subjects. This means that there is a lot of material on the net regarding their topics. The topic of Practice Test 1 Listening Section A and B of the book is about Muslim women wearing the veil in Britain. First of all, a lot of the times teenagers know nothing about the veil… I usually introduce the subject with an introductory video on the Muslim culture. What does it mean for someone to be a Muslim? What does it mean for a woman to be a Muslim? Are there any rules? Then I try to relate the subject to something my students are already familiar with. For example: Are there any rules Christian Orthodox people should follow? How are they different to the ones the Muslims have to follow? I usually try to find videos or even lectures from different Universities around the world that are current. Rarely do I use something older than 5 years. I think the language and the interests of people change, so I do my best to stay current. This usually promotes a vivid conversation among my students.

For Practice Test 1, Reading I usually have the students read it on their own first. Something I did sometime ago and was a real hit, was to give the same reading exercise to some students in Pennsylvania, USA Middle School that we usually Skype with. I sent the 2 Readings along with their questions to the colleague in the US and asked if he could arrange that I Skype with my four students with four students of his class. The colleague had given the Readings to his students to read and answer the questions. When we started Skyping my students were assigned to a partner in the US. Their partner had to explain to them anything they hadn’t understood on the Reading’s context as well as correct their mistakes. The fact that there was another teenager at the other end of the world reading the same text and going through all the trouble of explaining them what the correct answers where and why motivated my students to work harder.

For the last part, Use of English, I don’t usually do much. Many times I try to find extra videos on the Internet explaining different grammatical phenomena. For some weird reason, my students listen more carefully to some unknown teacher from the other end of the world. I also introduce different games such as Revising Conditionals through the Billionaire game I found on the Internet. For each correct question the students win $ 10,000 and in the end the game rewards them with their own Certificate of Participation! Who wouldn’t revise Conditionals after that?

Last but not least the Writing Part can be a real trouble. Taking into considerations that the students very rarely write 350 word essays in their mother tongue, I try to help the students understand how they should start thinking and analyzing the subject they are given to commend on. As I’m never given the opportunity to teach “writing” from the start I usually have to teach students who, coming from lower levels, expect to be fed with plans and ideas on how to write. I firmly believe that we shouldn’t feed the students with our thoughts and ideas rather we should feed them with as much world knowledge as possible. Given the fact that the C2 level exams are designed for adults, most of the subjects the students are asked to write about are unknown to them. I lately found out that two of my C2 students aged 15 knew nothing on the fall of the Berlin Wall. So, I urge my students to watch videos and documentaries on their own before they start writing their essays. This can be done either in the classroom through their tablets, laptops, class projector, mobile phones or before they come to school through videos I upload in the classrooms blog.

World knowledge is in my opinion what connects the students to the real world. Among other things, the real world speaks English as well…