Skills for Life Teaching Resources

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• Reading Entry 1-3
• Writing Entry 1-3
  1. About the Paper
  2. Classroom Activities
  3. Skills Development
  4. Other Information
• Writing Levels 1 and 2
• Speaking and Listening Entry 1-3
• Speaking and Listening Levels 1 and 2

Answers and Discussion

 

Look at the discussion of the points raised by the sample Note or message (including email) task. What would you recommend to your students as the most efficient strategies for dealing with this task?

1. What did you underline when you read the instructions?
   It is important to read all parts of the instructions carefully. The first sentence will usually establish the scenario. If candidates concentrate on the bullet points without reading the opening sentence properly, they may be in danger of missing the context and writing inappropriate or irrelevant information.
2. How did you begin and end your email?
   Candidates should be aware of who it is they are writing to so that they can use opening and closing expressions with the appropriate level of formality.
3. What functional features did you include?
   It is important for candidates to respond appropriately to instructions. They should be aware of key instruction words which are likely to come up at this level (e.g. say, tell, explain).
4. Which grammatical features did you include?
   At Entry 2, candidates are required to be able to use simple question forms and basic modal forms. It is important to give sufficient practice of the kind of grammatical structures expected at each level.