City & Guilds English Blog

City & Guilds makes the 2013 top 100 Superbrands list!

We are delighted to announce that City & Guilds has been ranked No. 92 out of 1,500 brands which were shortlisted for the 2013 Business Superbrands list in the UK.
This now places us amongst similarly ranked brands from 2012 such as Aviva, Eurotunnel, Skype and Cisco. To see the full list please click here.

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Can you actually enjoy a spoken exam?

Everybody has different experience in terms of spoken exams. School-leaving exams, entrance exams, state exams - for someone it means just formality but for someone else, it could be a nightmare that keeps returning for many years afterwards. However, we should all agree on one thing - a spoken exam is definitely not a situation which we could enjoy. Or is it? The fact that we submit ourselves to the merciful or unmerciful hands of the examiner during the exam is one of the most stressful factors. Another thing typically contributing to a bout of jitters regarding the spoken exam is the fact that it is a matter of luck. But how does it work with City & Guilds exams? Put your English on the hanger To alleviate the effect of these factors City & Guilds Spoken exams are organized in a different way. Only two persons participate in the exam: the candidate and the interlocutor, i.e. a person who leads the candidate through the oral exam. Interlocutors are trained to learn how to become a “hanger" where the candidate puts everything that s/he can do. As part of her role interlocutor is not supposed to evaluate the candidate’s performance at all and this is yet another important characteristic of the exams. As a direct result, the interlocutor can then concentrate on working it out with the candidate. The “it" here can stand both for a well-organised Spoken production and communicative success. His/her task is to ensure the maximum objectivity of the exams by strictly following the frame of the exams and at the same time maintain a friendly atmosphere which helps simulate real-life situations more easily. The interlocutor is on the same side of the football pitch as the candidate: at the moment of the exam the candidate has all the circumstances ready-made to enjoy the exam the same way as with his/her teacher. The candidate doesn’t often realise that their dialogue is being recorded and after it has finished, it is sent to City & Guilds Headquarters in the UK for assessment. When and where Another factor making the City & Guilds Spoken exam less stressful is the possibility that the candidate can decide to register for the exam only a few weeks before the actual exam (depends on the testing centre). A lot of us have experienced the situation when we sat for the exam but we felt so unprepared that we were paralysed by fear and we barely said a word during the exam. So why don’t we take a chance to sit for the exam only when we really want to or need to? How to prepare for the exam Many students preparing for City & Guilds exams literally bombard the testing centres with questions about available preparation materials. Of course, there is a range of such materials out there and you can use them for preparation from a wide selection of commonly used textbooks by renowned publishers, but thanks to the very general communicative skills tested during the exams it isn’t that important. The City & Guilds exams are structured (form and content) in such a way so that they can appropriately measure if the candidate is AT the level - and not how much s/he has prepared for the exam. If your English is at C1 level, you can take the exam Expert C1 but there is no need to spend sleepless nights memorizing so-called topics 14 days before the exam. So no more sleepless nights! I really enjoyed it In conclusion, there is one important feature of the City & Guilds exams which contributes to its popularity. The whole exam takes only from 7 - 15 minutes depending on the level. This time runs so fast thanks to its interesting content that candidates often remember the exam by saying "I actually really enjoyed it.“

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Communication or grammar, Article by Zuzana Lebedova, City & Guilds teacher trainer

In teaching and learning foreign languages, we can hardly survive without the word ’communicative’ to meet the current day demands of language learning. The challenge is that everybody has a different notion of this word. What does “communicative" mean then? We learn languages for a simple reason: we want to communicate. Language teaching should prepare us for communication in a foreign language. What is the reason of the argument between teachers and students arguing about whether communication or grammar is more important?The problem of communication vs grammar goes back to the history. The grammar translation method became ingrained in us through teachers of earlier days who applied this method during their lessons. In the 1950s there was a pragmatic change in linguistics moving the trend towards the communicative aspects of teaching and learning. It gave language teaching a direction: let’s communicate in a foreign language depending on our goals! If we need to communicate with a waiter in a restaurant, learning the whole system of grammar with its exceptions and irregularities will be a waste of time. However, it would be a mistake to imagine that teaching and learning grammar is unimportant. On the contrary. Grammar enables us to express connection between words. Grammar should be taught in a purposeful way. The Common European Framework for Languages (CEFR) is one of the upshots of communicative teaching. The CEFR is based on the “can do" skills in a foreign language: for example, I can introduce myself and say something about myself, I can understand news and films, I can write an informal letter and understand a manual for a computer. A language exam should be the closest simulation of the situations students will be exposed to during everyday language use. City & Guilds International ESOL and Spoken ESOL exams are perfectly adapted to fulfill this rehearsal role. Students get tested on what they can do: their ability to use the language in context. The testing situations are realistic, while grammar and vocabulary are tested through language functions within a communicative task. Article by Zuzana Lebedova, City & Guilds teacher trainer

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Can you listen communicatively? Try it out!

Can you listen communicatively? Let’s try it out!

