FCE Reading Overview Activity teachers notes

Description A gap-fill activity to give students an overview of the format of the FCE Reading paper followed by a discussion on reading strategies. Time required: Additional materials required: Aims: 45-60 minutes copy of Frequently Asked Questions, examples of Part 1, 2 and 3 questions. to give students an overview of the format of Paper 1.

Procedure 1. Ask students how much they know about the FCE Reading paper. Some students may have taken FCE before but some wont have. Tell them that they are going to look at the format of the Reading paper. 2. Give each student a copy of the Frequently Asked Questions sheet and ask them to read each of the questions and answers carefully. Set a time limit to encourage speed reading. 3. Give each student a copy of students worksheet 1 and ask them to complete the gaps. They can use the Frequently Asked Questions to help them or, to make it more challenging, they could work in pairs without looking at the FAQs. 4. Check the answers in class and deal with any queries. 5. Brainstorm different text types with students (e.g. newspapers, books, websites etc.). Put the ideas on the board/OHT as a spidergram. 6. Ask students how often they read each of the text types (every day?/every week?). At this stage it is useful to see how prolific they are at reading in their own language as well as English. 7. Give each student a copy of students worksheet 2 and ask them to discuss in pairs/groups how they would read in each of the situations. 8. Collect some feedback in class. 9. Now ask students to match the definitions with the situations. 10. Check the answers in class. 11. Put the students into three groups, or with a large class, into pairs. Give each pair/group either a Part 1, 2 or 3 question and ask them to discuss which reading skill is appropriate for the task. Also ask them how many times they think it is necessary to read their text in order to answer the questions.
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FCE Reading Overview Activity teachers notes

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12. Collect feedback. The key points to mention to students are: a. Many students run out of time and so reading all the texts intensively is not possible. Often reading the first or last sentence of a paragraph is enough to get an overall idea of the paragraph. b. Students need to choose the appropriate reading skill to achieve the task. Learning to skim (to read through the text quickly to get an idea of meaning) and to scan (to search a text for specific information) are essential. c. When scanning for information, students need to pay extra attention to the question stems. What kind of information do the following words want: What? When? Where? Why? How? d. Many students get stuck on unknown vocabulary. Students need to develop strategies for dealing with unknown words, or to simply ignore difficult vocabulary when reading a text for the first time. e. Students should read each text quickly at first to get an overall impression, then more slowly to find the answers to the questions.

Suggested follow-up activities/questions (and answers) Bring in a sample answer sheet so that students can find out what is meant by fill in the lozenge.

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FCE Reading Overview Activity answer keys

Key to Students worksheet 1 1. three 2. a text 3. articles 4. short stories 5. gapped 6. one hour 7. one mark 8. four 9. sentences 10. several Key to Students worksheet 2 1. D 2. B 3. F 4. C 5. A 6. E

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FCE Reading Overview Activity answer keys

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FCE Reading Overview Activity Frequently Asked Questions

General Description
Paper Format The paper contains three parts, with a range of texts and accompanying comprehension tasks. One part may contain two or more shorter related texts. 1 hour 30 Multiple choice, gapped text, multiple matching. For all parts of this paper, candidates indicate their answers by shading the correct lozenges on the separate answer sheet. Parts 1 and 2: each correct answer receives 2 marks. Part 3: each correct answer receives 1 mark.

Timing No of Questions Task Types Answering Marks

Part 1
Task Type & Format Task Focus Multiple choice. In this part, there is an emphasis on detailed understanding of a text, including the expression of opinion, attitude, purpose, main idea, detail, tone and gist. Candidates are also tested on their ability to recognise meaning from context and follow text organisation features, such as exemplification, comparison and reference. 8

Number of Questions

Part 2
Task Type & Format Task Focus Number of Questions Gapped text. In this part, there is an emphasis on text structure, cohesion and coherence, and candidates ability to follow the development of a long text. 7

Part 3
Task Type & Format Task Focus Multiple matching. In this part, there is an emphasis on locating specific information and detail, and recognising opinion and attitude, in one long text or a group of short texts. 15

Number of Questions

https://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/ts/exams/generalenglish/fce/reading

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. How long should candidates spend on each part? A. There is no time limit for each task; some tasks may take longer than others and students should be aware of how long they need for different tasks. However, its worth remembering that each task is worth approximately the same number of marks overall. Q. How many marks are there for each question? A. Questions in Parts 1 and 2 each carry 2 marks, and in Part 3 each question carries 1 mark. Q. Why are questions in Part 3 only worth one mark each? A. In Part 3 candidates are looking for specific information in a text and do not need to engage with the content of the text as deeply as in the other parts of the paper.

