Revision Tips - 1st Lang. English

IGCSE ENGLISH AS A FIRST LANGUAGE (0500)


First Language English—Reading Passages (Paper 2)

Question 1: Directed Writing (Article, Diary, Letter, Transcript of a Speech or Interview) 20 marks

• This question will be based on passage A only.

• You will be assessed on the appropriate style, format, and register. For example, if you were writing the transcript of an interview ensure that the language of the interview has character and sounds real. Ensure that contributions of the different speakers vary in length and are well sequenced and substantial.

• Or, for example, if you were required to write a newspaper article, you must ensure that you don’t end up writing a story. Instead you will be required to adopt an appropriate journalistic tone and focus on being informative. Remember to be a reporter. In this case it will be essential to write in paragraphs.

• You are required to show a thorough knowledge of the passage and the characters in it.

• Your writing should be able to adapt to the requirements of the questions. Adopt an appropriate tone and vocabulary for different characters.

• You will be rewarded for original ideas that relate to the passage, especially if you have supporting details.

• Read the question carefully and make an attempt to respond to all bullet point stimuli in the question.

• Avoid making general references to events and characters in the passage.

• Avoid mechanical repetition of words and events from the passage.

• Ensure that your comments are very clearly expressed and enhanced by a wide range of positive and interesting language with a varied vocabulary.


Question 2: Language Analysis (10 marks)

• This question is marked for the your ability to select effective or unusual words and for an understanding of ways in which the language is effective.

• You are required to select words that carry specific meaning, including implications, additional to general and to ordinary vocabulary.

• You will be marked for the overall quality of your answer, not for the number of words chosen.

• You are required to have a wide ranging discussion of language with comments that add meaning and associations to words in both parts of the question.

• You should be able to demonstrate the writer's reasons for using them. Say why the author has used a certain word and discuss what effect it has on the reader.

• Comment on figures of speech (metaphors, similes, hyperbole, etc.) Don’t merely identify them—say why the author has used them and discuss what effect they have on the reader.

• Try and group examples to demonstrate overview of meaning/inference/attitude.

• Remember to follow the structure: Statement → Quote → Analysis

• You are not really required to have an introduction and conclusion. However, if you include this you will not lose marks.


Question 3: Summary (20 marks)

• This question is based on passage A and passage B

• There are up to fifteen marks available for the selection of relevant facts and up to five for focusing on the question, writing concisely and using your own words. There are usually up to twenty possible answers listed in the examiner’s mark scheme so if you read carefully and methodically you will have no difficulty in scoring full marks for content.

• Avoid writing in an informative style or of a commentary. This diverts your attention from the task of getting the content points onto paper. Commentaries mean that rewardable facts will be few and far between.

• Stick to facts—avoid opinions or explanations.

• There is no need for an introduction or conclusion.

• Stick to the word limit. While Examiners do not count words, they expect the summary to take up about one side. If you write two and a half sides you are demonstrably ignoring the requirements of the question.

• Attempt both parts of the questions and give equal importance to both passage A and B.

• Remember to write in your own words.

• You are not required to interpret ‘things’ as ideas and concepts as you would do in questions 1 and 2 for Passage A. This summary question does not test ideas, but only facts. It is designed to test your ability to read a satisfactory length accurately within a short space of time.

• Avoid attempting to write a comparison of the two passages.

• Ensure both parts of your answer are concise, focused, and precise.

• Avoid making lists or writing in bullet-points.

• Avoid repetition and avoid lifting lines from the passages

First Language English—Directed Writing and Composition (Paper 3)

Question 1: Directed Writing (Article, Diary, Letter, Transcript of a Speech or Interview) 25 marks

• You will read one or more short texts which will be printed on the question paper. You will be required to use and develop the given information in another form, e.g. a letter, a report, a speech, a dialogue.

• Ensure you plan and draft before you start writing. (But don’t waste too much time on this. Manage your time appropriately).

• You will be required to articulate experience and express what is thought, felt and imagined as per instructions in the question.

