Research Notes 76

Research Notes SupportingExam revisions English education reform in2020 Japan: The role of Issue 76 B1November Preliminary 2019 Issue 73 ISSN: 1756 509X1756509X Research Notes Issue 76/November 2019 Guest editors Ardeshir Geranpayeh, Head of Automated Assessment & Learning, Cambridge Assessment English Ron Zeronis, Capability Owner Content Creation, Cambridge Assessment English Editor Sian Morgan, Senior Research Manager, Cambridge Assessment English Production team Anthony Power, Marketing Project Co-ordinator, Cambridge Assessment English John Savage, Publications Assistant, Cambridge Assessment English Typeset in the United Kingdom by George Hammond Design Research Notes: 76 CoNteNts 2 Exam revisions as part of ongoing quality assurance processes Consultation with English language teaching professionals to inform 5 revisions to A2 Key and B1 Preliminary and their variants for schools Debbie Howden and Angela Wright 12 Updating the A2 Key and B1 Preliminary vocabulary lists Alan Lanes, Robbie Love, Bea Kalman, Mark Brenchley and Marianne Pickles 19 Revising the A2 Key and B1 Preliminary Listening exam Alan Lanes, Brigita séguis and Mark elliott 29 Revising the A2 Key and B1 Preliminary Reading exam Marianne Pickles, tony Clark and Mark elliott 39 Revising the A2 Key and B1 Preliminary Speaking exam Kathryn Davies and Nick Glasson 56 Revising the A2 Key and B1 Preliminary Writing exam Anthi Panagiotopoulou, James Lambie and Kevin Y F Cheung ©UCLES 2019 CAMBRIDGe AssessMeNt eNGLIsH – ReseARCH Notes: 76 | 1 Exam revisions as part of ongoing quality assurance processes Revision of examinations is one of the stages of the Love, Kalman, Brenchley and Pickles explain how test development model which has been practised in Key and Preliminary wordlists were updated to provide Cambridge Assessment english for decades. In this better validity evidence of the appropriate language model, each exam is constantly monitored, reviewed use for these exams. they explain how the revised A2 and critically evaluated to identify areas for and B1 lists expanded the breadth of lexis that would enhancement to ensure that they remain relevant to be available across a range of functions, genres and the needs of their stakeholders while taking advantage topics mandated by the revised specifications, and of the latest innovations in language learning, teaching discuss a three-stage revision procedure for making and assessment. this process may prompt revisions to this update. the revised vocabulary wordlists for the exams with the desire to provide better feedback Key and Preliminary are aimed at continuous support for learners and other stakeholders. In issue 62 of for the evolving learning and assessment needs of Research Notes we reported on the revisions to learners at these levels. Cambridge English: First and Cambridge English: Lanes, séguis and elliott describe the process of Advanced (now known as B2 First and C1 Advanced). changing the Listening tests to reflect the latest In this issue we report on the revisions to A2 Key and theories outlined in Examining Listening: Research and B1 Preliminary (henceforth Key and Preliminary) and Practice in Assessing Second Language Listening their variants for schools. (Geranpayeh and taylor (eds) 2013). they report on In the first article, Howden and Wright set the scene examining the constructs underpinning different for change by reporting how Cambridge Assessment parts of the Listening tests and changing their sub- english surveyed various stakeholders about their constructs to not only cover a wider construct but also satisfaction with Key and Preliminary and their to further align them with other Cambridge english variants for schools. A range of english language Qualifications, both for upward certification and teaching professionals including Centre exams greater standardisation across the whole exam suite. Managers, Directors of studies, teachers and one of the considerations in the revisions of Key and examination Administrators were surveyed to find out Preliminary was reporting Reading and Writing scores their overall satisfaction levels with the exams under independently. there has been a long-running debate review. Although the overall satisfaction was very about what constitutes specifically writing skills at A2 high and did not in itself suggest significant need for and B1 levels in light of the overlap of the underlying revisions to the exams, it highlighted areas for test constructs for tasks designed to measure Reading improvement. Following the survey, a revision project and Writing at these levels. Key and Preliminary were team was set up to look at possible improvements no exception and had combined reading and writing to Key and Preliminary and their variants for schools. tasks in one