Fce Reading Overview Activity

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FCE Reading Overview Activity teachers notesDescription

A gap-fill activity to give students an overview of the format of the FCE Reading paper

followed by a discussion on reading strategies.

Time required: 45-60 minutes

Addi tional

materials

required:

copy of Frequently Asked Questions, examples of Part 1, 2 and 3

questions.

Aims: to give students an overview of the format of Paper 1.

Procedure

1. Ask students how much they know about the FCE Reading paper. Some students

may have taken FCE before but some wont have. Tell them that they are going to

look at the format of the Reading paper.

2. Give each student a copy of the Frequently Asked Questions sheet and ask them toread each of the questions and answers carefully. Set a time limit to encouragespeed reading.

3. Give each student a copy of students worksheet 1 and ask them to complete thegaps. They can use the Frequently Asked Questions to help them or, to make it

more challenging, they could work in pairs without looking at the FAQs.

4. Check the answers in class and deal with any queries.

5. Brainstorm different text types with students (e.g. newspapers, books, websites etc.).

Put the ideas on the board/OHT as a spidergram.

6. Ask students how often they read each of the text types (every day?/every week?).

At this stage it is useful to see how prolific they are at reading in their own language

as well as English.

7. Give each student a copy of students worksheet 2 and ask them to discuss in

pairs/groups how they would read in each of the situations.

8. Collect some feedback in class.

9. Now ask students to match the definitions with the situations.

10. Check the answers in class.

11. Put the students into three groups, or with a large class, into pairs. Give eachpair/group either a Part 1, 2 or 3 question and ask them to discuss which reading skillis appropriate for the task. Also ask them how many times they think it is necessaryto read their text in order to answer the questions.

UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For furtherinformation see our Terms of Use at http://www.teachers.cambridgeESOL.org/ts/legalinfo

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12. Collect feedback. The key points to mention to students are:

a. Many students run out of time and so reading all the texts intensively is not

possible. Often reading the first or last sentence of a paragraph is enough to

get an overall idea of the paragraph.

b. Students need to choose the appropriate reading skill to achieve the task.

Learning to skim (to read through the text quickly to get an idea of meaning)

and to scan (to search a text for specific information) are essential.

c. When scanning for information, students need to pay extra attention to the

question stems. What kind of information do the following words want:

What? When? Where? Why? How?

d. Many students get stuck on unknown vocabulary. Students need to develop

strategies for dealing with unknown words, or to simply ignore difficult

vocabulary when reading a text for the first time.

e. Students should read each text quickly at first to get an overall impression,

then more slowly to find the answers to the questions.

Suggested follow-up activit ies/questions (and answers)

Bring in a sample answer sheet so that students can find out what is meant by fill in the

lozenge.


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FCE Reading Overview Act ivity answer keys

Key to Students worksheet 1

1. three

2. a text

3. articles

4. short stories

5. gapped

6. one hour

7. one mark

8. four

9. sentences

10. several

Key to Students worksheet 2

1. D

2. B

3. F

4. C

5. A

6. E


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FCE Reading Overview Activity Frequently Asked Questions

General DescriptionPaper Format The paper contains three parts, with a range of texts and accompanying

comprehension tasks. One part may contain two or more shorter relatedtexts.

Timing 1 hourNo of Questions 30Task Types Multiple choice, gapped text, multiple matching.Answering For all parts of this paper, candidates indicate their answers by shading the

correct lozenges on the separate answer sheet.Marks Parts 1 and 2: each correct answer receives 2 marks. Part 3: each correct

answer receives 1 mark.

Part 1Task Type & Format Multiple choice.Task Focus In this part, there is an emphasis on detailed understanding of a text,

including the expression of opinion, attitude, purpose, main idea, detail, toneand gist. Candidates are also tested on their ability to recognise meaningfrom context and follow text organisation features, such as exemplification,comparison and reference.

Number of Questions 8

Part 2Task Type & Format Gapped text.Task Focus In this part, there is an emphasis on text structure, cohesion and coherence,

and candidates ability to follow the development of a long text.Number of Questions 7

Part 3Task Type & Format Multiple matching.Task Focus In this part, there is an emphasis on locating specific information and detail,

and recognising opinion and attitude, in one long text or a group of shorttexts.

