Writing Examination Report - Test 056

Transcription

1 Skills for Life Entry 2 Writing Examination Report - Test 056 September 2006 University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations 1 Hills Road Cambridge CB1 2EU United Kingdom Tel Fax ESOL@CambridgeESOL.org UCLES 2006 EMC 4369b 6Y10

2 Skills for Life Writing (Entry 2) Examination Report This report is based on candidate performance on Skills for Life (Writing) tests between September 2005 and May It also includes data collected from a questionnaire completed by candidates, which asks them to supply details of their age, gender, experience of English and first language(s). The report is intended as an aid to teachers and colleges in preparing candidates for future Cambridge ESOL Skills for Life (Writing) tests. It includes a number of sample candidate answers accompanied by examiner comments. Entry 2 (Test 056) The three tasks in this test were loosely based around the theme of food. They were: an to a friend giving directions and confirming arrangements for a meal, a questionnaire about food and health and a description, written for a teacher, about eating habits in a particular country. There were 33 marks available on the paper. The breakdown of marks available for each assessment (Text, Sentence and Word) is shown below: Text Sentence Word Task Task Task Overall, most candidates performed well on the paper with 88.5% of candidates scoring the 19 or more marks required to pass. The average mark was 24.4 (73.9%). Candidates performed most strongly in the Word ; the average mark was 4.8 out of 6. Performance in Text and Sentence foci was also good, with candidates scoring an average of 9.3 out of 12 in Text and 10.3 out of 15 in Sentence. Task 1. to Fatima In Task 1, candidates scored almost equally well in both Text and Sentence (as the task was an , there was no assessment of Word features), scoring on average 7.2 marks out of a possible maximum 9. Candidates seemed well prepared for this task. All three points were usually addressed, with most students providing very full explanations of the directions. Most candidates used an appropriate style and produced answers showing awareness of audience. Task 2. Food and Health Questionnaire Candidates generally scored better in Word than Sentence. Candidates were able to use a wide range of vocabulary for both food and health. The description of a healthy person was tackled either as a person in general, or as a person the candidate knew both provided the opportunity to produce compound sentences and better candidates were able to produce answers above E2 level. 1

3 Task 3. Description of eating habits Of the three tasks, candidates dealt least well with Task 3, though the average mark was still above the pass boundary. On average, candidates scored 10.6 marks out of a maximum 15. Most candidates covered all three of the content points. Better candidates were able to produce a variety of compound sentences, to use a range of appropriate food-related vocabulary and to provide an overview and a conclusion. Candidate Information 59% of candidates taking the test were female and the largest proportions were aged between 21 and 30 (40.2%) or 31 and 50 (35.4%). The largest proportion of candidates (30.7%) reported that they had between 6 months and one year s experience of learning English; nearly 12% said they had been learning English for less than 6 months. Speakers of at least 55 first languages took this version of the test, the most common being Polish (15.8%), Farsi (5.5%), Somali (5.1%), Arabic (4.3%), and Portuguese (4.3%). 4.5% of candidates reported that they spoke two first languages. 2

4 Recommendations for Candidate Preparation All Cambridge ESOL Skills for Life tests are based closely on the Adult ESOL Core Curriculum and cover all the Basic Skills Standards in each mode at each level. Therefore, by following the Adult ESOL Core Curriculum, teachers will be preparing their students for the tests. Candidates will benefit from being reminded of the following Dos and Don'ts: Do Don t complete all the tasks in the paper. make use of the guidelines which tell you how much to write and how much time to spend on each task. make sure that your handwriting is clear and easy to read. read the task instructions carefully and check that you have done what the instructions say. think carefully about your relationship to the intended audience and your reason for writing. write in sentences where you are asked to do so. make use of appropriate opening and closing formulae (e.g. Dear Fatima and See you) in notes and s. spend time planning your answers. spend time checking your answers for accurate spelling and grammar. worry if you run out of space: your Centre will provide extra paper which will be marked in the normal way. write a full, rough copy of your answer. Just write a few notes to plan your answer. write in pencil. spend too long on one answer Sample Scripts Sample scripts are provided for each task in the question paper. Please note that it is not possible to reproduce the original candidate answers, and so any references in the commentaries to quality of handwriting will not be reflected in the samples provided. 3

5 Entry 2 (Test 056) Sample Scripts and Commentaries Entry 2 Script A Task 1 (About 15 minutes) You are cooking a meal for your friend Fatima on Saturday. Fatima sends you this . Hi! Thank you for your invitation. I can come on Saturday. - What can I bring? - How do I get to your home? - What time is the meal? See you Saturday! Fatima Write an to Fatima. Answer her questions. Write about 40 words. To: Fatima@xlx.co.uk Subject: Re: Saturday Hi Fatima! I'm karin. I'm pleased for your . You can birng for me one wine. You can get on by bus or train way. bus number is 15 or 16 and train way goes to Leeds. We meal dinner at 9 o'clock. My address write for you once again! 12 Cooper rd Leeds see you then karin (Total: 9 marks) 4

