Revised Cambridge English: Young Learners tests – an overview

Important news for all YLE teachers & schools out there - suggest you pay careful attention to the changes & plan accordingly.

Please don't ask me for new sample or practice materials - the ink is still very wet!

Likewise, SEs, I'm trying to find out when the new materials will be available & implications for certification before the 2018 changes take effect. See the section from 22'35 - 25'00 & a comment at 47'

Postcard from....Tokyo

Puppet-master Jim

Hi everyone, and sorry to all our Saturday students (I have not seen you for ages!)

This weekend I have been busy in Tokyo, training teachers in Ikebukuro to become speaking examiners for Young Learners & also First Certificate. As you know, these are exams we have been offering at Luna for many years now - we will be holding YLE again in October, FCE in December.

Only experienced and professional teachers are eligible to undertake the training, and even then are required to re-certify annually.

So we should congratulate our Damian, who completed all the training necessary to become an SE for Starters, Movers and Flyers (to add to FCE, CAE & CPE levels he acquired recently).  We are proud to encourage our staff to develop their professional skills, and grateful of the time & effort this has required. I am sure Damian will be transferring his examiner skills into his classes immediately.

Damian in training - YLE Starters

Of course, I found a nice pub. This time the Tap Room in Takadanobaba, part of the very good Baird Brew group. A healthy variety of craft beers but a daft ordering/billing system; I guess if you drink enough, the inconvenience is overcome. A very pleasant evening cutting with new teacher/examiner colleagues form Australia, the Philippines, UK, USA, and Canada....ironically nearly everyone actually living in Gifu. Must go there soon!

Luna YLE Certificates - lots of happy faces

I am delighted to report that Luna's Young Learners took Cambridge ESOL Young Learners (YLE) exams at the end of October, and that everyone really enjoyed themselves (bar one - bit of a crayon tantrum...) and even surprised themselves with what they COULD do!

Some students were taking Starters for the very first time, and were understandably nervous/not quite sure what was going to happen. Of course, we had had a run through of various tasks leading up to their big day (without making it a big deal - see no point in exam prep for the exam's sake) but that had always been co-operative & familiar. On the day, no looking around, peeping, surruptitious pencil dropping, reading out loud, putting hands up, gawping at the teacher etc!

Other students had done it before, and were quite aware (from mum, not us!) that they needed to improve on last year's scores...and I think by and large we all achieved that. Phew!!! Some of our older students moved up a level to have a go at Movers or Flyers, and they could see the difference. They had more time, for sure, but needed to be able to eg spell more, read longer passages, match vocabulary, tell a story...a big step up, and quite different to other tests they may take here in Japan (which, in my honest opinion, are basically exercises in translation/death by grammar and not worth the time/money wasted on them - purely intended to trick test-takers and pile on stress...not fair).

I was very happy that my students remembered 'how to' tips such as ignoring a question if they could not figure it out quickly. Always half a chance a light will go off later; if not, they have still answered all the other questions in time. What I also really like about the assessment of YLE (as in all other ESOL exams) is that the candidates are given the benefit of the doubt eg if their meaning is discernable but spelling a bit off, no real drama (unless spelling in eg listening is actually being tested).

We were very glad this year to welcome some candidates from Magnus' school in Okaya, and Rico's Organic English School in town. Thanks both of you for that, and for your help on the day.

You can see more happy YLE certificate holders on flickr, click here

Now we are busy pusing ahead, full of confidence and thinking about how much better we can do this year!

Spicing up the dialogue with returnees - slow it down!

Apologies about the accent with the character one the left (interviewer); memo to self = preview before publishing (and avoid accents on Xtranormal - they are thick & heavy).

Summer Holiday interview
by: lunajim
Hana & Suzu mash it up in Luna's YLE classsroom

My returnees can fly through a conversation on everyday topics in a very haphazard and blazee attitude; quickly, relevantly, but with very little thought/development beyond answering the question as fast as possible. That leaves me scrabbling to diagnose 'what happened' & sourcing more material  to develop the conversation...bored students, frustrated teacher, progress little. In flying through their exchanges my students realise their goal of saying "finished" as quickly as possible; how often do you say thay in a meeting, phone call or chatting with granny?

Kids love cartoons, and using the keyboard is a profound playing leveller - certainly in Japan; few kids here are fluent typists. This inevitably slows things down - mini aim - so that we can focus on getting the nuts & bolts right. Not necessarilly spelling for a conversation (but we are typing it so why not in the process of making sure we get the words in the right order?)

My kids also have a habit of clock watching (in this class); in this situation the clock is on my side the entire time. The conversation they are working up was in note form from last week, and they want to stretch 'my' time into an hour. So, short ansers won't achieve that goal - make the answers longer/detailed! In doing this, also means the director can add more movement/camera shifts/noises/poses etc. Students edit each other much more readily than softly softly teacher, so we have peer learning/teaching going on too (much more likely to take note than to me). As we get towards the top of the hour there's a 'hurry up' factor & a desire to see the finished product.

The xtranormal site needs a minute or three to 'cook' i.e. render the video...you'll have to wait until next week to see it in class :)  Oh, the antici----pation!

January review - warm glow of success!