How do students pass the CET-4 test: Question 2

[dk]

"Students would be taught to read the first question before reading the
passage. The word "problem" and the phrase "near-constant complaints from
her four daughters" are probably enough for the students to identify the
correct answer. Since "complaints" is used in both the question and the
reading passage, they wouldn't even have to know the meaning of the word to
be fairly certain of their answer."


As Peg pointed out, to answer Question 1 the student could safely ignore a
lot of unknown vocabulary and only match up a couple key words which were
almost the same in the text and the question. Peg says students wouldn't
have to know the meaning of any of those words to be able to guess the
correct answer.

As Peg also pointed out, "Questions that ask for specific information are
generally pretty answer to answer. Gist questions are more difficult and
require a greater understanding of the grammatical structures and vocabulary
that appear in the passage."

Let's take a look at Question 2 which is such a "gist" question. The answer
is implied but not directly stated. It is not given away by any key words.

~~~

Concern about excessive Internet use isn't new. As far back as 1995,
articles in medical journals and the establishment of a Pennsylvania
treatment center for overusers generated interest in the subject. There's
still no consensus on how much time online constitutes too much or whether
addiction is possible.

But as reliance on the Web grows, there are signs that the question is
getting more serious attention: Last month, a study published in CNS
Spectrums claimed to be the first large-scale look at excessive Internet
use. The American Psychiatric Association may consider listing Internet
addiction in the next edition of its diagnostic manual. And scores of online
discussion boards have popped up on which people discuss negative
experiences tied to too much time on the Web.

2. What does the author say about excessive Internet use?
A) People should be warned of its harmful consequences.
B) It has become virtually inevitable.
C) It has been somewhat exaggerated.
D) People haven't yet reached agreement on its definition.

~~~

The answer is "D". The answer is in the statement "no consensus on how much
time online constitutes too much or whether addiction is possible" and
matching that to "People haven't yet reached agreement on its definition."

At the very minimum, to answer the question correctly the more advanced
vocabulary that would be needed by the student would be:

1. consensus
2. constitutes
3. addiction
4. reached agreement

So now I'd like to return to my original question:

Is that vocabulary in any course books in China that the students study
from? If not, how is it possible students could know those words?


Dave Kees





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_o_ ~ Helping each other teach our best
c(___)/` U
List Rules & Help are at http://Wikigogy.org/TEFLChina

[Margaret Orleans]

Post by dk
At the very minimum, to answer the question correctly the
more advanced
1. consensus
2. constitutes
3. addiction
4. reached agreement

If you run the passage through the vocabulary profiler at The Compleat Lexical Tutor <http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/>, you'll see that of the words you identified, only "addition" is really advanced vocabulary.

"Reached" and "agreement" are among the first 1000 words, while "constitutes and consensus" are on the Academic Word List, along with "definition."

Chinese university students should have learned the first 2000 words of the General Service List and the Academic Word List (another 570 word families). Still, 12.12% of the words in the passage (and question) are off-list, a little high for guessing from context.

Still, when we take out the General Service and Academic Word Lists, the passage looks like this:

Internet Pennsylvania
overusers
online
addiction
Web CNS
Spectrums Internet
American Psychiatric Internet
addiction diagnostic scores online
popped Web.
Internet
exaggerated.

Most of the proper nouns (Pennsylvania, CNS Spectrums, American Psychiatric) aren't problematic. Students can probably analyze "overusers" as a compound of "over" and "users." Students have probably acquired "Internet" and "Web" from practical experience. This question, then, doesn't seem to be placing an undue burden on students who have learned an intermediate level of vocabulary.

Dave asks about teaching each word, a concept that was alien to me until I began teaching in China. Chinese and Japanese teachers tend to think that way, not so much because of the foreign language, but because of the complex written language, where a large percentage of the vocabulary must be painfully learned one word at a time. This attitude toward vocabulary acquisition tends to spill over to foreign languages, as well, I think, even though students quickly get quite good at assimilating the complex rules of English spelling.

So yes, English vocabulary can be acquired without being taught, through lots of exposure. But where exposure is limited (as it is in China, despite the ubiquity of American pop culture), studying/assigning vocabulary lists as homework is an efficient use of students' and teachers' time. Paul Nation points out that L1-L2 bilingual vocabulary lists or flash cards work well, as long as the students have plenty of contextualized examples of the L2 words.

In another post, Dave likened English teachers to aircraft mechanics. I think this is an example of where that metaphor holds true. "Mere" pilots (native speakers) don't always know which words and idioms are high frequency, but an English teacher can point students in the right direction, giving them the tool for identifying important words to learn and strategies for efficient learning.

--Peg
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c(___)/` U
List Rules & Help are at http://Wikigogy.org/TEFLChina

[dk]

"If you run the passage through the vocabulary profiler...you'll see that of
the words you identified, only 'addiction' is really advanced vocabulary.
'Reached' and 'agreement' are among the first 1000 words, while
'constitutes' and 'consensus' are on the Academic Word List, along with
'definition.'"


That is not the question I asked.

The question is simply do any teachers know of any course books that are in
classrooms for daily or weekly lessons that teach:

1. consensus
2. constitutes
3. addiction
4. reached agreement

I don't mean reference books but books that teachers, particularly those
teaching students who have not yet taken the CET-4 test, use to teach
students in the normal course of their instruction.

If the student was "taught" this vocabulary from his teacher from a course
book and the student "learned" this vocabulary in that lesson and answered
Question 2 correctly, then there should be well-worn course books sitting on
many teachers' shelves right now with these words in them. The teacher
"taught" these words. The student made note of these words. The student
"learned" these words sufficiently to remember them for the CET-4 exam.

Perhaps these students, following the Paul Nation strategy that you
mentioned, have a box of flashcards in their book bag that they review on a
regular basis.

Therefore, there should be a further "evidence trail" going from teacher,
course book, flashcards or notebook, to a correct answer on the CET-4.

However, if we cannot find any teachers and course books that taught these
words, if there are no flashcards, no notebook entries, then the students
who knew the correct answer to the question were able to give the correct
answer because they acquired these words in another way than teaching and
the course book.

This other way is what interests me.

Dave Kees




------------------------------------


_o_ ~ Helping each other teach our best
c(___)/` U
List Rules & Help are at http://Wikigogy.org/TEFLChina