TEFLtastic with Alex Case

I was surprised that the news that BULATS will include listening and speaking to a computer rather than a human didn’t get more reaction – although that is probably because most people are hardly aware that Cambridge has an exam that tries desperately to compete with TOEIC… Would be interested to hear people’s general reactions to the idea, though.

The way I see it, doing a speaking test without an examiner present would make testing fairer in most cases (because everyone gets exactly the same test), but more inaccurate in most cases (because it’s even further away from real communication, which is what it is supposed to be testing).

It doesn’t seem to have been officially announced yet, but my broken link detector took me to a major reorganisation of the BULATS website under which hid even bigger changes to the exam. What I’ve managed to discover so far:

- It is now possible to take the Speaking and Writing tests at a computer, and given the prominence of that on their website I guess it will be the new default option. I haven’t had time to look more closely, but I’m guessing it will be just like TOEIC Writing and Speaking, meaning replying into a microphone to recorded questions and (very sensibly) being able to type your answers to the Writing.

- BULATS (meaning basically Cambridge for the English language version) is now offering an online preparation course which will presumably both help some teachers and be competing with the rest of us for students

- Something called the Certificated BULATS which is useable for immigration purposes, both for English and French, also exists

More by me on BULATS:

BULATS articles and tips

BULATS Writing worksheets

BULATS Speaking worksheets

I’ve written at least 50 things on this over the years (for Onestopenglish, EnglishClub, Usingenglish and TEFL.net), so I’ve expanded and reorganised my lists of links so that there are separate pages for IELTS, TOEIC, FCE and BULATS. There are also general articles on making exam practice manageable, realistic and fun. More coming soon too.

Teaching and studying for EFL exams articles and tips

Just found a request to help raise $415 dollars for a TEFL course, needed to help get out of a trap of minimal wage jobs by getting back into education. On the cyberpanhandling site BegsList here:

Need money for TEFL course

Quite apart from the weakness in the plan, I’m always drawn between two competing reactions with these “TEFL to help turn your life around stories”:

a) It quite often works and I’m proud to be in a profession that sometimes helps people make a new start or reinvent themselves

b) It quite often doesn’t work, and we end up with a fair proportion of people who couldn’t cut it back home and/or in their original jobs for very good reasons

and low entry standards is obviously a factor in both (a) and (b)…

I’m hoping to do a whole article on the tricky but important point of practising consonant clusters, but not sure I have enough ideas for 700 words on the topic yet. I have come up with two ways of using minimal pairs to practice spr, sl, tr etc though.

The first one is to use minimal pairs where the difference is a sound added into the middle of the consonant cluster, e.g. spine/ supine. Some other examples with s + vowel + consonant/ s + consonant are given below.

The other (sneakier) way is to do another pronunciation point, e.g. sin/ seen, through minimal pairs and make sure some of the words you use have consonant clusters in them, e.g. skim/ scheme. After sorting out the minimal pairs pronunciation differences, you can then do a little practice on consonant clusters. Other examples for ship/ sheep with consonant clusters given at the bottom.

I have actually tried these yet, so feedback and other ideas on consonant clusters gratefully accepted.

Minimal pairs for s + consonant(s)

succumb/ scum

sullied/ slid

sullies / sleaze

sumac/ smack

supine/ spine

supple/ spool

support/ sport

supported/ sported

supporting/ sporting

supportive/ sportive

Nearly minimal pairs with s + consonant(s)

sap/ spa

sapped/ spat

sapper/ spur

sappier/ spear

sepia/ spear

septum/ sputum

serpent/ spent

sopor/ spoor

sopped/ spot

soppier/ spear

usurp/ asp

super/ spur

i/ i: minimal pairs with consonant clusters in them

bl

blip/ bleep

br

britches/ breeches

cr

crick/ creek

fl

flit/ fleet

gr

grid/ greed

grin/ green

grist/ greased

nd

finned/ fiend

sk

skid/ skied

skim/ scheme

skit/ skeet

sl

slick/ sleek

slip/ sleep

slit/ sleet

st

cist/ ceased

fist/ feast

still/ steal steel

Not a bad batch this month, though I say so myself…

Articles

Fun classroom activities for ordinal numbers

Functional language for IELTS Speaking

How to practise Used to

Worksheets

IELTS Speaking Clarifying language

Cambridge First Certificate dice game

British and American Academic English

IELTS Writing Same or different?

Step by step telephoning roleplays

Too formal for most business emails

Vocabulary for BULATS Speaking Part One

Past or not? (Other uses of past tenses – Unreal past and politeness)

Old expressions and meaning Used to practice

Modernisation/ Westernisation Used to

Double meanings of tech jargon for Used to

PC language Used To discussion

My EFL cultural training worksheets section  much easier to navigate now it has pages for:

Taboo topics worksheets (classic speaking activities with just enough spice!)

Body language and gestures worksheets (teaching them foreign gestures while practising language like body parts and present tenses)

Cultural training worksheets on business topics

Etc

… leaving the main culture worksheets page in a useable state for the first time since 2007…