It's good to see so many of you here and to see where abouts you are in Greece as well. My name is Jill Budgie and I'm a Principal Writing Examiner for Cambridge English Language Assessment. Welcome to the webinar today on the compulsory essay task in the revised Cambridge English Proficiency, or CPE Writing test. So in the webinar today, we're going to discuss the changes that have been made to Part One of the Writing test and what's required of the candidates and then we'll explore the assessment scales for C2 level Writing, including evaluating some examples of students' writing and applying the scales. And finally, I'll present some teaching ideas which will help learners to improve their performance in the areas required for Part One of the Writing test. So, let's start by looking at the format of the revised Part One task and what skills candidates need to demonstrate when they're doing this task. So Part One is the compulsory task, and it always involves writing an essay. As you know, it's a discursive essay which is a piece of writing which follows an argument and discusses a particular issue, situation, or problem. And the candidates are given to thematically related input texts which are based on a variety of authentic contemporary sources. As the focus of the task is on candidates writing the level of the input texts will be well within the reading ability of C2 level students. Let's take a look at an example, then of the instructions for Part One task. This Part One is taken from the Cambridge English Proficiency Handbook for teachers which you can find on the Cambridge English Teacher Support website and we'll give you the Web address for that later in the webinar. I'll give you a moment to read through the instructions for the task. Okay, so what do you think are the main elements that candidates must include when they write their answers? Just type some ideas into the chat box now. What are we actually looking for? Yeah, summary, that's right. And evaluation. The main arguments, yes. Plus, their own opinion. Excellent. Okay, so I think everyone's got the right idea there and I've highlighted here some of the main elements of the task. And firstly, candidates need to identify and summarise the key points in the texts as you've said, and also evaluate them giving their own opinions about the points that are made. They must refer to the key points from both of the input texts, not just one of them. And they should use their own words as much as they possibly can. Of course, they can use key words from the texts but they shouldn't copy whole chunks of language. They also need to give their own ideas in their response to the points made in the input texts. The number of words is a useful guide to how long the essay should be but it is only a guide and candidates will not be penalised just just because their answer is longer or shorter than this. However, the length of an answer may affect other assessment criteria such as content or communicative achievement. And we'll look at this a bit later on in the webinar in some more detail. You can find more information about expected links in the handbook for teachers if you want to look that up in a bit more detail. And also there's some information about this in the recording of last year's webinar and how the Cambridge English writing paper's marked which can be found on the teacher support website. And again, will point you to that a bit later on in the session. Okay, so we've looked at the format of the Part One task. Now let's think about the skills candidates will need to answer the task. Well, here's a description of one aspect of a C2 learners ability from the common European framework of reference, the CFR, which all Cambridge English exams are aligned to. Just read it and think about this question What skills the candidates need to demonstrate their ability in this aspect of writing? Type your ideas into the chat box. Now, let's just get some ideas about that. Okay, yeah. Ability to summarise, yes. And paraphrase, organise, connect, be a good reader. That's right, and critical thinking, brilliant. Communication of ideas, argumentation. Yes, excellent. Lots of good ideas there. So let's summarise them just with this list that I've made. They need to identify the main points in the input texts, as you've all said, and summarise these in their own words as the basis for developing their essay. They must use an academic writing style which is expected in this kind of discursive essay using a formal or neutral register. And they must organise their ideas well, using an introduction, paragraphing and appropriate linking devices. And they also need to reach conclusion based on the information given throughout the whole of their answer. Right, so we've looked at the format and requirements of the Part One task. Now, have a look at this list of areas that learners might need to practise to improve their writing in general. Which ones do you think they will need for this Part One task? Again, use the chat box to type your answers but this time just type the letters A to H. You don't need to make the whole sentence. You can choose more than one letter because obviously there's more than one correct answer. So let's just get some ideas there. That's great, yeah. Lots of correct ideas there. So, as you said there, the correct answer is that-- the correct skills that they need are B, D, E, G, and H which I think that's the one supposed to be came up with. So later on in the webinar, we'll look at some teaching ideas to help your students with these skills. But first, let's explore the assessment skills in some a bit more detail and think about how to evaluate your students writing in this task at this level. There are four assessments up scales for the Cambridge English general and business English writing tests, and these are Content Communicative