Number of Questions 15

https://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/ts/exams/generalenglish/fce/reading

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. How long should candidates spend on each part?A. There is no time limit for each task; some tasks may take longer than others and students shouldbe aware of how long they need for different tasks. However, its worth remembering that each task isworth approximately the same number of marks overall.

Q. How many marks are there for each question?A. Questions in Parts 1 and 2 each carry 2 marks, and in Part 3 each question carries 1 mark.

Q. Why are questions in Part 3 only worth one mark each?A. In Part 3 candidates are looking for specific information in a text and do not need to engage withthe content of the text as deeply as in the other parts of the paper.


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Q. How many marks is the Reading paper worth?A. Each paper in the FCE exam is worth 40 weighted marks, so that all the papers are of equalimportance. The whole exam is worth 200 weighted marks.The weighted mark for the Reading paper is calculated as follows:Each correct answer in Parts 1 and 2 is given 2 marks, and in Part 3 1 mark. Therefore, the total

number of marks possible for the paper is 45. If a candidate scored 35 marks out of a possible 45,their final weighted mark would be arrived at by the calculation 3545x40 = 31.1.

Q. What kinds of texts are used?A.A wide range of texts may be used; these include newspaper and magazine articles, reports,novels and short stories, advertisements, correspondence, messages and informational material suchas brochures, manuals and guides.

Q. What aspects of reading are tested in this paper?A. In Part 1 candidates are tested on their ability to understand detail, opinion, gist, attitude, tone,purpose, main idea, meaning from context and text organisation features (exemplification, comparisonand reference); Part 2 tests text structure, cohesion and coherence; Part 3 focuses on identifyingspecific information, detail, opinion and attitude.

Q. How long are the texts?A. The texts range from 550700 words per text. Approximately 2,000 words overall.

Q. Do the questions in Part 1 follow the order of the text?A. Yes, and any questions relating to global understanding of the text come at the end.

Q. How do candidates answer the Reading paper?A. In this paper, candidates put their answers on an answer sheet by filling in a lozenge (a kind ofbox) in pencil.

https://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/ts/exams/generalenglish/fce/faqs


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FCE Reading Overview Act ivi ty Students Worksheet 1Complete the ten gaps in this general description of the Reading paper.

Paper format The paper contains (1) parts. Each part contains

(2) and corresponding comprehension task. One part may contain 2 or more

shorter related extracts.

Length of texts 2000 words approximately overall; 550700 words approximately per text.

Questions 30

Text types From the following: newspaper and magazine (3) , reports, novels and (4)

, advertisements, correspondence, messages and informational material

such as brochures, manuals and guides.

Task types multiple choice, (5) text, multiple matching.

Task focus Understanding gist, main points, detail, text structure or specific information, or

deducing meaning.

Answer format For all parts of this paper candidates indicate their answers by shading the correct

lozenges on the answer sheet.

Timing (6)

Marks Questions in Parts 1 and 2 carry two marks. Questions in Part 3 carry (7)

PartTask type and format Task focus Number of

questions

1 Multiple choice

A text followed by (8) -option multiple-choice

questions.

Detail, opinion,

gist, deducing

meaning

8

2 Gapped text

A text from which (9) have been removed and

placed in jumbled order after the text. Candidates must

decide from where in the text the sentences have been

removed.

Text structure 7

3 Multiple matching

A text or (10) short texts preceded by multiple-

matching questions. Candidates must match prompts to

elements in the text.

Specific

information,

detail, opinion

and attitude

15


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FCE Reading Overview Activity Students Worksheet 1 www.teachers.cambridgeesol.orgPage 7 of 7

FCE Reading Overview Act ivi ty Students Worksheet 2

Understanding Reading Strategies Activity

Think about what approach you would use when reading in these different situations. How

would your way of reading be different in each situation?

1 looking for a location on a department store floor guide

2 looking at the front page of the newspaper on a bus, a few minutes before your stop

3 reading a short story

4 assembling something using an instruction manual

5 choosing a holiday-read by looking at the back of a book

6 looking at a sign in a foreign language

Now match these definitions to each of the situations above.

A reading for gist

B reading for the main points

C reading for detailed understanding

D reading for specific information

E deducing meaning

F following a narrative

Documents

Fce Reading Overview Activity