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[lumberjackej]

Hi,

A lot of my students will be taking the TEM-4 (Test for English Majors, band four) this Sunday. In lieu of classes, I want to help them study for this important exam. So far I've sucked as a trainer, though.

A lot of the grammar and vocabulary questions are so idiomatic and idiosyncractic that I can tell the right answer to my students, but I can't explain why the answer is correct. Maybe having a TEFL certificate would be helpful here.

Is anyone else helping their students with this? Maybe instead I could focus on the dictation or writing parts? I'm just not sure about the right way to help them out.

Thanks for any advice.

EJ[/i]

[struelle]

This is a dilemma. If students and teachers ask me grammar questions on tests like these, it often degenerates into a long and complex debate on whether a certain structure is correct or not. Enter the 'grammar vortect'.

At the same time, those people want to arrive at a rule or formula they can apply. If I tell them something like, "that's just the way native speakers say it", that doesn't cut it.

In many ways, this dilemma is the same I face when teaching hard sciences. In Physics, for example, students ask me questions to generate rules they can apply to solving problems on upcoming exams. If I try and teach the concept of the situation, they get confused, perhaps because some of the information I present conflicts with other rules they've learned.

Ideally the best way to tackle this is to spend more time on concepts and understanding (either in English, hard sciences, or any subject), thus showing the students how to generate multiple approaches to solving problems.

However, if a test is standardized and time is short, sometimes it's best to teach more to the test.

Test prep courses then, are less about the actual subject. They are more about teaching how to pass a test, by examining the structure of the test, type of questions, rules, etc. When it comes to 'test cracking', Chinese students are absolute masters at it, so it makes sense to exploit this expertise.

In a nutshell I'd get to know this test very well, and explain to students why a grammar structure is correct in the context of how the test is designed. If the students don't get confused, I'd also give a second explanation native speakers use a phrase that conflicts with the test answer.

Steve

[Roger]

Do your students understand the concepts of English grammar at all? Have you discussed with them terms such as SUBJECT, VERB, Subject-Verb-Agreement? Infinitive? Punctuation marks? Tenses?
I think your students have been looking for "a little help" pretty late!

[joe greene]

Just sit with them while they work through practise questions and past exams. Right now they don't need a grammar teacher, they need a parental figure to help them through this. They are suffering from intense anxiety. Try to help them relax, and get them to run through practice sets under timed conditions.

[frigginhippie]

Hi people,

I may be chastized for this comment, but I suggest to my students that the best way to answer reading comprehension questions is to neither read the text nor the answers. I tell them to skim and find the thesis statement of the passage. Then, read the question and answer it solely based on the thesis, without looking at any of the answer choices. Then find the choice that best matches their own personal answer. This actually works for all but the detailed questions like "[vocabulary word] most nearly means:"
The benefits to this are (1) the multiple similar choices don't confuse the tester, as he/she already has a preconceived answer and (2) a great deal of time is saved in not reading everything. The catch is they must practice this many times, under supervision, to accurately find and interpret the thesis statement. Worked for a class of non-english majors too.

As for the writing, I tell them not to answer with their own opinion, but to answer with the opinion that they can best write about. So when they first read a question, I tell them to write as many thoughts/examples as possible, pro and con, regarding the topic. Then choose the side with the best support for it, regardless of their personal feelings. The TEM4 doesn't test YOUR thoughts, it tests how well you can express ANY thoughts.


Hope that helps some. As for the vocab fill-in-the-blank, or "cloze" as they confusingly call it, that takes years of listening and reading.

Good luck to your students.

-fh