Job Discussion Forums

[redeyes]

Which exam classes are taught at HCT? I gather from some very helpful PM's that PET and IELTS are the main ones ? How about US exams? Is the main focus on Cambridge exams?

[kaw]

This semester was the last to do the PET exam as far as I know. All students are now doing IELTS.
The KCA (end of year exam for Diploma Foundation) seems to be based on the KET exam and so many mid and end of semester exams also based on this.

[redeyes]

Thanks for yor response. Can I ask, why the emphasis on British Exams? Are the HCT staff Anglophiles, or do they simply prefer the British system?

I have always enjoyed teaching IELTS -- Is TOEFL also a popular option at HCT ?

[saluki]

HCT doesn't do TOEFL, but ZU does.

[veiledsentiments]

Unless things have changed you do not 'teach' the test. You teach normal EFL classes and they take the exams at intervals. (long intervals...) At most once a year... IELTS used to be the exam that they took at the very end of their studies only. (like TOEFL, the IELTS-based are totally useless for deciding which levels students should be in) In my years in the Gulf, I never taught a "test prep" course nor were they offered. (though I did in the US and at AUC in Egypt where it was offered in Adult education)

I feel that they are really a complete waste of time that students could be using better to improve their academic English skills... though the students can benefit from a couple classes getting familiar with the format. If they are comfortable with the format, it is more likely to test their language.

HCT has always been oriented towards the British system, whereas ZU was more American. But, over time the edges have all been blurred.

VS

[mishmumkin]

[kaw]

HCT love tests..........progress tests......mid semester tests.....more progress tests.....end of semster tests......
Students at Diploma level need IELTS (GT) band 4.5 to graduate and HD need 6 (I think).

I don't know why they have chosen IELTS over TOEFL - but I much prefer it - maybe it's becasue I am a Brit and found TOEFL far too focused on events in American History to be even remotely interesting.......no offence meant and this was several years ago.
It's probably also easier to actually run the exams as there are many IELTS examiners around and centres that run the exams.

[mishmumkin]

[007]

[mishmumkin]

[redeyes]

Mishmumkin wrote --

"So much for schema when your Emirati student is attempting to read a passage about Thomas Jefferson. I suppose that students attending English medium universities in their home countries is not at the top of the ETS's list when they create exam questions."


Exactly --


To me, that is the curious thing about both exams, IELTS and TOEFL -- Both typically feature really dry, dull and flat reading exercises.

Preparing students to sit an important exam shouldn't somehow automatically mean that the practice texts themselves have to be banal in the extreme -- But the IELTS books are full of the dullest texts imaginable. In the past, I have taught reading classes on such riveting topics as how insects move their food from place to place, on how the rainfall in Australia differs from that of New Guinea , how erosion in the Highlands differs from erosion in the Welsh valleys and so on.....

I often feel sorry for my students having to wade through these exercises on a dull Monday morning.....

Ok, I know the reading practices need to be practical and vocational -- but does that mean they have to be so unutterably dull?

(I remember discussing this very point with a prominent Longman CAE/CPE text book writer in Oxford -- he looked puzzled when I suggested EFL authors should try and make the readings not only practical -- but interesting. He looked as if he was considering a new idea! What, practical AND interesting? Isn't that asking too much? Lol.....)

The same can be said of many mainstream writing/reading coursebooks -- I was recently asked to use a book which featured really deeply invigorating and inspiring reading texts -- amongst them were reading exercises regarding how to make a tortoise house, and errr....urrmm.....how to make an omellete.

I politely declined the offer of the book, and suggested another text might be better.

[kaw]

How to make a tortoise house really does sound very interesting and am sure it's something our guys in Saudi would like to have a go at - well.....it would give them something to do

[sowsan]

[redeyes]

Kaw wrote --

"How to make a tortoise house really does sound very interesting and am sure it's something our guys in Saudi would like to have a go at - well.....it would give them something to do"

Brilliant! I think a few of my students would benefit from it too, particularly the ones that always sit at the back with a perpetually shell shocked expression on their faces!

[Takahiwai]

Well, spare a thought for the folks who are teaching in lower levels of education, at least in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) now controls a vast number of schools in the emirate and they have decreed that all those teaching Maths, Science and IT should obtain an Academic IELTS result of 5.5 by the end of next year. English teachers must obtain 6.5. Because their remit extends to kindergartens, and kindergarten teachers teach all subjects, they must obtain 5.5 too. So, the brilliant plan for 'emiratisation' of schools puts yet more pressure on teachers who aren't brimming over with enthusiasm in the first place. Now we hear that MS, the Emirati figurehead of ADEC, has been sacked today, so all bets are off as to the future of primary and secondary education in Abu Dhabi.