Achievement, Organisation, and Language. Content focuses on how well the candidate has fulfilled the task. Have they done what they were asked to do? The Communicative Achievement subscale focuses on how appropriate the writing is for the task and whether the candidate has used the appropriate register. Organisation focuses on how the candidates structures the piece of writing. For example, if it's logical and well ordered. And finally, the Language subscale covers vocabulary and grammar which includes the range of language used, as well as how accurately it's used. And for each of these subscales the candidates are awarded a Band between zero and five. Band three represents a performance at C2 level. That's the required level, which is to say Proficiency. bands four and five are above Bands four and five are above the level and Bands zero to two are below C2 level. Band one is C1 level, the Advanced certificate. So let's have a look at some of the Band three descriptors then. Here's a band three descriptor for one of the subscales. Which subscale do you think this comes from? Content, communicative achievement. organisation or language? Use your pointer, the star icon that you used before, on the left of the screen and click on which subscale you think this is from. Okay, some people are writing in the chat box but if you want to, you can click on the star and just move it into the box. No, nobody is going to do that? Fine. Okay, anyway, some of you have written "content" into the chat box which is obviously the right answer. In fact, the Content subscale is the same for all the levels of the CFR unlike the other three subscales which describe a candidate's ability according to the relevant level which obviously here is C2. Here's another one. Which subscale do you think this one is from? Again, use the pointer, the star, and just click on the box you think this is referring to. The Start button should be on the list... there's a list of pictures, icons and just on the left, which is pointing to it now. The second... Is the second one down? No, I can't find it. No, it doesn't appear. Okay, never mind. Anyway, it's fine to write it in the chat box. Yes, you're right, it's Organisation. And here's one more again. Have a look at this one. Just tell me which one you think this is. That's right, yeah. This is Communicative Achievement. In a moment, we're going to have a look at the language subscale in a little bit more detail. You can find all of the descriptors for C2 on the handout for this webinar, which you've downloaded beforehand as well as in the Proficiency handbook for teachers. Let's have a look at the descriptors for the language subscale, then. On this slide you can see three descriptors. One descriptor is for band five, one is for band three and one is for band one. Just read them and have a look closely at the differences between them especially at how different adverbs and adjectives are used to differentiate between those descriptors and see if you can decide which descriptor is band five, which is band three and which is band one. And you can type your answers into the chat box. That's right, that's definitely five. I think we've got that. What about B and C? So you're looking at band five, band three, and band one. Okay, great, yes. So let's just go through what the answers are. As you've all said, I think A is band five. As this is well above a C2 performance the use of language is very advanced. Just look at some of the words used their fluency, precision, sophistication, and style. Grammar use is described as completely natural. Mistakes would only be slips such as those a native speaker might make. C is band three, which is at C2 level. Vocabulary use should be effective and precise and there should be a wide range of grammatical forms but we're not expecting completely natural use. There may be a few or there may be no errors, but if there are a few errors, they're likely to be with less common language or maybe slips, as we had in band five. And B, from the previous slide, it was band one. And this descriptor describes the language of C1 level performance. There's a range of vocabulary and grammar, but we wouldn't expect sophisticated use. We would expect some errors, although not of the kind which makes it difficult to understand the text. So you can see how the descriptors distinguish between the levels through the use of language. You'll find similar gradations of language in the descriptors for the other subscales, apart from the language one. And it's worth taking some time to study these. You have them obviously on your hand out there. And get to know the differences between the different levels. And you can also find a glossary of the terms we use in the descriptors for example, the difference between errors and slips, in the handbook for teachers. You'll also notice how all the descriptors are worded in a positive way. It's all about what the candidates can do, not about what they can't do. So how about bands two and four, then, which we haven't really talked about yet? As I've mentioned, each of the bands, one, three, and five represents performance at one of the CFR levels. Band three is at C2 level and band one is at C1 level. And obviously band five is above C2 level. However, learners don't move neatly from one level to the next, as you know. And the learner may often show different abilities in different areas of the subscales. You may find that your learner's writing shares language features of band five and band three, especially because it covers grammar and vocabulary. In this case, the candidate would be awarded a band four for language. Likewise, a piece of writing may share language features of band one and band three and so they would be awarded a band two for language. Okay, let's move on now to applying these subscales to an example answer. You'll need the handout you were given before