Lion's Voice

by George Lampropoulos

Introduction

One of the main features of the City & Guilds IESOL exam is that students can use a monolingual dictionary for all 3 sections, Listening, Reading and Writing. However, to make the most of this opportunity, students must learn how to use the dictionary to help them deal with each section of the exam. In fact, if students carry their dictionary on the day of the exam without having been trained in how to use it, they may well find that it is of very little use, or even a hindrance.

Before we look at ways the students should use their dictionary in the City & Guilds IESOL exam, let us have a look at some of the main points students should know about their dictionary before they start using it:

• all entries are in alphabetical order
• the first and last word defined on each dictionary page appear in the header of that page
• entries include much more than just the definition of the word; i.e information on pronunciation, grammar, collocations, level of formality etc
• there are different dictionaries available for different levels

Listening

In the Listening section students should use their dictionary during very specific time slots. They should definitely not try to look up the words they hear as they are listening! They can, however, take advantage of all the pauses between questions and tasks as well as the extra time given after each task to look up words they are not sure of. For example, in Listening part 3 at B2 Communicator level, where students are given one minute to read the questions before the talk starts and 2 minutes after the talk has finished, they can use this time to look up any unknown words they have in the questions which they will need for the completion of the task and/or check the spelling of words they are not certain about.

Activity 1

Level: B1-C2

Focus – identifying key vocabulary

The following task is a Listening Part 3 task at B2 Communicator level. Students see the following notes before the audio file starts playing. Underline some of the words in the notes and ask your students to decide which ones they would need to look up before the start completing the task.

Read the notes below. Suppose you don’t know any of the underlined words. Decide which ones you would need to look up before you start doing the task.

Climate change and water supplies

General Introduction

Effects of climate change: floods and droughts

1. Length of Australia’s drought:

 

Water Supplies

2. Present world population:

3. Population growth expected in:

4. Amount used for irrigation:

5. Daily water requirements per person:

6. Basic needs: drinking, washing and

 

The Future

7. Governments must invest heavily in:

8. The next lecture will look at:

(City & Guilds B2 Practice Paper 5)

Reading

In the Reading section students are more in control of the time they have on their hands and the time they are going to spend on each task. However, this might turn into a problem: if students start looking up all the unknown words in the texts, they will only end up wasting valuable time which they could spend on completing the actual tasks.

So, students should use their dictionary wisely in cases where they need to look up a key word in the texts they really need to complete the task or when a word in the actual task questions does not let them complete the task in question.

Activity 2

Level: B1-C2

Focus – ignoring irrelevant vocabulary

So, in order to avoid wasting their time looking up a great number of unknown words, students need to be trained in ignoring irrelevant vocabulary.. Give your students the following extract and ask them to answer the questions that follow. Before that, ask them to suggest which words in bold they would really need to answer the questions. At higher levels you can also limit the number of words they are allowed to ask!

N.B. The words in bold in the text below are actually nonsense words, as the idea is to train learners in ignoring vocabulary without getting them to focus on actual vocabulary items they don’t know.

Read the text and try to answer the two multiple choice questions that follow. Which of the words in bold in the text do you need to know to answer the questions?

With the market being as it is today and with unemployment rates soaring it’s already hard to find a decent job, but once you do find that position that seems just right for you, you have one more obstacle to overcome – the dreaded interview.

A job interview can be a nerve-racking experience for just about anyone, but if you’re new at this it can be downright terrifying. However there are a few steps you can take that might just take some of the edge off.

1) Practise.

Apply for a few jobs you are not bribreck in just so that you will be called in for an interview. Since you don’t care about getting the job you probably won’t be so tristet and once you’ve done it a few times you will get the feel of it and it won’t seem so glistok later.

2) Do your homework.

Once you find the job you feel is right for you don’t show up midrin. Do some blistin. Learn all you can about the company you hope to work for. Most companies – even very small ones – have a webpage where you can find all sorts of information. You will make a very positive broberg when you can show that you aren’t just sending out CVs to everyone but you chose their strolt specifically.

 

1. You should apply for jobs you don’t want

a) so you can practise having interviews.

b) because you won’t be nervous.

c) because it will make you feel good.

d) so the experience won’t be terrifying.

 

2. You should find information about the company because

a) you can do some research.

b) it’s on the internet.

c) your interviewer will appreciate it.

d) you can choose a specific company.

(City & Guilds B2 Practice Paper 5)

Activity 3

Level: B2-C2

Focus – identifying key vocabulary

A variation of the above activity would be to delete words that you assume your students will not know. You then ask them to do the task and they will be surprised themselves to see how much of the task they can still do!

Read the text below. Some of the words have been deleted. Try to answer the questions. Can you still do the task?

A momentary thrill of self-consciousness went through her as she walked up the __________ stone steps and stood at the front door. She saw herself and her desperate __________ as through the eyes of an __________ stranger. The great staircase rose in front of her, a __________ flower connecting the hall to the floor above, its broad white steps illuminated by candles gripped in iron holders on the walls. Charlotte went slowly up, feeling the lovely surface of the stone, polished by the passage of centuries, beneath her feet. She walked down the straight broad passageway ahead, her shoes now __________ and sprung by polished oak. From the last bedroom on the right, the one where they had met before, she could see a flame __________ through the open doorway, over the pinkish markings in the white __________ of the walls, appearing like a child’s fresh skin desperate to escape from the imprisonment of new white stockings. She should have breathed in deeply at the __________, she thought; she should have sent a small prayer __________ to heaven; but she wanted too much to hear what was waiting for her; she wanted to hear the echo of his words.