• Your writing should be able to adapt to the requirements of the questions. Adopt an appropriate tone, format, and vocabulary for different characters. So for example if you were required to write a letter, structure your letter appropriately and write in an appropriate voice. Avoid being too casual or informal. Write in paragraphs. Remember to include a salutation and sign off. If the aim of the letter is to analyse and persuade, ensure you make your case in an analytical, evaluative, positive and persuasive.

• Select details from the relevant texts.

• You may add your own ideas and details—but they should be plausible and rooted in the texts.

• Try and ensure a consistent sense of audience

• Use a style that fits for purpose.

• Use fluent and varied sentences and a wide range of vocabulary. Show a strong sense of structure, paragraphing and sequence.

• When reading the texts, read effectively between the lines. Try and develop the reading material and integrate it into the argument.

• Avoid copying or lifting lines unselectively from the texts.


Question 2: Composition—Essay Writing (25 marks)

• You will have at least two argumentative/discursive, two descriptive and two narrative titles to choose from. You will be required to write on one title only.

• Write between 350 and 450 words.

• Ensure your writing is consistent, stylistically fluent, linguistically strong and accurate, and has clear sense of audience

• Attempt to use ambitious language, varied vocabulary and complex sentence structures, where appropriate.


Argumentative Writing:

• Ensure your arguments are consistently well developed, and you have logical stages.

• Ensure each stage is linked to the preceding one, and sentences within paragraphs are soundly sequenced.

• Avoid repetition.

• Your writing should be carefully planned.

• You should support your opinions with facts or examples wherever possible.

• A clear introduction and a forceful conclusion will help to convince the examiner to agree with your ideas.

• If you are given a specific audience for your writing, use vocabulary and a register that is appropriate to it.

• Argumentative writing tasks often appear to be very far-reaching: don't fall into the trap of trying to cover too many major issues in your answer. Plan carefully.

• You need not include more than four or five main points as long as they are developed in detail.

• Try not to include too many generalised statements; illustrate all of your main points with specific details and examples.

• Use vocabulary and a register appropriate to your audience but don't forget that your real audience is the examiner.

• If you are writing a speech, try to make it sound authentic by using phrases that are directed at your imagined listeners, but don't write in such a colloquial way that the examiner is unable to understand clearly what you mean.

• Argumentative writing is difficult, especially under examination conditions, so remember that you have a choice of topics; you don't have to choose the argumentative option.

• If you enjoy this type of writing then it's a good idea to make some preparations. Read newspapers and magazines so that you have an understanding of key issues and some examples which you can use to support your arguments.

• When you read what people have to say about a particular issue, practise thinking of opposing arguments to those they are putting forward.

• Always try to see both sides of an argument; good argumentative writing is controlled by the mind; you must control your feelings and express them as a logical argument.

• Argumentative writing does not mean you have to argue with the wording of the question.

• Argumentative writing does not mean you have to write a story.

Structure:

Introduction: State your understanding of the issue.
- Set the tone and hook your reader
- Explain your understanding of the issue/problem
- Explain why it is important to be discussing this issue
- Briefly state the different views on the subject
- Make your thesis statement in a concise and succinct manner.

Body: Comprises of several paragraphs in which you explain, illustrate and justify your point of view.
- Use rhetorical questions
- Present evidence
- Provide examples and facts
- Use interesting quotations
- Stick to a formal and impersonal style
- Give reasons for objections to any opposing views
- Structured rebuttals / counterarguments

Conclusion: Wraps up your essays and directs focus on your key points
- Summarise a couple of your most effective/important points/reasons
- Re-state thesis statement (ensure it is worded differently from the introductory paragraph)


Descriptive Writing

• Ensure you have well-defined, well-developed ideas and images, describing complex atmospheres with a range of details.

• Overall structure is provided through devices such as the movements of the writer, the creation of a short time span, or the creation of atmosphere or tension.

• Ensure there is no confusion with writing a story.