the webinar if you can have a look at that now. So here's an example Part One task. This is taken from the Proficiency handbook for teachers. So you can have a look in there if you can access that later. And there is also Task One on your handout. I'll just give you a minute to read through the task in case you didn't have the chance to do that earlier. All right, so the first thing that learners need to do when tackling this kind of task as we've already said, is to identify the key points in the input texts. So let's have a go at doing that now. Look closely at the texts and identify what you think are the key points that should be included in the essay, and when you're ready type one of the key points into the chat box. We'll just see if we can just get a few ideas from you. Okay, good, yeah. Confusion between the generations. Definitely, yeah. Communication change, yeah. Okay, so you're not summarising the whole thing, you're picking out the key points. Individuality, yes, is in the second one. And the social conventions, yeah, good. Okay, so there's some some good ideas coming through there. So let's just highlight then what the key points are. As you said, the first key point is about intergenerational lack of understanding about what is and isn't acceptable behaviour. The writer also notes that this is culturally dependant. The second key point in this text is about the need for there to be mutual understanding between different members of society in order to avoid or reduce conflict. Okay? So those are the two ones that I would underline if I was the candidate doing this task. In the second text, the writer's first main point is about the importance of individuality for society and for its ability to evolve and change. The writer then argues that individuality is also vital for each person's emotional and mental health and ability to function both personally and professionally. So, again, those are the things that I would underline or I would get the candidates to focus on as the key things that they need to mention. So this should be the first thing the candidates do when answering the task. Identify the key points and make sure that that's what they include when they write their essays. So now we've done that, let's have a look at an example of a candidate's answer. And this is also in your handout along with the C2 descriptors which you'll need to have a look at at the same time. This is task two on your handout. So read through the sample answer and, if possible, have a look at the descriptors on your handouts at the same time. And I'll just give you a moment to do that, just to read through it to familiarise yourself with this sample answer. And think about the content here, think about what mark you would give for content. Is all the content relevant to the task? How well informed is the target reader? Are all the points, those key points that we just looked at, are they all included? So type in a possible mark or comment about content into the chat box? Okay, yeah, that's interesting. Quite a few different marks there. Okay, so in fact, this answer was awarded a band four for content. All the content is relevant to the task. The overarching theme is behaviour, obviously, and the shifts in behaviour that the texts were about. And there is one final key point that the writer admits which is the importance of an individual's sense of worth to their own emotional and professional life. That was the last, the final one that we underlined. But overall, the target reader is informed. But the admission of this last point means this answer doesn't merit a band five. But it's all relevant content. OK, they don't have to refer directly to the texts as long as the points that they're made in the texts are included because that's what we're looking for. Obviously, they have included all the main points, but they haven't referred directly. Some of you are asking that. I'm going to come onto that in a moment. So just wait with that question and we'll come on to it when we look at the second sample. Okay, so let's have a think about communicative achievement in this answer. Is this text in the right genre and register? Do you think? Does it hold your attention, or are you distracted or have to read closely to follow the meaning because of the sort of language or organisation? Does the writer achieve the aims that are set out in the task evaluating the key points and expressing their own ideas? So, decide what band you would award for communicative achievement and type that into the text chat box now. Okay, a mixture of threes and fours there. Some people reserving judgement I think. So in fact, actually, this answer was awarded a band three for communicative achievement. And this is, remember, at the level of Proficiency. The candidate uses the conventions of the essay with sufficient flexibility. If you look at your descriptor for communicative achievement there and pick out some of the key words that are on that in the descriptor. So they use the conventions of the essay with sufficient flexibility to communicate complex ideas in an effective way. He or she holds the reader's attention with ease and fulfil all the communicative purposes as they set out in the task. However, the register is occasionally uneven but mixed as the candidate uses some rather informal language such as "rising through the ranks" and "dizzy heights" in the next sentence. Okay, so what band would you award for organisation? Remember, looking at the descriptors again, the organisation covers how well the ideas in the text are organised to make the text a coherent whole, as well as other organisational patterns and cohesive devices which are used. These might include structures, rhetorical questions and so on. At this level, we're looking at the range and how flexibly the writer uses these features. So decide what band you would award