6 Entry 2 Script A Commentary Band Mark Text Candidate has attempted to cover all three points, but poor organisation and cohesion make message difficult to follow. 2 4 Sentence Candidate uses simple sentences without conjunctions; little control over word order and problems with verb tenses. 1 1 Word Word is not assessed in this task. 5

7 Entry 2 Script B Task 1 (About15minutes) You are cooking a meal for your friend Fatima on Saturday. Fatima sends you this . Hi! Thank you for your invitation. I can come on Saturday. - What can I bring? - How do I get to your home? - What time is the meal? See you Saturday! Fatima Write an to Fatima. Answer her questions. Write about 40 words. To: Fatima@xlx.co.uk Subject: Re: Saturday Hi Fatima how are you. Can come in Saturdy in lainch. I bring meal at home. I bareber nacs food I wash a nacs day and this time is about owe a colooke I wayet for the lainch. see you in saturday ana (Total: 9 marks) 6

8 Entry 2 Script B Commentary Band Mark Text Candidate shows awareness of task, but text is mainly incoherent with little evidence of organisation or awareness of audience. 1 1 Sentence Little evidence of control of basic structure. Meaning is often difficult to decipher. 1 1 Word Word is not assessed in this task. 7

9 Entry 2 Script C Task 2 (About 15 minutes) At the supermarket you fill in a questionnaire about food and health. Answer the questions. Food and Health Questionnaire Name: Li Jian How often do you go shopping at the supermarket? About one or two times a week What kind of fruit do you buy? I usually buy apples, pears, oranges water melon and so on What kind of vegetables do you buy? I always buy potato tomato pea lemon and so on Describe the life of a healthy person. (Write about 40 words. Write in sentences.) The healthy person must do much sports during his life. The healthy person must not smoke during his life. They must sleep early and wake up early. They eat vegetables more than food and drink much water. (Total: 9 marks) 8

10 Entry 2 Script C Commentary Band Mark Text Text is not assessed in this task. Sentence Candidate has used simple sentences accurately with some repetition and limited evidence of use of conjunctions to link phrases. 2 4 Word Relevant key words are spelt correctly

11 Entry 2 Script D Task 2 (About 15 minutes) At the supermarket you fill in a questionnaire about food and health. Answer the questions. Food and Health Questionnaire Name: Karim Ali How often do you go shopping at the supermarket? Three times a week What kind of fruit do you buy? I buy rice and fish and checken, eggs and cheese What kind of vegetables do you buy? I buy tomato potatos and lots of things Describe the life of a healthy person. (Write about 40 words. Write in sentences.) I would like eat rice and carry chips. I like slad because slad is good for healthy. I like potato carry because potato is good for health and I like tomato with anything and like eat cheese I know cheese is not good for health. (Total: 9 marks) 10

12 Entry 2 Script D Commentary Band Mark Text Text is not assessed in this task. Sentence Some evidence of use of compound sentences. Some control over basic verb tenses. Full stops and capitals are used consistently as boundary markers. 2 4 Word Key vocabulary is sometimes misspelled

13 Entry 2 Script E Task 3 (About 20 minutes) Your English class is doing a project on food in different countries. Write a description of the food from a country you know. Write about: meal times everyday food food for celebrations. Write words. The meal time about owe a clooke and every day we eat riez and chepes vegetables chean and I love this meal my favet is riez. Celebratione food is we have met and peper soess with bered. and chean wthis eagg. (Total: 15 marks) 12

14 Entry 2 Script E Commentary Band Mark Text Candidate has attempted to cover the task and audience would receive some information. However, frequent inaccuracy causes incoherence. 2 3 Sentence Poor control over sentence grammar results in confusion over meaning. 1 1 Word Although writing is legible candidate is not always able to spell familiar common words accurately

15 Entry 2 Script F Task 3 (About 20 minutes) Your English class is doing a project on food in different countries. Write a description of the food from a country you know. Write about: meal times everyday food food for celebrations. Write words. China China is a very old country. There is a big country. It's the 3th biggest country in the world. Chinese food are very nice. Rice, noodle and so on. The chinese people usually have lunch at 12:00 and dinner at 6:30 on afternoon. There are two meals a day. Rice is everyday food in China. Spring Festival is most important festival in China. On New Year' Eve, chinese people always have great dinner. There are so much food as celebrate New Year coming. There are fish, lamb, beef, chiken and dumpling. It make my mouth water. These all about China. Thank you for reading. (Total: 15 marks) 14

16 Entry 2 Script F Commentary Band Mark Text All main points are covered. Text is organised and coherent. 3 6 Sentence Although candidate has sufficient control of sentence grammar for meaning to be communicated, there are several lapses in basic structure such as noun-verb agreement. 3 5 Word Candidate displays a good range of vocabulary with appropriate spelling