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edbuch
Joined: 16 Nov 2010
Posts: 34
Location: Gansu
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 Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 3:10 pm Post subject: CET 4 |
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| Can anyone help me to help students prepare for CET 4? I have the books and past papers but I'm trying to identify any patterns to the questions or techniques for answering them. The listening seems especially difficult. I would struggle to remember what was said in the spoken dialogue by the time the questions are asked. I thought there might be a thread on this already but I can only find discussions about CET rather than practical advice. |
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xiguagua
Joined: 09 Oct 2011
Posts: 768
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edbuch
Joined: 16 Nov 2010
Posts: 34
Location: Gansu
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| Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 10:34 pm Post subject: CET 4 |
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| Thanks, I had already seen that thread but I was looking for something more useful. |
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Denim-Maniac
Joined: 31 Jan 2012
Posts: 1238
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| Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 11:22 pm Post subject: Re: CET 4 |
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| edbuch wrote: |
| Thanks, I had already seen that thread but I was looking for something more useful. |
Thanks 
For the reading, I believe the biggest problem Chinese students have is a tendency to focus on everything at word level. But papers like this require keen skills at reading top down ie - gist and detailed reading skills. These are the skills that need to be practised. If you dont get them practising them, students will often attempt to read every word, struggle to understand, then have very little time to attempt the questions. In my experience students do very little reading for gist and so need to be introduced to this as a skill step by step. I would introduce shorter and easier texts initially, and give incredibly tight time limits such as 60 seconds to answer a gist question, or several more detailed questions. Continual practice on this type of task should lead to an understanding that not everything needs to be understood, not every word needs to be read in order for the questions to be answered.
I also seem to remember that questions do follow in some order. That is to say, the answer to the first question is normally early in the text, the answer to the second question follows, and the final question is often contained toward the end of the text. This ordering can help students after they have identified the patterns.
Another important key that students should follow, and rarely do unless guided, is to read the questions first, and then seek the answer. In my experience, students will read the whole text before looking at the questions and this wastes time too.
And as I have said in the other thread, if you use old CET papers, students need to practise with them under similar conditions. So no dictionaries and similar time limits need to be set. |
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edbuch
Joined: 16 Nov 2010
Posts: 34
Location: Gansu
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 2:05 am Post subject: CET 4 |
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| That was useful. I have a lot of experience of preparing students for exams in the UK. But this exam is different to anything I have seen. I am trying to find techniques that might make a difference to their final mark. For example in the essay question I am looking for the type of essay they have to write such as argument, description etc. and try to give them a structure for each. In the comprehension questions, I suggest they use a highlighter to highlight what might be important words in the question then use a ruler when scanning the passage to try and find the same or similar words. But when it comes to listening I am struggling to find a method that could make it a bit easier. I am still working on it and hope to come up something before the exam. Thanks |
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Denim-Maniac
Joined: 31 Jan 2012
Posts: 1238
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 3:37 am Post subject: |
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No worries. If you do come up with something, do come back and share it. Including stuff that didnt work will also be of use for anyone else in the future (should the question be asked again) 
Good luck! |
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sainthood
Joined: 15 Nov 2010
Posts: 175
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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I'm not sure how much this'll help, but....
I prepared some exams for my students, and ran them through a Chinese mate of mine (whose English isn't great). Instead of doing the obvious, he actually listened through the whole conversation first, and then picked his answers. He got about 90% on the first listen, and then polished off (or confirmed) on the second listen! I was most impressed!!! My 2nd year students weren't so good.
So, perhaps try to teach them that skill.... play something, but don't allow them to write an answer until it's finished. |
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Shroob
Joined: 02 Aug 2010
Posts: 1339
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 1:42 pm Post subject: |
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| sainthood wrote: |
I'm not sure how much this'll help, but....
I prepared some exams for my students, and ran them through a Chinese mate of mine (whose English isn't great). Instead of doing the obvious, he actually listened through the whole conversation first, and then picked his answers. He got about 90% on the first listen, and then polished off (or confirmed) on the second listen! I was most impressed!!! My 2nd year students weren't so good.
So, perhaps try to teach them that skill.... play something, but don't allow them to write an answer until it's finished. |
The CET 6 exam actually forces students to do this. They don't know the question until after the recording is over. The recording is only played once (excpet the last question when it is repeated 3 times, however for that question you must fill in the blanks, not answer a comprehension question).
I find this daft personally, everything I was taught and have read about listening indicates that when people listen, there is usually a purpose to it and the people know what to listen for eg. if you're making an appointment you listen for date/time/name etc. With the CET 6 questions you see multiple choice answers (some of which it's impossible to guess what the question will be), listen to a recording then get asked the question.
I'll be the first to admit I'm new to the TEFL industry, but like I said, the CET 6 is a little unfair in the way it tests listening in my opinion. |
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