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ASIA Computer Assisted Language Learning Conference in Ho Chi Minh by Robert Snell

ASIA Computer Assisted Language Learning Conference in Ho Chi Minh by Robert Snell

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City & Guilds Language Contest in the Czech Republic

City & Guilds English Language Contests 2012/13 supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in the Czech Republic This academic year is now the second one when City & Guilds is holding a national English language contest for secondary schools in the Czech Republic. After its overwhelming success in the previous academic year and due to its outstanding popularity, this time it has been approved by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth of the Czech Republic. The goal of the contest is to measure whether secondary school students participating in the contest would qualify in Communicator B2 or Expert C1 levels in all four language skills: Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing according to CEFR standards. As City & Guilds cares about excellence, it will provide all participating schools with the best possible professional support - a precondition in order to ensure that learners obtain an unforgettable and rewarding experience of City & Guilds English language tests during the contest. In addition, City & Guilds will reward the winners and their teachers with exciting prizes. The language contest is also sponsored by many important employers, both local and international, who have a vested interest in supporting English language learning among the upcoming generation of future potential employees. City & Guilds is proud to have acquired sponsors for the contest like English Books, Macmillan, Foxconn, Bridge Magazine, PROTRAVEL, among many others, with whom we can share the joint mission of improving and testing Czech learners’ English language competencies so they can enhance their opportunities in both academia and employment.

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IATEFL in Eger - presentation by David A. Hill

HARRISON AND THE ELT TEXTBOOKS

David A. Hill

Freelance, sponsored by City & Guilds

Starting from the English used by Harrison, a Ghanaian boy in a British primary school from Stephen Kelman’s 2011 Booker Short-listed novel Pigeon English, we will examine the nature of the Englishes are found in the real world. We will see how these relate to the English found in ELT textbooks, and what we might do in class to integrate them, thereby ensuring that our students can master the different codes necessary to succeed in the real world and the ELT educational world, not least in the passing of City & Guilds International Spoken ESOL.

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IATEFL-Poland Wroclaw 2012

Real Speaking for the real World & Whose culture are you teaching by David A. Hill (Freelance, sponsored by City & Guilds) This year City & Guilds were very honoured in sponsoring David A. Hill’s participation in the 2012 IATEFL in Poland. David’s presentations consisted of a workshop titled ‘Real Speaking for the real World’ and the closing plenary titled ‘Whose culture are your teaching’ and we are pleased to say both the workshop and plenary were a huge success with great interest from delegates at the conference and excellent feedback given at the City & Guilds exhibition stand. Real Speaking for the real World looked at the nature of real speech and its unbreakable bond with listening. It dealt with such issues as Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca in the context of who our students will really be communicating with and it examined examples of real speech and suggested practical ideas for their use in the classroom. Background culture (British, in David A. Hill’s case) used to be a fundamental element of a language course. No course book was complete without its red phone boxes and cups of tea. But in these days of language for communication, that cultural background is neither use nor ornament. What should we fill the cultural void with? This talk discussed the background to these issues and pointed the ways forward.

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TEACH DON'T PREACH

ELT teaching and assessment today: interview with Verona-based language expert Robert Hill

The article appeared in SpeakUP Magazine's November Issue.  

Tell us something about yourself, please.

I taught for over 20 years at universities in Cagliari, Verona and Milan. I've been consultant and trainer on projects run by regional authorities and the MPI. I write and edit teaching material, which means I speak at TESOL and IATEFL conferences worldwide. I also give courses in various parts of the world for organisations like the British Council.

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A transformational tool

A transformational tool

Artur Rego of City & Guilds on how Slovakia uses international exams to develop state school English

The article appeared in the October 2011 issue of  EL GAZETTE please follow this link to read the artcile in EL GAZETTE.

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Guided Learning Hours for IESOL and ISESOL exams

Dear Readers,

We have been delighted to see the huge number of requests coming from you, which we were pleased to respond to and which - we hope - you have found useful feedback for your classroom needs. Since the majority of the requests were around guided learning hours for the Written and Spoken exams, we are pleased to inform you that we have framed some useful information to support you in the most effective manner possible. Please visit our Guided Learning Hours section under the IESOL and ISESOL links, respectively.

At the same time, we warmly invite you to contribute any thoughts, ideas or examples of past experience you may have so we can successfully facilitate sharing best practice through your valuable contributions.

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First and Last Letter of a Word

Like any other academic field, English-teaching is not lacking in its own para-phenomena either - as the intriguing example below demonstrates, which proves the age-old wisdom that language is all about the intricate workings of the human mind. A juggle of letters, whose sequence does not on the surface of it make up registered lexis, can still be constructed as a meaningful body of text provided the first and last letters remain in place.

This little demonstration is also a worthy and fruitful activity for relaxation during an English classroom yielding - besides a moment or two of merriment - a realization of how reading skills work.

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IATEFL Conference - The Brighton Experience

Besides the famous Pier and the Royal Pavilion, Brighton had another powerful attraction in April this year, at least for the world of English Language Teaching: the IATEFL Conference, now simply referred to by teachers as Brighton 2011. Brighton - the scene of pleasure-seeking and the hub of the English world of artists - has now enticed a multitude of English teachers from all over the world who were flooding the conference venue - the Brighton Centre - with a keen interest to find out about the recent developments that will define English teaching for the future to come.

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