Cambridge English: Young Learners 2018 exam updates

Cambridge English has announced some changes for 2018 to keep Young Learners relevant to the evolving needs of learners and schools. A webinar has been provided on background information on the revision process before describing the small number of changes made to the question papers.

All three levels have changes to the question papers. For Starters: a new Part 1 Listening task means the same task type is present through all YLE exams but at the appropriate level for candidates; for the Reading and Writing, Part 1 now has both plural and singular nouns, and Part 4 has a semi-factual text instead of a riddle; for Speaking, previously there were few opportunities to speak so candidates are now asked for his or her name, and Part 1 is a conflation of old Parts of 1 and 2.

For Movers: drawing an item is dropped from Part 5 of Listening because candidates were concerned about their drawing skills, and there is also a new Listening Part 3 task that is the same as the Flyers Part 3; for Reading and Writing, the task order has been changed so that the easier tasks are earlier in the test, the total number of questions has been reduced to 35 down from 40, and the current Part 2 has been removed to allow for a new Part 6 extended writing task. For Speaking, candidates are asked their name and age, and the story now has a title and names of characters.

For Flyers: drawing an item has been dropped from Part 5 of Listening; for Reading and Writing, the task order has been changed, and part 2 has been removed to allow for the new Part 7 Writing task; for the Speaking, candidates are now asked for name, family name and age, and the Part 3 story task now has a title and names of characters.

Go www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSw8RjcHEbE&t=12s to watch the video.