Teacher's Guide to Preparing for FCE.pdf

Penguin Readers

Teacher’s Guide

to Preparing for FCE

Carolyn Walker

Contents

General

The FCE set texts

The advantages of choosing to study a set text

Extensive reading

Examination advantages

Managing the set book option

Choosing the book

Balancing the set book with other aspects of FCE preparation

Preparing for the set book option

The exam questions

Exam tips

Working on aspects of the book

Plot and scene

Character

Setting

Themes

Evaluating the book

Remembering and revising the book

Photocopiable Student's Worksheets

1 FCE question types (1)

2 FCE question types (2)

3 A sample essay

4 Character timelines

5 Analysis of the plot

6 Who’s who

7 Character factfile

8 Character poster

9 Magazine interview

10 Personality chart

11 Characters on trial

12 Essential items for a visit

13 Working with themes

14 Evaluating the book

General

Are your students preparing to take the UCLES First

Certificate in English examination (FCE)? If so, you

probably know that FCE candidates may choose to write an

answer in Paper 2 (Writing Paper) on one of a choice of

set reading texts. This guide is designed to help you

prepare your students for this part of the exam. It will also

show you the ways in which choosing this option will be

beneficial for your students.

The FCE set texts

Every year UCLES prescribes as set texts a list of five

books, which may be novels, collections of short stories or

plays. The books may be original texts, or they may be

‘simplified’ versions (graded readers) which match the

level of language comprehension required for the FCE

exam. Each book stays on the list for two years. Up-to-

date lists can be found in the Exam Regulations published

every year by UCLES. Some examples from recent years

are 1 :

EXTENSIVE READING

Reading a lot is good for you! Most teachers will agree

that substantial reading is a vital part of the preparation

needed for an exam such as the FCE. Students who read

widely stand a much better chance of passing or

increasing their grade, simply because reading improves

both their knowledge of language and their language skills.

Research into extensive reading bears out teachers’

intuitions: there are many valuable language benefits and

other benefits to be gained from extensive reading:

Language knowledge and skills

Reading a lot of material at the right level will give learners

valuable exposure to language (‘comprehensible input’),

reinforcing language learnt in class and helping in the

language acquisition process. For example, Krashen claims

that writing is largely learnt through reading (1993: pages

7 and 72) 2 , and that substantial vocabulary is acquired

through reading (1993). Moreover, he also argues that

spelling is mainly learnt through reading, instruction being

minimally effective. Other writers have claimed that

extensive reading:

Edgar Allen Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination (graded

reader)

Ernest Hemingway, The Old man and the Sea (any version)

A Window on the Universe (collection of short stories -

unsimplified text)

John Briley, Cry Freedom (graded reader)

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (graded reader)

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (graded reader)

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (graded reader)

Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca (graded reader)

Best Detective Stories of Agatha Christie (unsimplified

text)

helps learners to acquire grammar (e.g. Elley 1991)

helps learners to acquire vocabulary (Pitts et al. 1989,

Elley 1991, Grabe 1995)

improves writing ability (Hafiz and Tudor 1989);

improves reading skills including automatic letter and

word recognition, reading comprehension, reading

strategies (Robb & Susser 1989, Grabe 1995, Hafiz

and Tudor 1989)

improves other language skills (eg speaking) and

overall language proficiency (Elley and Manghubai

1981, Elley 1991)

The principal reason that UCLES offers this option is ‘to

encourage extended reading as a basis for the enrichment

of language study.’ (UCLES 1997 FCE Handbook: page

17) 2 . The primary purpose is not literary criticism. Rather,

candidates are offered the possibility in Paper 2 (Writing

Paper), Part 2, Question 5, of simply showing that they

have ‘read and appreciated a set text.’ (reference as

above). However, as can be seen from the above list, the

set texts also function as an introduction to some of the

better known works of English fiction.

The reading habit

On the affective level, reading books a t the right level of

difficulty will encourage ‘the reading habit’. Students will

feel positive towards material they can understand without

great difficulty, and will therefore gain in confidence so

that they will read more and more. In this way they will

have lots of practice in reading in English and so their

comprehension skills will improve. As it is often said, ‘You

learn to read by reading’.