again for organisation and type your answer in the chat box. Okay, yeah. Good, you can mix, a mix of threes and fours. So, yeah, that's good. There are so few different answers, but many of you have answered band three, which is correct. Remember, this is the expected level for the C2 candidates. The text is well organised and it's coherent. It uses a variety of cohesive devices and organisational patterns with flexibility, for example, "in this connection," "more over" "Throughout the history of humanity," "The above mentioned." So there is... there are several examples of good connectives there. There is one example of a cohesive device, "despite that" which is in the second paragraph which doesn't seem to be used correctly in this context. Finally then, let's think about the band for language. Think about both vocabulary and grammatical structures including the range of language that's used, how complex it is and how well it's used. Are there any mistakes? If so, what kind of mistakes are they? Decide which band you would award and type your answer in the chat box here for language. Quite a mix, actually. And some of you being a bit too generous. This answer was actually given a band two for language which means it shares some features of bands one and bands three. And there is a wide range of vocabulary, including some less common lexis which is used effectively and sometimes with style. Some examples include "Deeply ingrained in their consciousness" "Perennial problem" in the next line. "Quicker on the uptake" "Adhere to their own set of beliefs" "Fit the mould" "Fulfilling their potential" "By leaps and bounds" "Social norms," and "Coming to terms." So this would suggest a ban three. However, the range and accuracy of grammar suggests a bad one. The writer uses a range of simple and some complex grammatical forms with control and flexibility. Grammatical and lexical errors are present, but do not impede communication. So these are the four bands awarded which means that the answer scores 12 points in total which means that across the four descriptors, script is just at C2 to level. Here's another sample answer to consider. This is task three on your handout. Read this one through, and while you're reading, think about how this answer is different from the first one we looked at. And when you're ready, type some ideas into the chat box. How is this one different? Yeah, that's right. It's as some of you were pointing out earlier it's much closer referenced to the texts, as you say there, and... has a different kind of organisation. Really interesting. So this answer is mainly different the writer has structured the essay differently. He or she has referred directly back to both texts and summarised the key points in a much more obvious way before going on to give his or her evaluation and opinion. So it's perfectly acceptable to approach the organisation of the task in this way but also in the way that the first sample did. If you look in the handbook for teachers you'll find this and other examples of how candidates have approached the task. And there really isn't one way of doing it, you know, we're not saying they have to do it in this way. It's very useful, I think, to have a look at the samples in the handbook and also to do this, to look at them with your learners so that they can help understand what makes a good answer and to consider some different approaches and different styles and different ways of doing this. Some of you also commented, I think, that the the answer is at a higher level than the first one. So let's think about the bands used to award for this answer. So have a look at your C2 assessment scales again on your handout. And at the bottom of the slide you can see some options for what bands the examiner awarded this answer. Look at them, at the answer, and at the scales and think about which bands you think the examiner awarded. Was it A, band five for all of the subscales? Was it B, band five for the content and language, and band four for the communicative achievement and organisation subscales? Or was it C, band four for all the subscales? Use the is the polling buttons. Don't write in the chat box this time. Use the polling buttons to choose your answer because then we can see an overview of what everybody thinks. So use the buttons A, B, or C. Okay, and we've got the answer up here. Okay, so nobody chose A. Most people chose B and some people chose C. Lots of people didn't choose anything. Okay, so the actual, the right answer as most of you said there was B. So the examiner awarded band five for content as the target reader is fully informed all of the content is relevant and all of the key points are covered. They also awarded five for language as the candidate uses a wide range of vocabulary including less common lexis with fluency, precision, sophistication and style. Some examples of this are "overarching theme," "differing viewpoints" in the middle of the second paragraph, and "contentious" and "contentious" and "an end in themselves" right at the end there. And the use of grammar is also sophisticated, fully controlled and completely natural. Can you identify some effective grammatical structures that the writer uses here? Type some examples into the chat box. And just see what... what you come up with. Some examples of the grammar. That's good in this example. Okay, so here I've highlighted some of these. We've got "What is normal for one set of people may appear rude to another group." So, it's the it's the actual way that the grammatical structures are used to effectively get their point across in a much more sophisticated way than we had in the first sample. Another example, "there is such awareness," referring back and claiming that such awareness can help to avoid social conflicts having that ability to refer back to something that you've talked about already, using this