• Ensure repetition is avoided and the sequence of sentences makes the picture clear to the reader.

• Avoid clichés and telling a story.

• Describe what you see, hear, smell and feel.

• Slow down and dwell on the details.

• Use a rich and varied variety of adjectives, adverbs, metaphors, and similes.

• Stick to the same tense.

• Try to remain more or less in the same place while describing.

• Try to see things from the reader’s perspective.


Narrative Writing

• Narrative tasks may require you to write a story or part of a story; they may also ask you to write a true account. The purpose of your writing is to entertain the reader through the situation you have imagined and also to explore that situation and the characters involved in it

• Remember how much time you have in the exam. Don't try to write too complicated a story. Examiners want quality not quantity.

• Don't fill your writing with direct speech; it causes problems with punctuation and it's difficult to use effectively. Just use a little to show that you are in control of it.

• Writing a story is not just about narrative; description of characters and setting is as important.

• It may help you to base your story on something that has (or might have) happened to you. You can then embroider the situation as seems best.

• Don't take a story you may have read (or written) before and try to make it fit the title on the question paper - examiners will be able to see the joins!

• Don't forget to use paragraphs.

• Ensure the time sequence in your essay runs into a few hours and not into months and years.

• Don’t create too many characters.

• Planning what you are going to write is crucial; the opening sentence allows you the opportunity to develop a story in many different directions. Think about what direction you will take ­and where it will end - before you start to write.

• Wherever you decide to set a story, you must make it convincing to the reader by including background details. For example, at what time of the day (or night) is the story going to start? Who else, apart from the central character, is going to be involved? How much detail or description will you give of the characters involved in the story? For example, in the sample question below how much time will you spend in describing the corridor, the walk to the door and what is to be found behind it?

• Are you going to write your story in the first or third person? It's your choice, but a first person narrative will be centred on the experiences of the. narrator; a third person narrative will allow a wider viewpoint but may lead to an over-complex account.

• Make sure that your continuation is consistent with the tense used in the opening sentence. As an example, the opening sentence of the sample question below is written in the past continuous tense; the rest of the story should continue in the same tense.

Revision Tips - 2nd Lang. English

IGCSE ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (0510)


Second Language English—Reading and Writing (Papers 1 and 2)

Parts 1 and 2

• You should keep your answers short in Parts 1 and 2 of the Paper. Many students write much more than they need to here. Examiners only want to see that the question has been understood, and answered briefly but accurately. Don’t give more detail/information than you need to – be precise.

• It might be helpful if you decide quickly on what type of question is being asked. Is it a ‘when’ question? Or ‘where’, or ‘how’? Getting this right from the start, should make it easier for you to find the information/answer.

• Copying the correct phrase from an article is allowed – but it also acceptable to use some of your own words to communicate the answer. It’s best to check, though, that what you have written can be understood by someone else clearly, and that it doesn’t lead to a confusing answer.

• If you don’t know the answer to a question, you can attempt a guess by choosing what you think is a relevant section from the article, but you should write down only one point (or more if the question asks for more). Listing a number of possible answers is not a good idea; it will just waste your time.

• Be careful not to offer an inference when the answer is actually stated in the text. You’re looking (by scanning and skimming) for information that is there – you are not expected to work out or estimate what an answer might be, or should be.

• Try to make sure that your answer includes all of the required information. Adding two or three words can often make sure of this. Is the answer you have given complete?

• Be clear on how many answers (or points) are required. The questions will state this clearly, so make sure you have provided the number of points asked for.

• Don’t look for the answer in the question! Some students think that if they turn the words around in the question, they might find the answer. This is never the case – the answers are always found in the passage that you will have read.

• Where a map, or a chart, or a diagram is included in the article, it is likely that the answer to one of the questions will be found there. Make sure you read through all the resources you are given carefully.


Part 3 Extended writing

• Part 3 requires longer and more detailed responses than Parts 1 and 2.

