During any exam review, a great deal of value is placed on collecting the views and feedback of all those who are involved in the examination process. Consultation on possible modifications to the FCE (First Certificate in English) and CAE (Certificate in Advanced English) exams continues on schedule.
An invitational meeting was held in Cambridge during April for representatives of ELT organisations such as publishers, the British Council, English UK, Local Secretaries from various exam centres, and Senior Team Leaders who represent Cambridge ESOL Oral Examiners.
Seminars were held throughout the world in February and March to obtain teachers’ and other stakeholders’ views on suggested changes to FCE and CAE. The seminars took place in Italy (Rome and Milan), Germany (Cologne), Switzerland (Bern), Spain (Madrid and Barcelona), Poland (Wroclaw and Krakow), Romania (Bucharest), Argentina (Buenos Aires) and the UK (London and Brighton).
The entire consultation process, together with detailed research into new and amended task types by Cambridge ESOL’s Research & Validation Group, has led to a number of changes being considered, including:
- an overall reduction in the length of the exams
Reducing the length of the exams, without reducing the number of components or making the exams any less challenging, could help to make them more accessible for candidates. - making CAE more relevant to the needs of the general language learner
This would bring CAE more closely in line with the other Main Suite exams as BEC (Business English Certificate) is now widely available to candidates seeking exams with a professional focus. The proposed changes provide for a wider range of sources for reading texts and the inclusion of the set texts for the Writing paper. - introducing gapped sentences into the Use of English and English in Use papers
This task is currently included in CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English) and tests the learner’s lexical knowledge productively in a range of contexts. It has a good impact on classroom teaching as it supports the teaching of different meanings of the same word, and the grammatical properties of words. - reducing the input length in CAE Writing Part 1
FCE and CPE work well with shorter input; it provides the required level of standardisation of response, but allows candidates more freedom in their writing.
Centres in 30 countries have already taken part in trials of new and modified FCE and CAE tasks, with participants in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and Africa. More trialling is scheduled for this year to test out thoroughly any possible additions or amendments to the exams. Changes made as part of the review process will not be introduced before December 2008, to allow plenty of time for publishers, schools and teachers to prepare for the updated exams.
A series of bulletins giving further information on the changes being considered can be found at www.CambridgeESOL.org/FCE or www.CambridgeESOL.org/CAE
The success of Cambridge exams – those proposed, those in early stages of development and those which have existed for a number of years – relies on collaboration with the wider community. Cambridge ESOL welcomes all comments on the proposed changes.
Please send your views and feedback to ESOLconsultation@CambridgeESOL.org