Moreover, if students feel confident in reading in a

foreign language, they will have access to a valuable

learning resource which is not dependent on other people

such as teachers or native speakers. It is also possible that

students will learn to enjoy reading in the foreign language

and so they will have a means for ‘useful relaxation’.

The advantages of choosing

to study a set text

There are two main groups of advantages of choosing to

study a set text. The first has to do with the fact that

students will be involved in reading extensively at a level of

difficulty which matches their ability. The second area of

importance relates specifically to the FCE exam itself and

its preparation.

For details of the particular editions on the UCLES list, refer to the UCLES FCE Handbook.

2 For all references, see page 17 of this guide, References and suggestions for further reading.

Cultural content

Through reading books in a foreign language, students will

improve their understanding of its culture. Access to the

cultural information contained in novels and stories will

enhance and build the background knowledge which is

such an important factor in reading comprehension.

especially at higher educational levels. Thus, the set book

option offers the possibility to extend significantly an

important aspect of students’ reading skills.

Managing the set book

option

CHOOSING THE BOOK

Having decided that you will offer your students the

chance to prepare for the set book option, there are a

number of issues to consider in choosing which book to

study.

1. First you will need to decide whether you will select one

book for the whole class to work on, or whether you

will be able to let students work on different books,

either individually or in groups.

2. Then there is the question of expense . Each student will

need a copy of the book to which they can refer

regularly. It is best if the students can have a book

each. However, it may be possible for students to share

a book, or to withdraw the book from time to time from

the class or school library.

3. UCLES’ list of set books would seem to vary in

difficulty . For example, in the list of set book titles given

above, the vocabulary sizes range from perhaps 1800

words to unsimplified texts. However, unsimplified texts

will balance the relatively difficult vocabulary with easier

plot lines. Thus your students may cope with

unsimplified texts without much difficulty, or you may

feel that they would be better with a simplified text. In

general, however, it is important that extensive reading

texts do not contain a large number of unknown words.

If students are constantly having to refer to their

dictionaries, the reading process will be difficult and off-

putting, and students will not enjoy the books. As a

rough guide, it has been suggested that a ‘comfortable’

level of difficulty can be gauged by a ‘ rule of hand’ , that

is, if there are more than five unknown words on a

page, the text is likely to be too difficult for pleasurable

extensive reading. 1

4. Finally, in the five books to choose from, each one will

usually have quite different themes and subject matter .

You can obviously make a decision on the text yourself.

However, motivation to read is very important in

extensive reading, so you will need to decide which

book would be the most interesting and engaging for

your students. It is a good idea to allow the students to

help make the decision. There are several ways to do

this:

EXAMINATION ADVANTAGES

The set book question

The first, obvious point here is that reading one of the set

books increases the number of questions available to the

candidate in Paper 2, Part 2. UCLES is keen for students to

opt for a set text. To quote a recent exam report: ‘Students

should be encouraged to read one of the background texts

and consider choosing Question 5 in Part 2. They will

always have a choice of two tasks.’(UCLES 1997 FCE

Examination Report: page 10)

Secondly, examination markers and teachers who have

taught FCE set books tend to agree that choosing to

answer a set book question is a very good option.

Candidates who choose one of these questions often

produce very good answers and therefore tend to get

slightly higher marks than for the other questions in Part 2

of the Writing Paper. There are, no doubt, various possible

reasons for this, of which some must have to do with a

certain ‘predictability’ of the questions. If students have

read the book and are reasonably familiar with the plot,

setting, characters and themes, they will have ready-made

ideas for answers to most of the questions which are likely

to be set. In other words, they should not have to think

very hard during the exam for something to write about.

Moreover, through reading, understanding and discussing

the book, they will learn the vocabulary they will need to

use when they come to write their exam answer, which

also has obvious advantages.

Critical reading skills

Most reading tasks, whether in class or in the FCE exam

itself, operate at the level of basic comprehension of the

text, whether this relates to the language or the content.

However, in reading and preparing for the set book

questions, learners have the opportunity to read in a way

which is relatively unusual in today’s foreign language

classrooms but which is a crucially important aspect of the

reading skill. Specifically, the set book option asks for the

reader’s own interpretations and selections of what is

particularly salient, significant or interesting for her/him.

