Author Interview
Cambridge ELT
talks to Annette Capel and Wendy Sharp, authors of Objective First Certificate
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Annette
Capel
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Wendy
Sharp
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Cambridge ELT: What do you think are the major
challenges in teaching the First Certificate in English at the moment?
Wendy: I'm not sure about 'major challenges',
as the revised examination has been around since 1996 and seems popular.
Students do find certain parts of the exam more challenging than others
and this applies to all five papers. I'm thinking particularly about Paper
1 Part 3 (the gapped text, especially the version with missing paragraphs),
Paper 2 Part 1 (the transactional letter), Paper 3 Part 2 (the open cloze),
Paper 4 Part 2 (the note-taking/sentence completion), and Paper 5 Part 2
(the long turn, where each candidate has to speak for a full minute). Obviously
teachers and students need strategies for dealing with these 'problem' areas.
Targeted practice and analysing exactly what is required for each part of
each paper is essential. When we wrote Objective First Certificate
it was very much with the idea that by providing the analysis and practice
students needed, they would be able to go into the examination feeling confident
that they could cope with all parts of it.
Annette: For the teacher, I think a major issue
is how to cover the exam requirements efficiently, while at the same time
developing the general language ability of the FCE class. Of equal importance
is the need to keep the students' motivation high, especially when they
are preparing for the exam over a longish period of time, in a non-intensive
way. Many FCE students are busy people, who may be working full-time or
studying at university. They may come to class feeling tired at the end
of the working day and need a course that will stimulate them, something
with pace and variety.
 Cambridge
ELT: And Objective First Certificate offers this through its
structure and approach?
Annette: Absolutely. I've had a lot of experience
in textbook publishing and I've seen that long units on a single topic are
inappropriate to many teaching situations around the world. Because Objective
has thirty short units on a range of different topics, students have a real
feeling of progress as they work through the course. They're served up what
they need in 'manageable chunks' - they get to finish a topic in a week
and can then come back to class the following week for something fresh,
a completely different topic. That's motivating.
Wendy: I agree. There's nothing worse than
teaching a topic to death. If teachers are only seeing a class one or two
evenings a week, they could still be doing 'health', say, after a whole
month! That's unacceptable for both the teacher and the students.
Cambridge ELT: Another popular feature of the
course's organisation is the folders. Can you say a little more about them?
Annette: We have a two-page 'Exam folder' or
a 'Writing folder' slotted in after every unit. The Writing folders come
after each pair of units, to give students more topic ideas to draw on for
their written assignments.
Wendy: The folders also link in with the structure
and vocabulary that has been taught. They're free-standing, so that students
can look at them after a class or indeed revisit them much later in the
course, to revise a particular aspect of the exam. Each part of the exam
is covered in a separate folder and as we feel writing is particularly important,
we have devoted 15 folders just to that.
Cambridge ELT: We hear a lot about the importance
of study skills today and the folders are one way of 'empowering' students.
What else does Objective do in this area?
 Wendy:
Study skills are very important, as a systematic approach to learning can
improve a student's final grade in the exam considerably. In Objective,
we encourage students to take more responsibility for their own learning.
One good example of this is vocabulary, where we feel strongly that a systematic
approach is vital. In our 'Vocabulary Spots' in the Student's Book, we suggest
ways for students to improve in this area. In the past, many students have
taken a 'hit or miss' approach, whereby they write down a word in a scruffy
notebook and put a translation next to it. This can have unfortunate effects
- for example, writing down a noun on its own is useless unless you also
make clear whether it is countable or uncountable. When recording a verb,
you need to list the constructions that come after it.
Annette: There are style and register differences
too, which students need to remember when it comes to Paper 2. Individual
words rarely stand alone in English, so their typical usage needs to be
understood. For this reason, we're keen that students use an English - English
dictionary at this level. It will give them good examples of the words in
use.
Cambridge ELT: Objective First Certificate
was piloted extensively with FCE students in a number of countries. How
did this inform the development of the course?
 Annette:
We were able to pilot sixteen units of the Student's Book and the Workbook
in all. Teachers filled in very detailed questionnaires, telling us how
they had approached each lesson. This enabled us to check that we had got
the timing right and that we had pitched the material at the right level.
Teachers also welcomed our proposed regular revision units in the Student's
Book and the linked progress tests in the Teacher's Book, so we made sure
there was space to include these.
Wendy: We made changes in line with comments
from teachers and students, adding in additional exercises or notes in the
Teacher's Book where recommended. Specific grammar problems were addressed
also. As I've taught FCE for many years, I'm very aware of the pitfalls
at this level - grammar mistakes that students still make, or vocabulary
that is often confused.
Cambridge ELT: In your experience, which paper
do students find the most difficult? What advice would you give to students
- and also to teachers - to help them prepare for this?
Annette: Paper 2 Writing, without any doubt.
At this level, command of written English is usually less strong than spoken
ability, and that's certainly true in the exam. However, there are lots
of ways to improve on this! We spoke earlier of the Writing folders, where
students deal with each Paper 2 task type more than once. We have three
Exam folders devoted to the compulsory question, the transactional letter.
Essentially, students need to be made fully aware of the different requirements
of a formal letter as opposed to, let's say, an article. We focus a lot
on style and register, getting students to think about who they are being
asked to write to, and why they are writing. I also believe that students
need to be encouraged to take a few more risks in their writing. Their range
of grammar and vocabulary is assessed, and especially in Part 2 of the paper,
they should be more ambitious - show the examiner what they can do.
Wendy: We have both been Paper 2 examiners
for years - between the two of us, we must have marked tens of thousands
of FCE scripts! Speaking personally, I always get a more positive feeling
if I can see the candidate has tried to vary the language used.