• The word length is given for Part 3, and you should check (perhaps as you finish each paragraph) that you are keeping within the range allowed. Short responses could lead to marks being reduced; Examiners will not mark any writing which comes after the stated word limit.

• Some students have divided their Papers into columns to answer Part 3, where longer, essay-type responses are needed. This is not a good idea as it might cause you to write too few words.

• Don’t just regard extended writing as a chance to show how many linking words and phrases you know. It is important to write fluently, and link your ideas using phrases, sentences, and then paragraphs. But it’s also important that your whole piece of writing makes sense, reads nicely and answers the question, addressing each of the prompts.

• Decide straight away on the appropriate tone to use – you can work this out by considering the content and the audience. Is a formal tone needed? Or should the tone be more informal?

• Stick to the task! It’s quite easy to wander away from the original prompts. It might help if you look back and read the question/prompts again after you finish each paragraph.

• Don’t forget to write in paragraphs.

• Don’t miss out one of the prompts (bullet points). You will lose marks if you don’t respond to each of the points (there are usually three). Also, make sure that you have the appropriate structure in your longer pieces of writing – a beginning, a middle section (where you perhaps develop your piece by adding examples) and an ending.

• A little bit of general advice: try to grab the reader’s attention right from the start, and write in a lively manner.

Second Language English—Listening (Papers 3 and 4)

• Make sure you read the introduction to each question, as this often provides clues as to what will happen in the exercise. Remember, part of the skill of listening is to be able to predict what might be said next (some teachers might call this ‘pre-listening’).

• If a question is concerned with the cost of an item, the answer is expected to be given in the original currency. A numerical amount alone is not enough.

• You should spend some time practising listening to numbers, particularly numbers which sound alike – e.g. fourteen and forty.

• It’s probably more important on the Listening Papers to make sure you supply the exact number of answers required. Each question will state clearly how many points are needed – e.g. Give three items which … - you should check to make sure that you have given the right number. Examiners often say that many students fail to get this right.

• Bear in mind that for many questions on the Paper, you will need to produce more than one point/answer to get a single mark. If you give only one point where two are required (for one mark), the Examiner will not be able to give you the mark.

• Watch out for plurals. Millions, is not the same as million.

• Remember, you will hear everything twice. There is a chance, therefore, to try and work some answers out. You are allowed to make some notes, and you can use the blank areas on the exam paper to do this.

• By all means, have a guess as a last resort, but be aware that Examiners are looking to see that you really do know the words you are writing down. This means that you can make spelling mistakes, but you will only usually get the mark if your word is close to the correct word, and if it does not form another recognised English word. For example, if you answer ‘chance’ when the correct answer is ‘chants’, you will not get the mark. However, if you really do know the word ‘chant’, but you spell it incorrectly as ‘chante’, you will get the mark.

• For answers which require longer (sentence-length) responses, try to make sure that you have communicated the point/idea clearly. You can use some of your own words to do this, but remember, the Listening Exam is a test mainly of your
ability to write down what you have heard. In other words, all the details (evidence) you need will have been given by the speakers on the tape. An example of using your own words to convey an answer would be, “Peter said that he liked to go swimming …”, in response to a question which asked what Peter did after school almost every day.

Second Language English—Speaking (Papers 5)

• Remember that the Warm Up part of the Exam is not being marked. The Examiner will start with a general, informal, chat just to get you settled down and comfortable. This should be your aim in the Warm Up – to calm yourself down and get ready.

• It might be useful if you mentioned your particular interests (hobbies, things you like doing, current issues that are on your mind, things you feel strong about, etc.) during the Warm Up. One of the Examination Topic Cards might be a good choice for you – but remember, it’s not you but the Examiner who chooses the Topic Card.

• You should know exactly how the Oral Test will run. The Examiner will explain this at the beginning. If not, please do ask the Examiner to explain what will happen during the course of the Test. You will need to ask this before the Examiner gives you the Exam Topic Card.