 

A The road fell away in front of her when she crossed the stream.

B The ornaments at the bottom of the drive smiled at her as she approached.

C Once through the gates, Charlotte had an easy ride to the house.

D There was a paved area in front of the house.

E She felt as though someone was looking at her.

F She was too keen to get on with her mission to linger outside.

G The house was clearly very old.

H So as not to make a noise, Charlotte walked barefoot up the stairs to the bedroom.

I There didn’t appear to be any electricity supply to the house.

J Her impatience to see what awaited her overcame her need to stop and calm her

(City & Guilds C2 Practice Paper 2)

Writing

In the Writing section students can benefit widely from the appropriate use of their dictionary. In fact, the use of the dictionary in the Writing section is two-fold.  To start with, their dictionary can help students have a better understanding of the task requirements.

The second use of the dictionary would be in the production and improvement of their actual piece of writing. While writing or after they have finished students can use their dictionary to double check the spelling of a word they have used, to check the grammar or the appropriacy of a word in terms of its level of formality or to use a variety of lexical items instead of repeating the same words.

Activity 4

Level: B2-C2

Focus – style & register

Students often use words in their written production without taking into account features of the word other than its core meaning, such as its level of formality, the words it collocates with etc. The following task asks students to focus on the style and register of the text abd improve it with the help of their dictionary.

Your classmate has been asked to write a letter on the following topic. Read the text and use your dictionary to replace the underlined words so that the text sounds more natural.

Your friend wants you to go on holiday together but it’s to a place you’re not keen on. Write a letter persuading your friend to go somewhere you’d like to go to. Write between 150 and 200 words.

 

Dear Michael

I am so grateful that you have responded to my letter so promptly.

Regarding our holiday destination, I recommend something disparate.

First of all, I like New York very much. Notwithstanding I consider that New York is not the right choice for us. It is very far away and it will be very expensive. We will be utterly disappointed by the fact that we will not be able to go anywhere because we will not own enough money.

Consequently, I think that the best place for us is London. There are many things we can do there and although it is also a rather expensive city, it does not compare to New York. I think that you also elude that we have only got 5 days so London is ideal since it only 3.5 hours away by plane.

Please think about my suggestion and inform me what you think.

Love

Nick

(City & Guilds B2 Practice Paper 2)

by George Lampropoulos

Introduction

Reading to locate information in a text, understanding the writer’s point of view and distinguishing between facts and opinions are some of the focuses in an open ended question task. This is part of real life since you might be asked to look for information in a catalogue, look up a word in a dictionary, read critically an article in a newspaper, find a number or a name in a directory etc. This task type appears in the Reading section of the City & Guilds B1, B2 and C2 level exam. Students are asked to read a text and answer a number of open ended questions following. In this blogpost you will find five activities which will help your students perform better in this type of task.

Activity 1 – focus on predicting and obtaining specific information
Level: All levels

Students are often unable to find the correct answer of open ended questions not because they do not understand the questions or the information in the text but because they do not know what type of information they are looking for. You should train students in looking for the appropriate information by asking them to read the questions and predict the types of words they need. For example, when students come up with questions starting with the question word “Who”, they will more than likely need to look for a name or a noun referring to a person. The activity below focuses on this skill.

Read the questions below. Before reading the text, write down what type of word(s) you are looking for (e.g number, name, verb etc). Then scan the text and find the answers.

1. How did Fitzgerald’s father feel towards the values of the Old South?
2. Why did Fitzgerald senior decide to settle the family in St Paul?
3. Who provided the money for the family?
4. What was Fitzgerald learning to do while he was at Princeton?
5. What did Scribners ask Fitzgerald to do with his first novel?
6. How long did it take Fitzgerald to become famous when his novel was published?