Annette: The same goes for me. Why use 'beautiful'
six times in an answer, when you can choose 'wonderful', 'good-looking',
'attractive', 'stunning' - even 'mouth-watering' - to describe your feelings
about something. If students are going to continue beyond FCE to the CAE
exam, they will need to broaden out their vocabulary, so teachers should
encourage them to start in a manageable way for FCE. It really can make
a difference to the final marks, even if the spelling of these more advanced
words isn't 100% accurate.
Cambridge ELT: The Teacher's Book contains
many extra features - I particularly like the 'Teaching extra' and 'Extension
activity' boxes. How did you come up with these ideas?
 Annette:
This was a real team effort. Our editor, Charlotte Adams, already had clear
views on what the ideal Teacher's Book should contain and guided us very
well here. She had done extensive research to find out exactly what teachers
want. Of course, they all want the usual features, such as a clear answer
key, tapescripts, basic teaching notes for every unit and the contents of
both the Student's Book and the Workbook. However, there are other features
that make buying a Teacher's Book really worth the expense.
Wendy: For example, we have included lesson
plans, which tie in with the Extension activity boxes you have mentioned.
Class lesson times vary enormously, so we wanted to give teachers the security
of knowing how long things would take. In each lesson plan we give two versions:
'SV', the short version, and 'LV', the long version. The SV suggests which
exercise can be omitted without affecting the main teaching point, and which
exercise can be set for homework if time is short. For the LV, we recommend
the 'Extension activities', perfect for those times when you happen to have
5 or 10 minutes spare at the end of the lesson. These extension activities
are quick and easy to use. They range from games to role-play, grammar points
to word-building.
Annette: We see these extra activities as a
real bonus for teachers, so much so that we are busy writing more, to put
on the website. It's all part of trying to make the course more flexible
for the end-users, make it really work for them. In the longer term, we
would like to get teachers to share their own ideas, so if you start using
Objective, please keep a record of any other Extension activities
that you develop and post your ideas on the website.
Wendy: We also have additional photocopiable
tapescripts at the back of the Teacher's Book, for recordings that are particularly
challenging, or which yield a lot of useful vocabulary. Teachers often feel
that listening material could be used more extensively than is normally
the case. After all, the best recordings are an important and rich text
source. We have added extra exercises, so that more work can be done in
this area. Being able to follow a tapescript is also useful as a confidence-building
exercise for some students, especially at the beginning of a course.
Annette: All the tapescripts from the course will be included on
this website, so that teachers can download them and edit them further,
if they wish - blanking out words and phrases, using them for prediction
work, and so on. This would be very useful for a self-access centre, too.
Wendy: You also asked about the Teaching extra
boxes. We've included these to help less experienced or new teachers. They
give information about classroom management, support materials such as wall
posters, some background to pronunciation rules, as well as information
about particular grammar points that are too advanced to put in the Student's
Book, but which a high-flying student might want to know about.
Annette: There's another Teacher's Book feature,
the 'Background information' box. We know that teachers get really fed up
with course books that make lots of assumptions. Not everyone everywhere
in the world will know about an obscure British food product, or the specific
date when something was invented, or the necessary background to a famous
painter. Wendy: I've been there so many times! There's nothing more irritating
when you are teaching than having to confess: 'I'm not sure what they are
talking about here.' Students will lose interest if you don't know - so
we've tried not to make this kind of assumption. If in doubt, we've provided
the necessary background information, for teachers to keep up their sleeve.
Cambridge ELT: Where and when did you meet?
Annette: Initially through Cambridge exams
marking, at the first 'on-site' CAE marking weekends in fact. We've known
each other for about nine years.
Cambridge ELT: How do you work together as an author team?
Wendy: We work quite closely on a number of
projects, including a lot of Cambridge exams work (FCE, CPE, PET and BEC),
so we see each other very regularly. For Objective, we had an initial
brainstorming session, where we aired all our pet hates and preferences
in FCE teaching, from which the original rationale and structure of the
course emerged. We then had planning meetings before we wrote each cycle
of six units, deciding who would do what and sharing texts and ideas. We
divided up the writing into two-unit blocks with the relevant 'Exam folder'
and 'Writing folder', and faxed or emailed the first drafts to each other
as we finished them. This worked really well, as it meant we were able to
monitor that key language was being recycled regularly.
Cambridge ELT: You have already presented the course to teachers
in France, Spain and Italy. What was the feedback?
Annette: Encouraging! The short units and the
overall scope of the course have been very well received everywhere. Many
secondary teachers in Italy are about to start preparing students for FCE
and the course seems ideal for their classroom situation. Italian teachers
have welcomed the 'bulk' of the Teacher's Book too, as many of them need
to get up to speed on the exam very quickly and require a lot of support.
There will also be a 'Frequently asked questions' section on this website
to provide extra support for teachers. Questions can be emailed to us via
Cambridge ELT at eltweb@cup.cam.ac.uk.
Cambridge ELT: Annette and Wendy, thanks very
much.
Author Information
Wendy Sharp has an Honours degree in History and American Studies and was
Junior Research Fellow at the University of Keele. She began her teaching
career in 1978 and shortly after gained the RSA Diploma. She has taught
all levels from Beginners to Advanced and is particularly experienced with
the Cambridge exams. She now concentrates on writing and examining.
Annette Capel holds an Honours Degree in European Studies, and a Masters
Degree in Applied Linguistics. She has also gained a Post Graduate Certificate
of Education in teaching English as a Foreign Language. She is now a freelance
editor and author. She has taught EFL in Sweden, Spain and England. She
is a keen language learner and studied French and Swedish at university.
At present, she is trying to perfect the Italian language which, fortunately
for her, demands regular trips to Italy!
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