The candidate is asked to read ‘critically’, in other words to

articulate a personal response to the text, to say what they

like or dislike, agree or disagree with, to suggest

alternatives to aspects of the text or to relate what they

read to their own circumstances. Reading critically is a

skill which students need in all areas of the curriculum and

You can give students a very brief summary of each

book (two or three lines) to find out which they think

they will like the most.

1 Day, RR & Bamford. 1998. Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. page 122

Or you could photocopy the summaries of the books on

the back cover for students to look at. After they have

seen the summaries, students could discuss their

opinions and possibly take a vote.

time in class actually reading. Rather, it is suggested that

you treat the book as extensive reading that students

mainly do out of class time, and that you use class time

for working on aspects of the book.

You could give students a questionnaire to find out in

general what kind of books they like to read: horror?

romance? detective stories? etc. Use this information to

help you make your decision.

Time needed for reading the book

You will need to calculate how much time students will

need to read the set book. In this way you can set

realistic reading targets and you can make sure that

enough time is allowed for the set book preparation. As

a very rough guide, and assuming the level of the book

is about right for the students, they should manage to

read at a rate of about 150 words per minute. Thus a

book of around 85 pages with about 300 words per

page should take approximately three hours to read 1 .

So if students read, say, for half an hour per week, they

would need six weeks to complete the reading. For

longer books, you will obviously need a longer period

to do the reading, or to increase the time spent reading

per week. It is important to remember, however, that

there are very great variations between individuals in

their speed of reading. This is true regardless of their

level of English.

You could give a copy of each of the books on the list

to certain students and ask them to read the book and

make a recommendation to the class.

It is assumed in this guide that teachers will treat the set

book as a class reader. However it is also possible for

students working on their own to make use of the

Worksheets at the back of this guide.

BALANCING THE SET BOOK WITH

OTHER ASPECTS OF FCE

PREPARATION

There is a lot to do to prepare for the Cambridge FCE, so

the time needed for work on the set book option will have

to be carefully assessed and planned for. If students are

going to prepare the set book sufficiently well to be able to

answer a question on it, they will need to:

It is a good idea to divide the book into five or six

manageable ‘chunks’, say three-to-five chapters, or 15-20

pages, and set these for regular homework reading every

week.

If time allows, you may wish to read aloud a part of each

section to your students and ask them to finish the reading

at home. Alternatively, as many graded readers are

recorded on tape or on CD Rom, you could play the

soundtrack while students follow the text in the book.

People of all ages enjoy being read to, whether in their

native language or in the foreign language. Hearing the

words will both help students with their pronunciation

(and with the reading process since knowing how words

sound is an important factor in reading), and also whet

their appetites for more and so increase motivation.

Always finish the reading aloud with a few questions

asking students to say what they think will happen next.

read the book

understand the book

respond to and evaluate the book

review and revise the book

remember the book

Reading the book

First of all, ask yourself whether your students are already

accustomed to reading extensively. If not, it is a good idea

to allow them to get used to reading easy books

extensively sometime before they will need to read their

set book. You may need to explain the purposes of

extensive reading to them. Ideally, in an extensive reading

programme, students:

develop their reading fluency

read for the meaning rather than to study language or

to translate it

read easy material

Understanding the book

Before reading the book

Before students start to read the set book, introduce it to

them so that their interest is immediately aroused. There

are many ways to do this (see for example: Penguin

Readers Teacher’s Guide to Using Graded Readers,

Penguin Readers Teacher’s Guide to Using Film and TV ,

and the references at the end of this guide). Here are a few

suggestions:

read a lot

read fast

choose what they read

enjoy what they read

stop if they don’t like the book they have chosen

(The last point will, of course, not apply to the FCE set

book!) For more information on extensive reading see the

Penguin Readers Teacher’s Guide to Using Graded Readers

(available from Pearson Education offices worldwide) and

the references at the end of this guide.

Although you may be working with the set book as a

class reader, it is not recommended that you spend a lot of

If you have not already done so when choosing the

book, look at the book cover and story summary. If the

book contains pictures, look at these. Ask for

predictions about: the type of book, where and when

1 Day & Bamford 1998: page 85

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