the topic analysing various aspects of a topic.
Another writing task could be a book review. The students will have to
know how to plan and organize the review, giving brief information about an
author and some essential details about a book. Moreover, personal opinion
of the students will be required as well.
Thus, looking at the facts stated above we can declare that the writing
part of CFC is purely integrative type of test, for it involves all
possible written tasks and strategies that should be used to accomplish the
tasks effectively. Furthermore, it will be a direct testing aimed at
testing the students’ writing skills. The tasks and activities presented in
this part of CFC reflect the students’ needs they may meet in a real-life
situation, for every possible writing piece is given.
The writing part of TOEFL test will generally involve essay writing.
There will not be any letters or book reviews. The students will be given a
topic that is typically a statement and they will have to expand it and
write about it giving the facts, ideas and sometimes even a personal
opinion, i.e.: “ If the earth to be saved from environmental catastrophe,
we shall all have to make major changes in our lifestyles” (Gear, Cambridge
preparation for the TOEFL test, 1996). This type of writing will focus on
expressing ideas and their linking as well. To write a good essay the
students will require the knowledge of the topic, or schemata, the
knowledge of a relevant vocabulary, appropriate style and organization of
the written text, i.e. thesis sentence, paragraphs, etc (examples available
in Appendix p. 377 – 378).
Therefore, we can conclude that the writing part of TOEFL test could be
called also an integrative type of test involving the range of strategies.
Moreover, it could be defined as direct testing, for it implies testing
exactly the writing skill. Furthermore, it is totally based on the
knowledge how to organize an essay with all necessary paragraphs,
introductions and conclusions.
Use of English or Structure and Written Expressions
An import role in both tests is occupied by use of English or as it is
called in TOEFL Structure and Written Expressions part. It aims at testing
the students’ knowledge of grammar and vocabulary used in the English
language.
CFC offers the students a range of various activities and task to be done
during the testing time. They are multiple choice cloze, open cloze, key
word transformations, error correction and word formation. Whereas, the
usual procedure of the same part in TOEFL test will mostly include multiple-
choice cloze and error correction.
The multiple choice cloze in CFC will usually be in the form of a gapped
text followed by fifteen multiple questions with four options, as always
the only one will be the correct. It will mostly be concerned with
vocabulary items or grammar issues (examples available in Appendix p.44).
For example:
Robin Williams was creative and gifted from an early age. He was a/an
(1)_______________child and at school was always a (2)_____________pupil:
he wrestled, ran cross-country and worked (3)_____________at his studies.
1. A imaginary B imaginative C fantastic D mythical
2. A classic B model C superior D spoilt
3. A quickly B easily C hard D fast
Prodromou, First Certificate Star,
1998
Open cloze will mostly be presented in the form of a text with several
spaces, which the students will have to complete with an appropriate word.
It will imply the students’ knowledge of grammar and vocabulary and will
involve the students’ ability to predict and guess from the context
(examples available in Appendix p.94). The task will be rather complicated,
for it will not be a C-test type where the words to be inserted preserve
the initial letter or letters to make the guessing process easier. In our
case the students will have to know how the words and phrases are connected
together, how the sentences are linked, and they will have to know the
grammar forms and structures, so, for example, if they see have/has, they
should immediately know that Present perfect is used. For example:
When you join the International Bird Society, your membership
(1)_____________ make a positive difference to birds everywhere – even if
the only ones you see are the blue tits…..
Prodromou, First Certificate Star,
1998
Key word transformations will make the students alter the sentences
structures, however preserving the entire meaning of them. They will have
to complete a sentence with a given word; here the vocabulary and grammar
will be of major interest again (examples available in Appendix p.86). The
usual change will occur with phrasal verbs, active and passive voice, verbs
and prepositions that go together, etc.:
1. I didn’t like the story and I didn’t like the actors. neither
I ______________________the actors.
Prodromou, First Certificate Star,
1998
Error correction will implement the students’ knowledge of grammar
structures. The students will receive a passage in which they will have to
find incorrect item and highlight it (examples available in Appendix p.55).
Such types of activities will usually include an extra or unnecessary word.
These words could be relative pronouns, prepositions, articles,
conjunctions, etc. For example:
________ If you want to find out about someone’s personality, one way of
to do it is to
________take a sample of their handwriting and analyse it; this is called
by
________graphology. To do graphology properly, it is important to use
fairly typical…..
Prodromou, First Certificate Star, 1998
Word formation will based on completing a text by making an appropriate
word form from a word stem given, i.e. discover – discovery (examples
available in Appendix p.104). This part will focus mainly on vocabulary,
especially on word formation rules. Here the knowledge of suffixes and
prefixes will be essential for the students. For example:
Who is mad? Cows or farmers?
Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis is a (1)___________ brain DEAD
Disorder found amongst cows. As this medical term is almost
(2) _________for the majority of ordinary people to say, the illness
POSSIBLE
is (3)________known as Mad Cow Disease. POPULAR
Prodromou, First Certificate Star, 1998
Concerning TOEFL test, we might say that it is similar to CFC use of
English; however, it displays just several types of tasks. As we have
already mentioned they are error correction and multiple choice cloze.
Multiple choice cloze typically consists of a range of statements in which
there will be a certain grammar structure missing. It is usually based on
grammar, than on vocabulary (examples available in Appendix p. 385 – 386).
The students will have to know how the subject and predicate go together,
how the words and sentence parts are linked with each other. For example:
1. --------infinitely large number of undiscovered galaxies.
A) An
B) There are an
C) From an
D) Since there are
Gear, Cambridge preparation for the TOEFL test, 1996
Error correction will differ from that in CFC, for in TOEFL test we will
have a statement with the underlined words that are supposed to be wrong.
The students will have to choose the correct variant (examples available in
Appendix p. 387 – 390). It will usually be based on the students’ knowledge
of grammar items and word formation as well. For example:
Drying food by means of solar energy is ancient process applied wherever
food and climate conditions
A B C D
make it possible.
Gear, Cambridge preparation for the TOEFL test, 1996
In conclusion we can state that Use of English is both discreet and
integrative type of testing, for in some tasks of CFC the knowledge of word
formation is demanded, but in some grammar will be included either.
The Use of English of CFC and TOEFL will be a direct testing, for it will
test the students’ grammar and vocabulary knowledge.
Speaking
Speaking is another part of the test that is present in CFC and is not
included into TOEFL test. It could be explained by the fact that if the
student passes TOEFL test successfully, s/he will be interviewed directly
at the place s/he needed the test for.
Therefore, will briefly look at CFC speaking part and discuss it. It aims
at the students’ ability to use spoken language effectively in different
types of interaction. The students could be asked to give personal
information, talk about pictures and photographs, be involved in pair work
task or even in discussion.
In personal information part the students could be asked to supply the
personal details about themselves: i.e. their job, family position,
studies, etc.( examples available in Appendix 10 – 11).
In describing pictures or photographs they will have to share their
opinion about them speaking with an examiner. There will be a time limit
set for the talk.
In pair work task and discussion the students will be supplied either by
pictures or photos or by charts and diagrams. They will be joined in pairs
Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