paper since their inception. there was a the team focused on the four skills of listening, request from some of our stakeholders to report speaking, writing and reading, in addition to reviewing separate scores for these skills. to achieve this, we had the wordlists used in all skills. to make changes to some of the tasks in Key and Cambridge english has, in recent years, been Preliminary. this resulted in separate papers of increasingly taking advantage of corpora-based Reading and Writing for Preliminary. Key, despite new methodologies to create wordlists for its exams, which task designs and separate reporting of scores, still are based on the levels of the Common european combines Reading and Writing in the same paper for Framework of Reference for Languages (CeFR). Lanes, practical reasons. Pickles, Clark and elliott explain 2 | CAMBRIDGe AssessMeNt eNGLIsH – ReseARCH Notes: 76 ©UCLES 2019 these changes, arguing that introducing new tasks in the changes to the speaking components of Key and Key and Preliminary, particularly the introduction of Preliminary are described by Davies and Glasson. expeditious reading in Key, better reflects current they explain how the new format for Key speaking understanding of the reading construct. elicits a wider range of language and language functions to allow candidates to fully demonstrate Perhaps the biggest change in the revised exams was their speaking skills, and provides a more authentic introduced in the Writing sections. Writing in the Key and meaningful task. they highlight the production of exams was assessed as part of the Reading and Writing new additional supplementary materials to prepare papers and the performance for these two skills was speaking examiners to provide better scaffolding for reported together. In the revised Key Writing, some of the learners which will in turn have the positive the tasks, such as spelling, were removed, and others, washback effect of learners demonstrating their such as open cloze, moved to the Reading section. the speaking skills fully. For Preliminary speaking, they guided writing task remained but has been modified explain that the new test provides much greater to cover performance up to B1 level, and we now have interlocutor control than the previous test design. a new writing task, picture story, that allows us to the revised Preliminary speaking test allows stronger assess A2 writing for narrative rather than simple candidates to show a fuller range of skills and at the transactional purposes. Panagiotopoulou, Lambie and same time aims to support less able candidates more Cheung describe these changes, and also explain how than previously. the Preliminary Writing section is now an independent paper with revised writing tasks that allows us to overall, the revisions of A2 Key and B1 Preliminary measure various aspects of writing at this level. there and their variants for schools ensure that the test is now a separate paper in Preliminary for Writing constructs remain fit for purpose, especially in relation comprising new tasks, which will bring much more to upward certification and standardisation with alignment for score reporting of Cambridge english Cambridge english Qualifications at B2, C1 and C2. Qualifications across all CeFR levels from A2 to C2. ©UCLES 2019 CAMBRIDGe AssessMeNt eNGLIsH – ReseARCH Notes: 76 | 3 4 | CAMBRIDGe AssessMeNt eNGLIsH – ReseARCH Notes: 76 ©UCLES 2019 Consultation with English language teaching professionals to inform revisions to A2 Key and B1 Preliminary and their variants for schools Debbie Howden Business and Marketing, Cambridge Assessment english Angela Wright Business and Marketing, Cambridge Assessment english Introduction At Cambridge Assessment english we review our exams on a regular basis to ensure that they remain relevant to the needs of learners and schools and incorporate evolving approaches to assessment and learning. the first step in the revision process is to consult english language teaching professionals globally, who have experience of running the exams or preparing learners for them. In this article, we report on the stakeholders’ consultation survey we carried out regarding the revisions to A2 Key and B1 Preliminary and their variants for schools, which were then known as Cambridge English: Key and Cambridge English: Preliminary , respectively. We surveyed a range of professionals in order to understand their satisfaction with the exams and their recommendations for improvements. the survey included some open-ended questions to give respondents the opportunity to explain the reasons for their responses. the survey found that overall satisfaction levels with the exams were very high and did not indicate that significant revisions were required.

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