• You will have some time (2-3 minutes) to look at the Topic Card and think about what you want to say in the conversation. You can’t make any notes here, but you can plan to include three of four talking points of your own (i.e. that are not suggested on the Card). This will help to make the conversation more interesting, and it might lead to a higher mark for yourself. In other words, you don’t have to stick to the five or six points listed on the Card – you can take the conversation into other areas, although you should remain broadly within the main Topic.

• Don’t worry beforehand about the Topics used in the Exam. The Topics are chosen so that conversations can be developed easily – you don’t need to have any prior knowledge of any of the Topics. It is not necessary, therefore, to try and revise any Topics which you think might be used. The Test is not about how much you know about a Topic, it is about how well you can have a conversation about it.

• The Test is not about delivering a speech. If you find that you are doing this, something is wrong, and you should seek to involve the Examiner in a genuine conversation. Examiners are trained to avoid and stop speeches taking place. It follows then, that you should not be preparing a script for this examination.

• You should think of the three assessment criteria in this way:

1) Structure – am I using spoken language, sentences and phrases, accurately?

2) Vocabulary – am I using a wide range of words?

3) Fluency – can I take part in a two-way conversation, perhaps extending the prompts/ideas that the Examiner has brought up?

• The key to success in this Test is to be relaxed. If you feel that you have taken part in a ‘good chat’ with the Examiner - a chat based on and sticking to the Topic - then it’s likely that you have performed well.


List of Useful Websites – English as a Second Language

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/Useful for news articles, interactive listening activities, an updated daily grammar exercise, and word quizzes.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/Although mainly concerned with revision for GCSE English, there are useful exercises for IGCSE ESL – e.g. reading non-fiction/information texts, writing in different styles, exam tips. There’s also a link to the ‘SOS Teacher English’ site, which has more practice in these areas.
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/welcome_english.htmlThe British Council’s main learning English as a Second, Other or Foreign language site. Lots of activities, usefully designed to suit the different levels of EFL. It also has particularly useful grammar exercises.
http://www.englishspace.ort.org/launchpad/about_whatis.aspA completely free site, containing lots of appropriate activities. Designed for ESL learners aged between 12 and 16. It also puts you in touch with other learners around the world.
http://www.debatabase.org/Use this site for keeping you in touch with current and international issues. There are lots of topics – many of which are common themes that you will read about, hear, and discuss in your examinations.
http://www.selfaccess.com/Lots of free sample exercises, etc. Specifically written for the ‘self access’ approach to learning ESL. It has listening exercises too. However, if you wish to gain full access to this site, you will have to pay.
www.flying.colours.org.ukThis website is managed by the British Council in Egypt and contains useful IGCSE resources and hosts an on-line community.
http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk/puzzlingThe caret site has lots of brainteasers, games and puzzles to test your problem solving and thinking skills. The puzzles are suitable for ages 11-19.
http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/bjpinchbeck/ index.htmlAt school-discovery.com – you can find information about all sorts of subjects, try the puzzlemaker, or find brain teasers to test your friends, download clip art and get homework help from BJ Pinchbeck
http://www.knockonthedoor.com/The Open Door Website holds resources for students between the ages of 9 to 17. It also has many recommendations to other useful sites in the study guide.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/Here you can access revision help from the BBC on a variety of IGCSE subjects. These resources will be useful if you are studying IGCSE.
http://www.factmonster.comFact Monster is an on-line encyclopaedia, almanac and dictionary where you can find out facts for free.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kidsNational Geographic Kids is a photo driven magazine for students aged 8 to 14. It is an interactive site with games, activities and experiments and access to lots of facts about the world.
http://www.thepaperboy.comFrom this website you can find on-line versions of UK, US and Canadian newspapers.
http://www.gutenberg.org/Project Gutenberg provides electronic versions of books free of charge. Please check copyright restrictions in your local area before using the site, and read the Project Gutenberg license carefully.
Study help
http://www.scholar.google.com/A search tool which allows you to search for keywords in books, reports, university websites and other resources.
http://www.how-to-study.comThis website contains lots of useful study tips which are suitable for all ages.