sort of language. In my opinion, there is little to disagree with. It's at the phrase level rather than the sort of individual grammatical looking at, you know, errors. There aren't any errors I don't think, in fact, to provide the soundest basis that using superlative structures in a very sophisticated way to, you know, express their opinion about this topic. So that's yes, that's looking at grammar. For communicative achievement and organisation, the answer was awarded a band four. The candidate uses the conventions of the essay to communicate complex ideas and fulfilling all in an effective and convincing way, holding the target reader's attention with ease and fulfilling all the communicative purposes. If you refer to your assessment scales handout you can see that the term "convincing" comes from the band five descriptor indicating that this response has some elements of band five communicative achievement. However, the candidate is not considered to have demonstrated complete command of the conventions of the essay, which she or he would need to do to achieve a band five for this subscale. And in terms of organisation, again, referring to the assessment scale, the text is a well organised coherent whole and it uses a wide variety of cohesive devices and organisational patterns, which you can see highlighted here. And this variety raises the organisation above a band three. It's not organised impressively, however, and the organisational patterns are not used with complete flexibility which would have made it a band five. If the candidate has successfully integrated the evaluation of the key points with his or her own ideas throughout the essay in a more creative way, this may well have raised the organisational score to a band five. So I hope you found the exploration of the sample answers useful. It can really help you to understand how the descriptors relate to your students actual work and so can improve your ability to evaluate your own students writing. This is also something you could consider doing in class with your learners. They also need to be familiar with the assessment criteria and know what they need to do in order to achieve the highest grade possible. Let's move on now to talk about some other activities you can do in class to help your learners prepare for this part of the writing test and help them to perform well. So what do you think of the areas that you might need to consider when devising appropriate classroom activities? Think about what we've looked at so far in the webinar and type in the chat box any areas your students may need help with or activities that you've done successfully with your students to prepare them for this part of the exam. Okay, yeah. Fast, that's-- Okay, yes. I know, I don't understand there was an issue with the age of your candidates as somebody is talking about there and it is problematic. But this Proficiency is an adult exam and they do need to be able to address these topics and in a mature way. That is, I'm afraid that is the level that we're looking at. It's an academic. Uh, um, academic writing, really academic level of English that we're looking at. Yeah, lots of really good ideas there as well for... for different ways of helping them too. Focus on the key points, paraphrasing, and the language side. Excellent, good. So here are some areas that that we've come up with. Firstly, you need to provide your learners with plenty of practice in reading texts, which is similar to the input material used in the exam. This will help their confidence, obviously, especially in recognising topics and themes and identifying the key points in them. Secondly, you could give learners plenty of practice in improving the specific language required for this task, as you've said, summarising, reconstructing arguments, evaluating abstract arguments and integrating the summaries into coherent essays. Remember, all of this should be done using student's own words as far as possible. And that's tricky, I think. And thirdly, learners may need help in improving their academic writing skills especially in the discursive essay format. So let's just have a look at each of these in turn and go into more detail. So we're looking at dealing with the input material. Of course, you can find lots of suitable current affairs material in newspapers and on the Internet, etc. Huge amount of material is widely available, and you can encourage your learners to read as widely as possible to familiarise themselves with the format and style of this type of text. They can also bring useful or interesting texts they've found, into the class, and then they can summarise the key opinions in it hopefully on a topic that they're interested in and give their reactions to the text and then present this briefly to the class to integrate the speaking and writing skills. Also, you can encourage your learners to use a highlighter pen to highlight the key ideas in an opinion text, and of course, they can also do this in the exam. Thoroughly recommend that they highlight, underline in need when they're actually in need when they're actually taking the exam as well. As I've just said, you can also do speaking activities based around reading texts, for example, ask your learners to research arguments in favour of or against a current affairs topic and prepare to discuss or debate the issue in class. Although all these activities don't actually practise writing skills, particularly, they do help to develop learners confidence so they can deal with the texts on a range of topics at this level and are able to respond to them. Students will also need to develop the specific language skills needed for the task, as you all mentioned, that these are the ones that they need to be looking at. And obviously, they need to be able to practise doing this in class as well. Think about some ideas that you have for ways to