Text

The dominant influences on Francis Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration, literature, Princeton, and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896, the namesake and second cousin three times removed of the author of the National Anthem. Fitzgerald’s given names indicate his parents’ pride in his father’s ancestry. His father, Edward, was from Maryland, with an allegiance to the Old South and its values. Fitzgerald’s mother, Mary (Mollie) McQuillan, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale grocer in St Paul.
Edward Fitzgerald failed as a manufacturer of wicker furniture in St Paul and became a salesman for Procter & Gamble in upstate New York. After he was dismissed in 1908, when his son was twelve, the family returned to St Paul and lived comfortably on Mollie Fitzgerald’s inheritance. Fitzgerald attended the St Paul Academy; his first writing to appear in print was a detective story in the school newspaper when he was thirteen.
During 1911-1913 he attended the Newman School in New Jersey, where he met Father Sigourney Fay, who encouraged his ambitions for personal distinction and achievement. As a member of the Princeton Class of 1917, Fitzgerald neglected his studies for his literary apprenticeship. He wrote the scripts and lyrics for the Princeton Triangle Club musicals and was a contributor to the Princeton Tiger humour magazine and the Nassau Literary Magazine. His college friends included Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop. On academic probation and unlikely to graduate, Fitzgerald joined the army in 1917 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. Convinced that he would die in the war, he rapidly wrote a novel, The Romantic Egotist. A letter of rejection from Charles Scribners & Sons praised the novel’s originality and asked that it be resubmitted when revised.
In June 1918 Fitzgerald was assigned to Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama. There he fell in love with a celebrated belle, eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre, the youngest daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge. The romance intensified Fitzgerald’s hopes for the success of his novel, but after revision it was rejected by Scribners for a second time. The war ended just before he was to be sent overseas, after his discharge in 1919 he went to New York City to seek his fortune in order to marry. Unwilling to wait while Fitzgerald succeeded in the advertisement business living on his small salary, Zelda Sayre broke their engagement.
Fitzgerald quit his job in July 1919 and returned to St Paul to rewrite his novel as This Side of Paradise. It was accepted by editor Maxwell Perkins of Scribners in September. Set mainly at Princeton and described by its author as ‘a quest novel’, This Side of Paradise traces the career aspirations and love disappointments of Amory Blaine. In the fall-winter of 1919, Fitzgerald commenced his career as a story writer for mass-circulation magazines, interrupting work on his novels to write moneymaking popular fiction for the rest of his life. The Saturday Evening Post became his best market for commercial stories about young love, which introduced a fresh character: the independent, determined young American woman who appeared in The Offshore Pirate. His more ambitious stories were published in The Smart Set, which had a small circulation.
The publication of This Side of Paradise made the twenty-four-year-old Fitzgerald famous almost overnight, and a week later he married Zelda Sayre in New York.
They embarked on an extravagant life as young celebrities. Fitzgerald endeavoured to earn a solid literary reputation, but his playboy image impeded the proper assessment of his work.

(Text taken from City & Guilds C2 Mastery Practice Paper 1)

Activity 2 – focus on distinguishing between facts and opinions
Level: B1-C2

In order to read critically, students should be able to discriminate between the description of things that have actually happened, that is, facts, and evaluations of what has happened, that is, opinions. In the following activity students are asked to read a set of statements on a topic and decide whether these statements refer to facts or opinions.

Read the statements below and decide which ones are facts and which are opinions.

1. Art is, or ought to be, the most important concept to human beings after consciousness itself.
2. Art came not only before writing but before speech (as opposed to voice-noises).
3. Art embodies the virtue of order, and society cannot function without order.
4. Granted the importance of art to human well-being, it is disturbing to see that most people know less about art than ever.
5. This has happened despite the fact that there are more and better museums than ever before and an unprecedented flow of high quality art books.
6. People have less capacity to evaluate a work of art thrust before their unwilling gaze than any previous generation.
7. Yet, impenetrable ignorance is growing, and this enables the art fraud to flourish rapidly.
8. I still believe that the best way to combat ignorance and fraud is to teach art history as clearly and sincerely as possible.

(Sentences taken from City & Guilds C2 Mastery Practice Paper 1)

Activity 3 – focus on understanding the writer’s opinion/intention
Level: B2-C2

When they read a text, students need to be able to interpret information which may not be explicitly expressed in it such as the writer’s attitude and opinion, the actual aim of the text, implied meanings etc. Give students a text and then a number of questions related to it. Ask them to work in pairs or groups and compare their thoughts before they do the actual open ended questions. Activity 3 will help students focus on the implicit information of the text.

Read the text below and try to answer the questions.

A cat’s cleverness or chance?

I have three wonderful cats, a seven and a half year-old moggie called Triftji, and a pair of Egyptian Maus, Sinbad and Napoleon, both eighteen months old. There have been several amusing incidents with my little Maus, but one in particular interests me.

Yesterday I noticed Napoleon, the smaller of my Maus, scrambling over the wall from an adjacent garden with a green bag in his mouth. He carried it across my neighbour’s garden and leapt onto the dividing wall, bag still in his mouth. At this point he suddenly saw me and, startled, dropped it from his mouth back into the neighbour’s garden.

I soon forgot about it, as he’s always retrieving odd things from people’s gardens: apart from the usual birds, I’ve found half a potato, a handful of cat collars and a spent firework. However, from bed early this morning, I noticed him scrambling over the wall again, with the same bag, which he dropped into my garden and proceeded to tear up. About half an hour later, I walked out and found the bag ripped open and the contents scattered around the flag stones – looking more closely, I saw that it was a bag called ‘Supreme seeds for wild birds’, presumably used by a neighbour to refill a bird-feeder.

It was only then that the thought struck me – was this a cat’s cleverness or just chance? Maus, amongst other cats, are described as having higher levels of intelligence, but surely not this far? Surely he didn’t notice what the bag’s contents were used for in my neighbour’s garden, and then decide to lure birds to his home territory for a spot of hunting?

I would love to think that this was the case. Of my two Maus, Napoleon is the most enthusiastic (and successful) hunter of the two. The other Mau, Sinbad, is just a bit too cool to make enough effort, and Triftji’s hunting days seem to be behind him.

Yesterday afternoon I saw Napoleon going to hide behind a small bush, from where he sat waiting, looking at the area where the bird seeds were scattered! So now I’m leaning towards this being intentional.
It could hardly just be chance, since Napoleon remembered about the bag and returned for it later. He could somehow have associated the smell of bird seeds with the birds themselves – maybe from stalking at the feeding area. So catching the bag felt almost as if he made a real kill. I do however feel there may be a simpler explanation – bags are quite interesting for cats and if there’s something rattling in them, even more so.

A. What is the purpose of the writer? (More than one answer may be correct)

1. to inform the reader about cats and their characteristics
2. to shock the reader
3. to brag about his/her cat
4. to describe a strange incident
5. to amuse the reader
6. to prove how clever cats can be

B. What does the writer feel towards cats?

1. pity
2. indifference
3. admiration
4. envy

C. How do you think the writer would answer the question in the title of the text?

(Text taken from City & Guilds B2 Communicator Practice Paper 3)

Activity 4 – focus on scanning to locate meaning of words
Level: B1-C2

Good comprehension questions rarely contain the words of the text; rather, they express the information in the text using different words. When students read a question they should be able to identify equivalent phrases or words in the text and in the questions. The following activity focuses on this aspect. Ask students to read the text and the questions following. Ask them to find the synonyms of the words you have already chosen in the questions.

Read the text below and find words/phrases that have the same meaning as the underlined words/phrases in the questions.

Text

Borrowing techniques from seismology to calculate the likely frequency of market fluctuations is all very well, but it has the same fundamental limitation as earthquake prediction. It does not tell us what we really want to know: exactly when and where the next cataclysmic event will be. That kind of predictive capability would demand what seems an unobtainable wish – a comprehensive, bottom-up theory of why markets move as they do.

At the moment, that ideal is confounded by the fact that in any one real-life market there is a huge number of interactions that are unique and individual. The result is a gaping divide between macroeconomics (the study of movements in economy-wide indicators such as GDP, inflation and unemployment) and microeconomics (the study of how individual people and companies in a market make decisions to buy and sell). Trends in macroeconomics are the sum of microeconomic decisions, but attempts to extrapolate from the one to the other are by necessity grossly oversimplified, says Eric Weinstein, a physicist who works for the Natron Group, a hedge fund in New York City.

They often assume, for example, that agents in a market all have an unchanging list of all the things they want. There’s no room for them to change those preferences, by learning, for example, or becoming interested in new products. That puts all of economic theory out of kilter at the first step.

Might physics help in bridging the divide? Physics also deals separately with the microscopic – the individual movements of particles in a gas, say – and the macroscopic, for example when the sum of those movements creates a pressure that enables a gas to push a piston. But it also has mathematical frameworks, such as statistical mechanics, capable of bridging the gap between them.

Weinstein has been involved in one of the most audacious attempts to meld physics and economics: showing how gauge theory, the mathematical underpinning of the quantum field theories of the standard model of particle physics, might be the key to a rational theory of economics based only on physically observable quantities, rather than hypotheticals akin to the economists’ list of ordered preferences. Impressed by this idea, physicist Lee Smolin of the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, has recently studied how gauge theory ideas might be incorporated into some basic economic theories about how markets work.

It is part of a wider movement towards ‘agent-based’ models that are better equipped to deal with the non-equilibrium behaviour of markets. In these models agents are treated as particles, albeit ones imbued with adaptive behaviour. They make mistakes, try to learn from them, and change their beliefs and expectations about the market on the fly. Because most humans tick in broadly similar ways, all those behaviours can be dealt with statistically.

Questions

a. What have techniques of seismology been used to predict?
b. What needs to be in place before accurate predictions can be made?
c. What is the name for the academic study of purchasing decisions?
d. What has Weinstein been trying to apply to economics?

(Text taken from City & Guilds C2 Mastery Practice Paper 3)

Activity 5 – focus on using key vocabulary and ignoring unnecessary vocabulary

Level: B1-C2

The following activity makes students focus on the necessary key vocabulary they need to answer the questions ignoring at the same time any unknown words that they will not be using for the completion of the task. Ask students to read the text after you have replaced some of the words with words that do not exist in English or with words of another language. Then ask them to answer the questions. Students will be surprised to see how much of the task they can still do if they only  focus on key vocabulary.

Read the text below. Which of the words in bold do you need to answer the questions?

When Mike and Mohina Collins trillinted into their house in Roosevelt Crescent, they had a vision of the home they wanted for their family. Faced with a bribriged budget and having few of the skills needed, they nevertheless succeeded in turning the house into a lufitab home. Mike spoke to Home News to tell us how they groombled it.

‘When first sprisking into the house, I couldn’t imagine how it would ever be a home to me and my yilfam. It had 50 years of thick paint on all the broungle (doors, door frames, windows etc), most of which was coming off, ugly green rewapal on almost every wall and a garden that looked like a joobster. We didn’t have much to spend and knew we couldn’t afford to hire all different kinds of workmen, so we needed to learn how to do the work ourselves and brikily!

1. What made Mike and Mohina’s job difficult?
2. Did they manage to do what they wanted?
3. What did the garden look like in the beginning?

(Text taken from City & Guilds B1 Achiever Practice Paper 2)

City & Guilds Exam open ended questions – Tips for students

• Read through the questions and try to get the gist
• You are allowed to copy words from the text
• Don’t forget that questions follow the order of the text
• Keep your answers simple – no full sentences needed
• Stick to the word limit

by George Lampropoulos

Introduction

One of the skills that successful reading presupposes is the ability to understand how a text is organised, how various cohesive devices within the text signify relationships between its constituent parts and how different parts of the text serve different communicative functions. One of the tasks used in the language classroom, as well as in a number of language tests, to focus on this skill is asking the students to insert in the appropriate gap in the text sentences which have been removed from it. The City & Guilds IESOL exams, focusing as they do on all aspects of reading comprehension in the reading part of the test, are no exception: a “sentence insertion” task is included at all levels.

In order to do well in this kind of task students should be trained in looking for specific elements of the text such as cohesive devices, logical relationships between sentences and paragraphs, the functions of different sentences and paragraphs, etc. The six activities below aim at developing the skills needed to cope with this task type.

Activity 1 – focus on structure and coherence

Level: All levels

Students often insert the wrong sentence in the wrong gap not because they do not understand the meaning of the sentences and/or text but because they do not know how to relate one sentence to another. The following activity makes students focus on the logical and natural sequence of the sentences. Students are given a paragraph to read which includes one sentence which is irrelevant. They are asked to spot the odd sentence. (In the example texts below, the irrelevant sentences are underlined.)

In this paragraph, there is one sentence that does not “fit”. Work in pairs and spot the odd sentence.

Last week, my friend and I went to visit her aunt. I asked her for an autograph. She’s an old lady and lives in a small village near the sea. She’s very interesting to talk to because of her past. She was a very famous actress when she was young and travelled round the country. The theatres were always full because everyone wanted to see her. She told us lots of stories about what she did and about the people she met and worked with. Three famous actors wanted to marry her but she said she only loved the theatre. Now, she lives alone but is happy with her wonderful memories.

[Text taken from City & Guilds A2 Access Practice Paper 2]

Science cannot ultimately explain why some people have near-death experiences (NDEs). That’s not to say that current scientific explanations are incorrect, but NDEs are complex, subjective and emotionally charged. Further, many aspects of NDEs cannot be tested. The body’s spatial sense is prone to malfunction during a near-death experience as well. We can’t purposely take someone to the brink of death and then resuscitate them in a lab to test their out-of-body perceptio

[Text taken from City & Guilds C2 Mastery Practice Paper 1]

Activity 2 – focus on distinguishing the main from supporting ideas

Level: B1-C2

One of the focuses of a sentence insertion task is to be able to recognise the topic sentence of a paragraph and the sentences that follow which usually develop or exemplify the main idea. To help students understand this relationship, you can use an activity like the following.

Read the text below. The points following are all mentioned in the text. Write T next to each sentence if you think it refers to a Topic sentence or S if you think it refers to one of the supporting sentences of the text.

People’s chef

In truth, there have been times when people really disliked Jamie Oliver. Maybe this was because he seemed too much of a do-gooder: the golden boy, who liked to visit his grandma and spoke readily of his love for his wife, Jools. He has been criticised too for being both a hypocrite and a food snob. This is probably thanks to his willingness to receive sponsorship from one of Britain’s leading supermarket chains, and his unwillingness to cook with food not locally and organically sourced.
Sales of Oliver’s latest cookbook appear to point to his return to favour. He has recently officially become Britain’s bestselling author. He has defeated not only the literary efforts of authors such as Khaled Hosseini and JK Rowling, but has also outsold those of his fellow celebrity chefs. Oliver is now, without doubt, the country’s leading ‘foodie’. More than a mere celebrity chef, he has become the ‘Chosen One’. He holds meetings with the Prime Minister. He changes supermarket policy. He cooks for heads of state and Hollywood stars. Today, Jamie Oliver’s media influence is far-reaching. He has his own magazine, a website, a blog, and his shows are broadcast in many countries overseas.

• Oliver’s wife is called Jools.
• He has sold more books than JK Rowling.
• He didn’t get into University.
• Many people disliked Oliver at first.
• His latest cookbook has been a great success.
• He cooks using organic food.

[Text taken from City & Guilds B2 Communicator Practice Paper 2]

Activity 3 –  distinguishing between general and specific statements

Level: B1-C2

An activity with a similar focus to the above activity focuses on distinguishing between general and specific statements. You give students a list of statements and ask them to rank them from the most general to the most specific.

Read the statements below. Put them in order from the most general (1) to the most specific (9).

• England is part of the UK.
• Millions of tourists visit London each year.
• Big Ben is at the north end of the Palace of Westminster of London.
• I am planning to go to another place of England next year.
• London is the capital of England.
• I have been to London and seen the Big Ben 5 times.
• There are many interesting sights in London.
• Madame Tussauds museum and Big Ben are two of the most famous London sights.
• Big Ben is the largest four-faced chiming clock and the third-tallest free-standing clock tower in the world.

Activity 4 – focus on understanding the function of sentences

Level: B2-C2

Another aspect of text coherence which learners, especially at the intermediate and advanced levels, need to develop is understanding the function of different sentences or parts of the text. For example, in a discursive text, understanding which sentences argue for or against an idea, which describe problems and which suggest solutions, etc. This is the focus of the sample activity below, which is at upper-intermediate level.

Read the text below describing the problems with sand lizards and the steps taken against these problems. Decide whether the underlined statements refer to the “Problems” or the “Actions”.

Hundreds of rare sand lizards to be released

Hundreds of sand lizards are to be released into the wild as part of an attempt to ensure the survival of threatened reptile and amphibian species in Britain.

Lacerta agilis was once a common sight in dunes and on heathland. Males were particularly distinctive, with their striking green flanks. Over the past 100 years, however, (a) the species disappeared in many English counties, especially in the south, as housing development destroyed habitats. (b) Declines of up to 90 per cent were also seen in parts of the north.

(c) Conservationists estimate that there are now fewer than 300 locations in the country where they are still thriving. These remaining colonies are mostly found on small fragmented areas of heath or dune in isolated areas surrounded by woodlands.

In an attempt to restore Britain’s rarest lizard, (d) the species is to be re-introduced at five sites in the south. The first release of 80 baby lizards, which have been reared in hatcheries, is to take place today at a nature reserve in Surrey. (e) The breeders have had to minimise contact with the animals to prevent them becoming too tame, which would leave them at risk of being eaten by their main enemy, the smooth snake, another threatened species. (f) During the next two weeks 320 more lizards are also to be introduced on other nature reserves.

(g) Native frogs, toads, newts and snakes have also suffered decline due to intensive farming practices. A spokesman for Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) said, ‘These lizards needed channels of sand to lay eggs and without them could not survive. The problem was really down to ignorance, and people were not aware how best to manage these habitats and allow development on dunes and heathland.’ Nick Moulton, who is co-ordinating the releases for ARC, said,(h) ‘It is great to see them going back, now safely protected where they belong.’

ARC, which was formed by a merger of the charities Froglife and the Herpetological Conservation Trust, has a three-year partnership to release threatened species with Natural England, the Government’s wildlife advisers. Tom Tew, chief scientist at Natural England, said, (i) ‘Reptiles and amphibians are coming under pressure from an increasing number of factors, including habitat loss and disease. This important re-introduction programme is (j) an example of the action that is being taken to reverse the decline in England’s biodiversity and to conserve the habitats that our unique wildlife relies on.’

Problems:

Actions:

[Text taken from City & Guilds B2 Communicator Practice Paper 2]

Activity 5 – focus on recognition of cohesive devices

Level: B1-C2

In addition to processing the content and identifying logical relationships within a text, readers often make use of their knowledge of how specific cohesive devices, such as linkers and referring expressions, work to add unity to a text and make explicit the way in which it is organised. The activity below focuses on understanding the meaning of one kind of cohesive device: linking words and expressions.

Read the paragraphs below and choose the most appropriate linking word.

Mining, particularly of copper, graphite and slate, was also historically a major Lakeland industry. Some mining does still take place today; moreover/for example/let alone, slate-mining continues at the Honister Mines. In addition/So/However, many abandoned mines can be found on hillsides throughout the district. Years ago, it was the locally-mined graphite that led to the development of the pencil industry. Wood was needed for this and so non-native pine trees were planted. These were used to provide both charcoal for the mining and wood for the pencils.

In the mid 19th century, half the world’s textile industry’s bobbin supply came from the Lake District area. Over the past century, furthermore/however/thus, traditional industries have decreased. Nowadays/Initially/Summing up, tourism is the area’s primary source of income. Perhaps, in time, this will also be considered to be a traditional industry!

[Text taken from City & Guilds B1 Achiever Practice Paper 3]

Activity 6 – focus on using cohesive devices

Level: B1-C2

The following activity should ideally be used after activity 5, to confirm that students have understood the meaning and use of linking words since the following activity requires students to produce appropriate continuations to the text, thus demonstrating in practice their understanding of the cohesive devices used.

Complete the sentences so that they make sense. Pay particular attention to the words and phrases in bold.

• For a lot of people, winning the lottery is a dream come true. But for many, the reality is …..
• Evelyn Adams won $5.4 million on the New Jersey lottery in 1986. Today the money is all gone and Adams ….
• Post now lives quietly on $450 a month, having lost ….
• There is a widely held belief that money solves problems. But people soon learn …

[Text taken from City & Guilds B2 Communicator Practice Paper 1]

City & Guilds Exam sentence insertion task – Tips for students

• Scan the text and try to get the gist
• Look at how the text is organised
• Ignore unknown words which you do not need in order to do the task
• Use the monolingual dictionary to look up key vocabulary
• Look for linking words and references to previous or following parts of the text

by George Lampropoulos

Introduction

Listening to a monologue (e.g. a phone message, a lecture, an announcement, etc) and taking notes is a real-life activity that has inspired many types of note taking tasks in the language classroom. Typically, students are presented with an information transfer device, which could be in the form of half-completed notes in a notepad, a table with headings, or an incomplete summary, and asked to take very specific notes based on the audio input. In the City & Guilds IESOL exams, this task type is used at all levels from A2 to C2: the students are asked to fill in gaps in a notepad while listening to a radio broadcast, a message, a talk, an announcement etc.
Doing well in this as in most other task types depends not just on how much practice learners receive but also on the kind of preparation, help and support they are given. In this blogpost we present 5 activities that you might find useful in this respect.

Activity 1 – focus on prediction

Level: B1-C2

Occasionally, students may fail to fill in the gaps not because they have not understood the relevant information in the text they heard, but because they are not sure what kind of information they are expected to put in the gaps. It might, therefore, be a good idea to spend some time before listening getting the students to predict what kind of information each gap requires. This activity focuses on this type of prediction work.

Read the notes below. Before listening to the extract, write down the type(s) of word/words you are looking for. (e.g noun, number, verb etc)
Monday 2nd May

• 10.00am Call ____
• 12.00pm ____ presents for nephew (birthday & nameday on the same day!)
• 1.00pm Meet Jane at ____
• 3.00pm Pay the rent (350 ____)
• 6.00pm ____ flights for London! Offer ends tonight!

Activity 2 – focus on prediction & content anticipation

Level: All levels

This activity asks students to actively predict what kind of information will appear in the input text. Before you play the audio, give students the task and a list of possible answers. Ask them to work in pairs to fill in the gaps with the correct answers. Then they listen to the audio and check to what extent their predictions were correct. In this way students can learn that they can take advantage of the time allowed before they listen to do some planning and thinking that will help them spot the answers more easily when they hear the text.

Read the prompts below and try to match them with one of the answers below. There are 8 answers which you will not need to use. Then listen to the task and check your answers.

Budapest

Choose from the possible answers in the box below the ones that you think fit each gap. Discuss your choices with a partner. Then listen and check.

Budapest, the capital city of Hungary

1. Year three smaller towns united:
2. City is centre of nation’s:
3. Number of bridges permitting pedestrians:
4. Number of thermal bath complexes:
5. When Celts inhabited hill:
6. Jobs of Roman settlers:
7. Castle District officially recognised by:
8. Renovation and restoration dependent on:

Activity 3 – focus on prediction & identifying missing information

Level: B2-C2

Another activity you can use with students for their preparation before they complete a gap filling task is to give students the answers rather than the questions. In this way, you force students to think about what kind of information is included in the text. The students work in pairs to suggest what the question might be and then listen to the audio and check.

Read the answers below. Listen to the task and try to find the questions/prompts.

Grand Canyon

Current projects in the park
Why these are exciting times: many projects
1. Summer(time)
2. Edge of (the) canyon
3. Exotic plants and wildlife
4. All over the world/everywhere
5. Inside the canyon
6. Budgets
7. Two (a couple of) years
8. Winter

Activity 4 – focusing on prediction and information structure

Level: All levels

A variation of this activity would include giving your students the prompts with their answers in jumbled order and asking them to put them in the right order as they listen to the task.

Below you will find the questions of the task with their answers. Unfortunately they are not in the right order. Try to put them in the right order and then listen to the task and check your answers.

A2_cooking

Questions and Answers

• Mix together dried milk and: flour
• Make into: small balls
• Add cardamom and saffron when: mixture is cool
• Add:  cream
• Boil together sugar and: water
• After frying, place in: syrup

Activity 5 – focusing on text organisation and listening for detail

Level: B2-C2

A more challenging activity, mainly for higher level students is to get students to produce their own gap filling task. In this way students get trained in looking for specific information ignoring redundant bits of the text. In order to do this activity, you need to divide the class into different groups and give each group a different transcript. Then ask them to produce a complete gap filling task. When all groups have finished, you ask each group to do the listening task that another group has written for them and to give feedback on how clear they thought their task was.

Read carefully the transcript your group has received. Prepare a listening task that a group of your classmates will then do. Try not to make it too difficult! The task has been started for you here:
You will then be given a task that another group has produced for youWhen the other group has done the listening task that you prepared and you have done the listening task that they prepared for you, you can discuss with them which task you think worked better and why.

City & Guilds IESOL Listening Test– Tips for students

• Read through the notes carefully using the extra time given before the task – get an idea of what you are looking for.
• Do not worry about minor spelling mistakes.
• Remember that questions follow the order of the text you hear.
• Keep your answers simple – no full sentences needed.
• Stick to the word limit given.
• Check your answers using the extra time given after the task.

N.B. All listening tasks in this blogpost are based on City & Guilds IESOL official practice papers. For a complete set of practice papers, please see here.

by George Lampropoulos

The main reason why writing is different from, and perhaps more demanding than, spoken production is that there is no feedback or interaction during the writing process so we have to rely exclusively on our choices of sentences and words to make sure that the right message is put across: we produce a text which needs to be understood by a reader who is not present or, in some cases, a reader who is not even known to us.

Students therefore have to be taught how to produce written texts representative of different genres in such a way as to make sure that the message is put across correctly and appropriately. We cannot assume that if a learner can convey a message in the spoken medium they can do so in writing as well. The process that most teachers, as well as published teaching materials, follow when teaching writing, can be divided into the following stages:

Stage I: Generation of ideas

This first stage includes the generation of ideas on which the students will base their own text. You should get the learners to think about what to include in the text, i.e. what kind of information the topic requires as well as how much information is required. Ask students to read the rubric carefully and think of the target audience, the style and the actual genre they will have to produce. Here are some sample activities that could serve these purposes:

Activity 1 – focus on understanding the topic, genre and target audience (Level C1-C2)

You have been asked to write a report for your boss regarding an event that your company organised. You have to use at least 4 of the figures/percentages given in the data. Think about this topic and decide if the following statements are True or False:

• The report is about everyday events at work.
• The language you use should be conversational.
• You should not use more than 4 percentages.
• Your text should include 3 paragraphs, i.e. introduction, main body, conclusion.
• You must not use subheadings for the paragraphs.

Activity 2 – focus on ideas (Level A2)

You have been asked to write a letter to a friend describing your room. In pairs, make a list of as many different things as you can that you can find in a house, for example fridge, sofa, television, computer….

Which of these things does each of you have in your rooms? Tell your partner which of these things you have in your room, what they look like and where are they.

For example, I have a computer in my room. It is white and it is on my desk.

Stage II: Working with a model

This stage involves giving students a model text followed by a set of activities. The text should be one that could presumably have been produced by a learner and the activities should focus on different aspects of writing such as the generic structure, the language and register used, the purpose and the target reader as well as the cohesive devices used and the way the text is organised. Below you have two activities that can be used in this stage:

Activity 3 – focus on the language used (Level B2)

Read the short extract below taken from a letter of a student to his/her teacher. The students were asked to explain which aspects of the English language they find most difficult and to say what they think the teacher should do to help them overcome these difficulties.

Some of the words and phrases the student has used are not appropriate: they are too formal or too conversational. Work in pairs: underline the words and phrases that are not appropriate and suggest ways of changing them.

Dear Mrs Jones

I am writing to tell you what you wanted. Well, I think for the first question you asked me about your class I think that grammar is the most difficult part. I don’t like it and I find it hard. Explain it better all the next times so that all students understand what you say. Now, you asked about suggestions. I don’t understand what do you want? I cannot make suggestions because I am a student and you are the teacher so it is your job to find the solutions.

Activity 4 – focus on task achievement (Level B2-C1)

Your friend has been asked to do the following task. “Write an article about the positive and negative aspects of mobile phones. In what ways can we limit the problems of using mobile phones? The article will be published in a scientific journal.” Read what he/she has written and answer the following questions:

• Has your friend covered all content points?
• Has he/she used the correct format and layout?

Dear Editor

I am writing to you to tell you about the good and bad points of mobile phones.

First of all, mobile phones are very useful because you can reach anyone you want especially when you are in an emergency. Moreover, you can keep in touch with your friends very easily because they can call you anytime and ask you where you are. The only problem is that you need to charge your phone all the time because if your battery dies out, nobody will know where you are. Also, mobile phones allow you to do things that in the past you only did them at home. For example, with the new phones you can now access the internet even while you are walking on the street!

I couldn’t live without a mobile phone!

I hope that my article will be published. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, of course, on my mobile phone that you will find on top of this letter.

Thanks.

STAGE III: Guided reproduction

After the previous stage has been completed you could ask students to start producing parts of the text focusing again on one aspect. In this stage students will still need a lot of support and guidance; an example of a guided reproduction task would be to ask students to rewrite sentences using specific words and/or expressions found in the text or to change a few details in a paragraph to produce a parallel text. Here are some more ideas:

Activity 5 – focus on style and organisation (Level A1)

Read the short text below. Correct the text so that it looks like a letter. Do not correct grammar or vocabulary mistakes.

Hello!

Mrs Jones! How are you? All ok? I hope your family is ok, too.

I am writing to apply for the job of the shop assistant.

I saw it in the school magazine.

I like this job.

I have many good characteristics:

1. I am kind
2. I am honest
3. I never lie

Please tell me if you need me.

Yours sincerely

George

Activity 6 – focus on content and coherence (Level B1)

Your friend has written about the things he does every morning but he has put them in the wrong order. Read the sentences below and put them in the right order.

• My mum waits with me for the school bus.
• When I wake up I go to the bathroom and wash my face.
• After that I go to my room to get dressed.
• Every morning my mum wakes me up.
• Then I brush my teeth and go to the kitchen to drink milk.
• Then I put the books in my bag and go out to wait for the school bus.

Stage IV: Production of text

In this stage students should be asked to produce their own text with limited support on the part of the teacher. This can be done initially in class where you could make sure that the students understand the topic, have something to write and get the chance to work o planning. In most cases, the students will complete their draft at home, due to time constraints. In the following lesson, they will (hopefully!) hand in their draft so that they can get some feedback and, if necessary, rewrite (parts of) their text. To help students produce their own texts, you can use activities like the ones below:

Activity 7 – focus on language (Any level)

Read your topic carefully. Then spend 1 minute and write down as many words/phrases you can think of related to your topic. Then compare with your partner.

Activity 8 – focus on content (Level B1+)

Read your topic carefully. Make a plan before you start writing in which you say:

• how many paragraphs there will be
• what ideas you will include in each paragraph

Then give your plan to your partner. Your partner will make any changes he/she thinks are necessary. You will need to do the same for his/her plan.

Stage V: Evaluation

In this final stage you will need to provide feedback on all relevant aspects of the writing skill such as organisation, accuracy and range of grammar and vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, use of linking words and expressions, level of formality etc. The feedback should be clear and it can include the use of a code to indicate what types of mistakes there are. You should then ask students to work on their own or their partners’ errors and produce a second draft. You may need to provide feedback on more than one draft before the student produces his/her final text. Below there are three activities that you could use in this stage:

Activity 9 – focus on grammar and vocabulary (Level B1 and above)

Read your partner’s text. Using the correction code provided, correct all the grammar and vocabulary errors your partner has made.

Gr Grammar

Voc Vocabulary

Pr Preposition

S Style

Sp Spelling

Org Organisation

? Not clear

Activity 10 – focus on content (Any Level)

For this activity, the teacher should first read all scripts and put a question mark in the margin whenever a student has not expressed themselves clearly and/or accurately. Then students are asked to work in pairs and given the following instruction:

Read your partner’s text. When you see ?, ask him/her questions to try and understand what he/she means. Then suggest ways of rewriting the sentences so that the message is clear.

Activity 11 – focus on self-evaluation (Level B1 and above)

Read your partner’s text. Underline any errors you find. Then hand the underlined text to your teacher. Then compare the errors you have found with the ones your teacher has.