[etni] [FWD: English vs Intelligence?]

From: ask@xxxxxxxx
To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 09:54:00 -0700
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 -------- Original Message --------
 Subject: English vs Intelligence?
 From: "Andrew Wilson" <andrew_israel@xxxxxxxxxxx>
 Date: Thu, May 20, 2004 9:50 am
 To: ask@xxxxxxxx
 
 Dear Etniers,   

At last we now know what the new modules look like! After years (yes ? years!) 
of anticipation, the first round
of exams is behind us. But what lies ahead?   

Anyone who has studied the form of the Bagrut exams over the last year and a 
half must surely have noticed the
change in the type of  questions that were being asked. We also had ?The Little 
Blue Book? which informed us
that as far as access to information was concerned students would have to 
?obtain and use information from
texts that deal with content in depth? by ?applying knowledge of rhetorical 
organisation?. However, I still
feel that we have been taken by surprise, especially with regard to module E. I 
assume the number of
four-pointers who took it as their final paper this week was minimal since this 
is the first year of modular
exams at that level, however, if there were any, it must have been a very 
?challenging? experience for them?  


What concerns me more than anything else is the fact that we are reaching a 
stage where the English Bagrut is
testing intelligence as much as it is testing a student?s knowledge of English. 
For years, English teachers
have played an important role in broadening the horizons of our students while 
at the same time teaching them
English. Discussions in class, literature and projects have all done wonders 
for many students who otherwise
might not have been exposed to such a wide variety of ideas and subjects. 
However, with the new format of the
Bagrut, I have a much greater feeling of uncertainty as a teacher ? not because 
it is new and therefore an
unknown quantity, but because our students? success may rely on their 
interpretation of tone or mood, or how
they perceive the relationship between a number of ideas expressed in the text. 
I feel sure that many of our
students would be in quandary even if they were to do the same exam in Hebrew. 
In my opinion, many students
will lose points, not because they cannot understand or express themselves in 
English (and we are talking about
an exam which tests English), but because they have been unable to grasp 
particular concepts or have
misinterpreted them.    

We really have made a lot of progress in the field of ELT over the last few 
years. But shouldn?t we be careful
that we don?t go over the top????   

Andrew Wilson

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[etni] [FWD: English vs Intelligence?]

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