help develop learner's language skills for the task and particularly for these skills. type any ideas or suggestions you have into the chat box now for looking at these language skills. And some of you who did this earlier as well. Okay, so let's have a look at some ideas that we've come up with here. You could use... You could ask students to brainstorm some functional language for one of this specific skills needed for Part One Writing such as summarising. This peer sharing of ideas will help reinforce useful language and help prepare weaker students before the exam. You could do this with the speaking activities we've just discussed, linking it to the ideas in the texts the students have been reading. Another idea is to focus on synonyms. This doesn't just include vocabulary items. This could also include synonyms at phrase level and even parallel sentences using different structures or formal-informal versions of the same phrases to focus on that kind of academic style that we're looking for. To help learners with, to write more coherently you could do some work on organisation such as making a simple answer like the one once we looked at earlier into a jigsaw text. And then the students have to reorder the text into a logical structure using the linking devices and content as a guide. This can really help them to think about how ideas in a text are structured. Or they could put the missing linking devices back into into a text so before the class removed the linking devices from a sample answer and list them separately. And firstly ask the learners to identify the function of the linking devices, whether it's contrast or purpose or addition, and then ask them to try and put the tracking devices back into the correct place. So they're really focusing on the detail of how the text is organised. Okay, and then let's just look at the third area that we had before, the academic writing skills. Writing a discursive essay is something that many students need to be able to do in higher education. What kinds of skills are included when we talk about academic writing skills? What do we mean by this? Just just type some ideas into the chat box now. Yeah, register, reconstruction, analytical thinking, great sophistication, yeah, yeah. Lots of good ideas, note-taking yeah. Yes. Yeah, brilliant, brilliant, lots of really good ideas. Yeah, yeah. So academic writing is obviously formal in register. You can't use slang or abbreviations. The language should be clear, although you don't necessarily need specialist terminology, especially in an English language exam. It's more the clarity and sophistication that we're talking about and there should be some evidence of... reference... sorry. There should be evidence or references to support the claims or ideas in the texts. It may be written in the third person. Generally speaking, academic writing, means avoids, avoiding using the word "I". But remember that in the Part One task of the writing test we are asking candidates to evaluate the input texts and use their own language so they may choose to use "I" in this case. And that's perfectly acceptable. And finally, an academic text should be well structured with an introduction, a logically organised main body and a conclusion. So how can you help your students to achieve this? Well, you can find more information about what's required in essays as well as the other tax tips for the writing test in the Proficiency handbook for teachers Really well worth having a look at this. There's a lot of useful information in there. And you can share this with your students, perhaps using it as a reading activity where learners could complete gaps or match descriptions to the different text types that are mentioned. Obviously, this is also relevant for Part Two of the writing where they choose their own test task type to write about. You can also find lots of useful information, tips and so on by searching online. Universities, for example, have published leaflets guides and even interactive assessments which you can refer to or use with your students. Just look on their websites. You can also use model texts to provide good examples of the features of academic writing and ask students to identify them. Many newspapers and online texts follow the main features of academic writing and you can easily find articles written by academics or in an academic style. Finally, don't forget to ask your learners to evaluate sample answers by applying the CEFR level descriptors, which we use today. Ask your students to identify some examples of the features which the examiners would be looking for as evaluating work focuses the candidates minds on this, on what they need to achieve. Also, encourage your students to evaluate their classmates written work and give constructive feedback to each other. So that's the end of this part of the webinar. We've looked at Part One of the writing test its aims and the skills which are assessed. We've explored the assessment criteria at C2 level and practised applying these to some examples of students writing. And finally, we've looked at some teaching ideas for developing different skills required for this part of the writing test. I hope you found it useful and they'll pass you back to Anny who will give you some further information on the support materials you can use to help your students prepare for the Proficiency exam and then Ron Zeronis and I will answer any questions you have about the writing paper. Please type in any questions you have, and we'll do our best to answer them. Thank you, Joe, that was really interesting and useful. I just like to spend a few moments now telling you about the Cambridge English websites. So let's look at this first one, the teaching support website. And this new look teaching support website provides resources for all Cambridge English language assessment examinations and