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As a student, are you yet afraid of the English language?
Cambridge English Language Assessment says: Don’t be
Let’s explore why
The University of Cambridge based in the United Kingdom is one of the oldest yet demanding educational institutions of the world. Every year students across the globe apply for this prestigious university owing to its attractive campus, academic rigor, and position. Being aware of the basic academic disciplines that the university has to offer, one cannot however be ignorant about the language requirements that give one major access to the university.
We shall explore the English Language Assessment of the University below which benefits the student community predominantly ranging from school to the college and finally to the university level.
READ ALSO: How To Excel In Cambridge A Levels
English Language Assessment: Having command over languages is always an edge to one’s candidature. What makes it more interesting is its status of being a global language. Because that furthers one’s case at a global level in any field and any service. Among many globally spoken languages, English is one such language that defines the credibility of a student especially while applying in Europe or the USA.
To ensure that the language becomes accessible and not just a privilege of a few, the University of Cambridge has initiated some steps for students, faculties, and even non-registered Cambridge fellows. It provides hybrid means of improving one’s English by pursuing offline or online courses. In online mode, it has strengthened itself by initiating two main activities. They are:
1. Games and Social Media
To ensure that the base becomes stronger in any field one needs to show dedication from early childhood. Keeping this factor in mind the university has advanced online games and social media activities that push one for work like word figuring, memorization of new words, building words and sentences, puzzle formation, solving mysteries of words, engaging in skill-based activities, etc.
What makes it interesting is that it caters to the psychological needs of children by introducing the concept of “learning through fun.” Fun introduced anywhere can sustain the concept of learning. The university tries to ensure that any mode, whether digital, outdoor play, reading, or writing, enhances learning among early learners. Some games and applications introduced by the University are:
Adventures In English with Cambridge
Visit: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/games-social/adventures-in-english/index.aspx
Exam Lift (Available on Android and IOS)
Visit: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/games-social/exam-lift/index.aspx
Monkey puzzles (Available free for iPhone and IPad)
Visit: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/games-social/monkey-puzzles/index.aspx
2. Sing and Learn
Learning through singing or making sounds is found impactful, especially at an early age. That is why we find rhymes a part of the curriculum. Catering to a similar need the ‘Sing and Learn’ videos have been started to help learn the English language. The videos are divided into levels taken from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)
As far as social media is concerned, the university has created various pages on different platforms to join together the global English learner community. Contemporary times through the phenomenon of globalization have made the world a global village. Events or activities happening in any corner of the world reach the global audience within minutes.
This time compression has been made possible majorly by social media sites. In this case also the social media platforms have played an important role by making the facility open and accessible to anyone who wants to learn the English language facilitated by a globally reputed university. This service has worked well in case of college and university going students as it has exposed them to the learning process initiated by the University online. And has furthered their application procedure in the University itself because of the English language being a demanded requirement to enter Cambridg.
Some of the accessible links provided by the university are:
Cambridge English Global Facebook page – Visit
Learn English with Cambridge YouTube channel – Visit
Cambridge English Instagram page – Visit
Cambridge English on Twitter – Visit
2. Free English practice activities: However old or at times boring some words of wisdom may sound, but no one can question their relevance. This applies equally to the signature phrase which is “Practice makes a man perfect.” Keeping this guiding principle as its motive, the university has launched more than 150 online activities that can be accessed easily. They involve activities and push curiosity to a higher level. Not only do such activities focus on speaking but also on writing, listening, and reading English well. Some of the activities for young learners are:
- What a great idea! It helps one to learn exclamatory words and sentences.
- Listening activities– this includes learning through listening.
- Which animal? The activity involves answering questions that help one to learn new words to describe animals.
- Vocabulary for the house and home– Houses and home are just two words but they are filled with so much small and big stuff that we often don’t even know the name of. Not to let that happen, this activity helps one to go deep into the structure of the house and home to learn the basics profoundly.
- Actually and Actual– how many times do we mess with these two words? At times a lot. The ‘actually and actual activity’ sorts all the mess.
- Tastes– Food tastes are exemplary as they inculcate a massive vocabulary if one wishes. The ‘tastes’ exercise does that job perfectly.
These are just a few examples and one can easily assess the innovative character of the activities.
Some other activities have also been initiated by the University that have helped majorly college and university students
Free writing activity: Write, write, and write. There is no end to this practice. Writing refines the skill. It helps to learn and unlearn and makes one’s skill exemplary. By providing access to the online ‘Write and Improve’ exercise the university that has since its establishment been considered
exceptional in its English language field has advanced the excellency to the global audience.
This exercise provides one with ample topics and tasks that can be chosen as per one’s wish. Once the task is decided, one is required to write about the task and upload it on the portal. An important advantage of this exercise is the ‘feedback and responses’ on one’s write-up. Those feedbacks push one for more effort and develop a thirst for searching one’s area of improvement constantly. There is no time limit to the usage of this tool, so once started the tool becomes a digital guide for many.
Exam preparation: Had the exams and assessments not been there, one’s areas of improvement and excellency would always be difficult to find. To facilitate the process the activity provides assignments, sample papers, mock exams, and guides. The exams are meant for all levels ranging from Preliminary to advanced ones.
Resource for Teachers: The process of learning is accompanied by the teachers’ support. To make the teacher community impactful in delivering their lectures, the ‘Resource for English teachers’ has been started. It takes the form of having the availability of resources like handbooks, support material, dictionaries, lesson plans, audio, and videos. All the resources are meant to strengthen both the student and teacher in skills like academic writing, syntax, grammar, speaking, reading, writing, lexis, pronunciation, listening, and much more.
Cambridge Dictionary +Plus: The Cambridge Dictionary +Plus application infuses new words, meanings, grammar quizzes, image identification, and video assessments. The application is accessible from the Google play store and Apple app store.
Linguaskill: Linguaskill is an online test method developed by Cambridge University under its domain of English Assessment learning. The test determines the writing, reading, listening, and speaking skills of a person. It is supplied by Artificial Intelligence and is applied in universities, organizations, etc for checking the language credibility of the people.
The test has been adopted by many firms and companies that want unbiased and professional recruitment. It can be accessed and administered anywhere. The format of the Linguaskill is available in two options:
- Linguaskill General: It prepares a candidate for any position (either university, companies, etc) by strengthening their English language skills.
- Linguaskill Business: This specifically caters to the needs of business professionals by making them strong in business language skills.
As far as modules are concerned, Linguaskill has two modules:
- Reading and Listening module: This module is dynamic as it has been designed to suit the needs of all candidates. It changes the level of questions by determining the type of answers that an individual gives.
- Writing module: The writing module analyzes the answers and highlights them accordingly by using Automarker.
Clich here to see how the Linguaskill automarker works.
Conclusion
One can sum up from the whole analysis above that the English Language Assessment service provided by the University of Cambridge holds significance not only to the community within the university but to the global audience as well. It has been able to cross the restrictive boundaries of university space and reach remote spaces. The service has not only helped the student community but also professionals, business fellows, entrepreneurs, and organizations. It has made the process of hiring easy and accessible. If the digital divide lowers down there are fair chances that a lot of student who fall aback because of the English language requirement in foreign universities can learn and make their entry easily to the Cambridge university in this case.
The tests conducted by the university under this service are remarkable and are valued and accepted as legitimate by various top-notch universities and companies like Microsoft, Stanford University, Adidas, King’s College London, Central Bank of Egypt, AirFrance, and AirPortugal, among others. The college and university going students thus have a strong edge by taking tests and learning English through the Cambridge service as it ultimately impacts their recruitment process.
More details about the service can be accessed at:
