How to practice the key language and structures for exam success through a series of fun speaking activities. This post is follows a talk given at the Caceres 2024 TESOL Spain conference.
PET
The PET writing paper tests students’ ability to use functional phrases to respond to information and express opinions. In class, I practise these phrases in a series of speaking activities before presenting students with the exam task.
When a writing task is set for homework I can say “remember these phrases? use them all in your answer.” If students do so, they will have achieved the task. If they don’t, then I’ll know we need to go back and practice them a bit more. The point is, learners don’t have to write whole letters and articles again and again, there is a more effective and enjoyable way!
Letter
Step 1: Responding to news.
I give the students a phrase such as
Thanks for your letter, I’m so pleased/sorry that ….. What absolutely terrible/fantastic news!
Then display a series of situations (I've just bought a dragon, I lost my job, Bizarrap wants to do a session with me, etc.) for students to practise responding to in pairs.
You could also do this as a quick mingle with students sharing good/bad news and responding to each other.
Step 2: Expressing preferences
There is usually a “which would you prefer” question. Students can practise this by answering funny “would you rather…?” dilemmas.
Personally I would much rather be friends with a vampire than with a ghost because….
Step 3: Giving advice
Students practice answering “what should I do?” questions
When it comes to _________ , I reckon you should….
Step 4: Turning down an invitation
They will have to say no to something. Students politely respond to a series of unappealing invitations.
“your idea of ___________ sounds great, but unfortunately I …., Why don’t we …. Instead?
When students have practised all the phrases, display an exam task and get them to take turns speaking the answer.
There is more information and class materials for this in these posts:
Article
This can be done in a very similar way to the letter.
Introduction
This needs to introduce the question to be addressed. I tend to do this, either by raising a question
“have you ever wanted to…/wondered about….?”
Or using a contrast structure
“Although some people…., for me nothing beats….”
Give students a series of topics and get them to practice coming up with sentences orally. It's quite tricky at first, but they tend to get very good at it after a few attempts.
Body
Students practice using these phrases in different contexts:
When it comes to ___, I reckon you should …
Personally, I’d much rather than _ because …
What I love about ___ is …..
They then practise “speaking articles” in pairs.
Using paragraphs
For students to make the transition from intermediate to B2 level, they need to be comfortable putting together longer texts with several paragraphs. For me, teaching students how to organise their ideas can be really rewarding because they develop a useful life skill that will help them succeed in other subjects too.
Single paragraphs
Paragraphs are the building blocks of any long text. In order to communicate effectively, it is vital for students to be able to organise their thoughts into logical chunks, explaining each idea, before moving on to the next. For me, the most effective way of teaching this is by doing little and often.
Speaking
Get students to “speak in paragraphs” giving an opinion, then backing it up with 2 further points. I can ensure this happens by boarding appropriate discourse markers and insisting on their use:
__________ is highly/not at all beneficial/rewarding/enjoyable/challenging.
First of all, /for example
And another thing /what’s more
If students are trained to organise their ideas like this when speaking, it’s much easier to get them to do likewise when they write.
Here are some of the silly topics I get students to discuss, but it really could be anything, from their opinion of my Hawaiian shirt to an evaluation of the last activity we did.
Writing
After speaking activities, get students to write a quick paragraph. This is much less painful than trying to get an entire redaction out of them and, once they’ve got into the habit, should take very little time out of your lesson.
There are several gimmicks you can employ, to prevent them from getting bored like:
· Write it in 60 seconds.
· Write it on a board.
· Write it without lifting the pen from the page.
· Write it on your partner’s forearm.
· Write it on a banana.
· Write it blind-folded.
· Write it left-handed.
Multiple Paragraphs
Speaking
Get students to give more than one opinion about a single topic. In this way they are "speaking an essay" and learning how to connect their ideas.
Collaborative Writing
I find collaborative writing can be effective when putting multiple paragraphs together. Students write one paragraph, then pass their text to a partner who adds a second paragraph, then pass again and so on. In order to make a coherent composition, students have to read what came before and think:
Should I make a negative, or a positive comment now?
What discourse markers should I use (am I adding a similar, or a contrasting view?)
When they come to the conclusion, they need to ensure that they summarise the points made by their peers (whether or not they agree with them!).
FCE
Once students are comfortable writing coherent paragraphs and using appropriate connectors, they are ready to look at the exam task.
Planning an Essay
I had wasted a lot of time lecturing students on the importance of planning essays, then admonishing them for not having done so, before I realised they didn't really know what a plan was or how to use it effectively. Consequently, until I'm confident that they know what they are doing, I now help students to plan in class, before they go home and write.
The simplest FCE essay plan is basically 3 ideas (2 given to the student and 1 they have to come up with) and a note of whether they support the argument raised in the question or not.
The ideas are then ordered depending on the student's intended conclusion:
If the essay will argue "for", put negative points, then positive points.
If the essay will argue "against", put positive points, then negative points.
This is important to clarify, as students' first language may be more discursive than English. In a discursive language, like French, it may be acceptable to wander between pro's and con's without any particular order. English writing is linear, which means the reader (or Cambridge Examiner!) expects to be taken systematically towards a conclusion.
Once students have organised their 3 points, they add appropriate linking phrases to join the ideas (either additive or contrasting).
I give students a template to ensure they have appropriate phrases for their introduction, topic sentences and conclusion, then they just have to fill in the gaps!
Correcting work
Things don't always go to plan and I still receive writing that doesn't make much sense from time to time. In these situations it's important to establish priorities when correcting. These could include:
highlighting good language to encourage students to use it again (this is nearly always the first thing I do)
Checking ideas are grouped into logical paragraphs - highlighting sections which are in the wrong place.
Giving students a plan and/or topic sentences to introduce their ideas more effectively.
Marking erroneous words so students can go back and correct basic mistakes for themselves.
By choosing my focus, I can avoid covering weaker students' work in red ink and try to make the process constructive (with an opportunity for them to rewrite and improve) rather than merely disheartening.