teaching qualifications. You find free resources here, and they include downloadable lesson plans, worksheets, classroom activities, teaching ideas, sample papers and the handbook for teachers is available for Cambridge English Proficiency. And of course, you can find the handbooks for all the other exams as well. Now, let's look at this next slide, which shows you the official support material. This first website address www.CambridgeEnglish.org/prepare-and-practise. If you go to this site, you'll find some free resources again. And you also find official books, course books, practice tests, all the official material for Cambridge English exams. And you'll see there, the next website is the Cambridge University Press link. And here you can find all their official practice material for the exams. Now, underneath that, you've got three other website addresses. The first one, the teacher's website, where you can find free resources. The next one, if you're a candidate, we recommend that you go in to the website www.CambridgeEnglish.org and then finally the last website there is for recognising organisations. So, for example, if you'd like to know which organisations, ministries, companies, etc., recognise Cambridge English Proficiency in Greece, just go in there, click on the country, click on the exam and you'll see a very long list of organisations that recognise Cambridge English Proficiency. That's the information about extra support. So now I'm going to hand you back to Jill Budgie and Ron Zeronis who are now ready to answer your questions. Thank you. Okay, so this is Ron Zeronis who's accompanying me now who's come along to answer a few questions. Hello, everybody. Thank you very much for joining us today. And as Jill said, my name is Ron Zeronis and I am the Assessment Group Manager responsible for the production of Proficiency. So we're just going to take a few minutes here to answer some of the questions which have come in during the webinar. And I think we've got a few right here. Yeah, do you want to start with this one? All right, so somebody has asked us "Here in Greece, the average age of students taking CP "is much younger than the rest of the world. "Therefore, many students have the language skills "but lack the maturity to be able to deal with the subjects and contents. "So, how fair is this, considering that it is a language exam?" Well, I think that is a good question. Of course, we're talking about assessing language, but we're also assessing ability to perform operations in the different skills in the language at C2 level. The entire construct of the exam is based on being able to operate effectively at C2 level for the purposes that we have set for the exam, and the candidates are using the exam for namely, to access very high level courses of study or postgraduate courses or very high levels of professional work. So it's very, very important that candidates are able to operate at that level in each of the skills, which is why we have the tasks in the writing that we do. Part one in particular, the ability to synthesise an argument, summarise viewpoints, understand differences that authors might have on on a particular subject and at a reasonably subtle level as well. And to be able to discuss that at a high level. That's a key academic skill, and not just an academic skill. It's something that you might have to do in your career as well. So, yes, it's a language exam. Clearly it's a language exam, but it's testing your ability to operate in those skills. That's right. Yeah, thanks. And there's another one about... "Can... Could you tell me if students can use words like the first text says that?" Somebody who came in a bit later, I think, who didn't hear me say, but yes, you can. And we looked at two examples earlier on which are in the handbook for teachers with Examiner comments, so you can read them again. And we looked at two different styles of doing this, one where the structure was very clearly of that way you know, this is what the first text says, and this is what the second text says, embedded their opinion in that format. And another one where they did it from a much more abstract and sort of viewpoint without making it very clear, you know, who said what and from the input texts. So hopefully that's clarified that one. Do you want to talk about the topic? Yeah, somebody has asked us, "Can a writing piece which is off topic still be awarded a passing grade?" Well, we would hope that candidates would write on the topic and be trained to do that. It's important that they address the topic areas because that is really what the task is all about. First of all, I think you all know that you don't pass or fail a paper. You are awarded marks on the scale as you've seen in the webinar. One of those areas is content. If you don't address the content that you're going to get very low or no marks in that area. Your language will still be assessed but your performance on the on the paper, I think, will be much weaker if you if you stray off topic. And I think it's important that students are made aware of that. Thanks. Yes, that's right. So obviously it's one of the subscales but they will still get marks on the other subscales. And then I think the final one was... "Is there going to be a webinar on the second part of the writing paper?" Well, that depends. Doesn't-- I mean, hopefully if people found this webinar useful and you'll give us your feedback and let us know, then I see no reason why we couldn't do a similar webinar on Part Two if that would be useful. So you let us know and we'll take it from there. That's great. Thank you very much. So I think that's all we have time for, for now. And we've gone slightly over time, I think. And thank you very much for attending today. And we hope it was useful. And we look forward to seeing you at our future webinars. Thanks and goodbye. Thank you.
