ESOL Skills for Life

Writing test

All Writing tasks are designed to reflect the everyday experience of the ESOL learner. The Writing paper will draw on authentic or semi-authentic texts and task types, and provides an opportunity for candidates to use and respond to language in a similar way to that which is asked of them in daily life. Dictionaries may not be used in any of the Writing tests.

Focus

At each level, the Writing mode aims to gather evidence that the candidate can write in different forms and communicate with different intended audiences. This involves awareness of different levels of formality, and an ability to use a range of lexical and grammatical features appropriate to the task.

Format

Question papers in the Writing mode may be linked thematically, forming a scenario both familiar and relevant to the target candidature, giving authentic reasons for writing in each case. Candidates need to produce at least two of the types of output texts required at the level.

Text/task types

There is no fixed format of task and item types. All tasks aim to reflect a real-world writing purpose, and are designed to be accessible in terms of genre and topic to all adult learners at the level.

Marking

No input is required from teachers/colleges. Reading papers will be marked by a combination of clerical marking and Optical Mark Reader, under the supervision of a team of trained, professional examiners.

Writing mode sample papers

Download the Skills for Life Writing sample papers and mark schemes.