Teacher Discussion Forums

I noticed that only about 5% succeed to pass the EFL exams with good marks in my country. Does the problem concern teachers that fail to transfer their lessons' content to their students, or the lessons are hard or the students are not ready to get them?

azamouri wrote:I noticed that only about 5% succeed to pass the EFL exams with good marks in my country. Does the problem concern teachers that fail to transfer their lessons' content to their students, or the lessons are hard or the students are not ready to get them?

Here, in Spain, most academies have a pass rate of between 90% and 97% on the FCE and CAE.

A lot will depend on whether the school is honest enough to only accept students onto exam course if they'll be ready for them by the date of the tests. The last place I taught in the UK was careful not to admit or enter students before they were ready - this inevitably meant prospective students going away in a huff when we refused to enrol them on FCE courses, but they would always find a less honest school to take them.

Teachers need to be experienced in preparing for a specific exam - that means reading examiners reports, attending seminars organised by the exam boards (contact your local British Council about this) and making sure they know what examiners want to see.

I'm not certain what the percentages are in Hong Kong, but I do know they have dropped significantly since the introduction of mother tongue instruction. You may be aware of the scandal we are suffering now from unscrupulous teachers and administrators charging outrageous sums to admit Chinese children into English schools here. So, in a certain sector, there is still a premium set on English language education. On the other hand, there are those who understand that to succeed locally, Putunghwa is potentially a much more useful "second language" than English.

Lolwhites makes a valid point about teaching to the exam. However, that is the only kind of teaching that takes place in the local classroom, yet we still have the falling percentages. There is also a push in the local classrooms towards a feeling of national unity and pride, which may account for a de-emphasis on English and a corrosponding emphasis on Puntungwha.

Metal, based on what Lolwhites has to say about admiting only those who are actually ready for the exam, do you think this has anything to do with Spain's very high pass rates?

Metal, based on what Lolwhites has to say about admiting only those who are actually ready for the exam, do you think this has anything to do with Spain's very high pass rates?

At present, yes, but not so long ago, there were many "cowboy" academies here. Most of them just took the money and pushed people into exam courses. Saying that, the Spanish, in general, are obsessed with certificates. A piece of paper goes a long way here. So, maybe a part of what happened was the fault of being obsessed.

It seems that the government has now cracked down on many poor quality academies and more professional academies seem to get a lot of people through the exams.