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FCE Reading Overview Activity Frequently Asked Questions

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Q. How many marks is the Reading paper worth? A. Each paper in the FCE exam is worth 40 weighted marks, so that all the papers are of equal importance. The whole exam is worth 200 weighted marks. The weighted mark for the Reading paper is calculated as follows: Each correct answer in Parts 1 and 2 is given 2 marks, and in Part 3 1 mark. Therefore, the total number of marks possible for the paper is 45. If a candidate scored 35 marks out of a possible 45, their final weighted mark would be arrived at by the calculation 3545x40 = 31.1. Q. What kinds of texts are used? A. A wide range of texts may be used; these include newspaper and magazine articles, reports, novels and short stories, advertisements, correspondence, messages and informational material such as brochures, manuals and guides. Q. What aspects of reading are tested in this paper? A. In Part 1 candidates are tested on their ability to understand detail, opinion, gist, attitude, tone, purpose, main idea, meaning from context and text organisation features (exemplification, comparison and reference); Part 2 tests text structure, cohesion and coherence; Part 3 focuses on identifying specific information, detail, opinion and attitude. Q. How long are the texts? A. The texts range from 550700 words per text. Approximately 2,000 words overall. Q. Do the questions in Part 1 follow the order of the text? A. Yes, and any questions relating to global understanding of the text come at the end. Q. How do candidates answer the Reading paper? A. In this paper, candidates put their answers on an answer sheet by filling in a lozenge (a kind of box) in pencil. https://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/ts/exams/generalenglish/fce/faqs

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FCE Reading Overview Activity Students Worksheet 1

Complete the ten gaps in this general description of the Reading paper. Paper format The paper contains (1) parts. Each part contains (2) and corresponding comprehension task. One part may contain 2 or more shorter related extracts. 2000 words approximately overall; 550700 words approximately per text. 30 From the following: newspaper and magazine (3) , reports, novels and (4) , advertisements, correspondence, messages and informational material such as brochures, manuals and guides. multiple choice, (5) text, multiple matching. Understanding gist, main points, detail, text structure or specific information, or deducing meaning. For all parts of this paper candidates indicate their answers by shading the correct lozenges on the answer sheet. (6) Questions in Parts 1 and 2 carry two marks. Questions in Part 3 carry (7)

Length of texts Questions Text types

Task types Task focus

Answer format

Timing Marks Part

Task type and format

Task focus

Number of questions 8

Multiple choice A text followed by (8) -option multiple-choice questions.

Detail, opinion, gist, deducing meaning

Gapped text A text from which (9) have been removed and placed in jumbled order after the text. Candidates must decide from where in the text the sentences have been removed.

Text structure

Multiple matching A text or (10) short texts preceded by multiplematching questions. Candidates must match prompts to elements in the text.

Specific information, detail, opinion and attitude

15

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FCE Reading Overview Activity Students Worksheet 1

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FCE Reading Overview Activity Students Worksheet 2

Understanding Reading Strategies Activity Think about what approach you would use when reading in these different situations. How would your way of reading be different in each situation?

1 2 3 4 5 6

looking for a location on a department store floor guide looking at the front page of the newspaper on a bus, a few minutes before your stop reading a short story assembling something using an instruction manual choosing a holiday-read by looking at the back of a book looking at a sign in a foreign language

Now match these definitions to each of the situations above.

A B C D E F

reading for gist reading for the main points reading for detailed understanding reading for specific information deducing meaning following a narrative

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FCE Reading Overview Activity Students Worksheet 1

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