New tasks and assessment criteria for YLE

In January 2018, Cambridge will bring in changes to YLE to keep it relevant to the evolving needs of learners and schools; to incorporate evolving approaches to curriculum design and assessment for young learners; to address feedback from stakeholders; and to position YLE more closely with the Main Suite exams to create a clear language learning journey.

For the Listening, Part 1 of Starters will have the same task type as Part 1 of Movers and Flyers but targeted at pre-A1 level. Instead of placing objects on a picture, candidates will now identify people in the scene. To complete the task, candidates must look at a colourful picture of people doing different things, read the names, listen to a conversation about the people in the picture, identify a person and read the person’s name, then draw a line from a name to the correct person. For movers and flyers,

Cambridge has dropped the drawing in Part 5 because it caused anxiety. The Movers Part 3 will be similar to the Flyers Part 3 task.

For Reading and Writing at Movers level, the task order has been changed so that the easiest task is at beginning; the total number of questions is reduced from 40 to 35, and the current Part 2 has been removed and replaced with a new writing task – Part 6.

For Reading and Writing at Flyers level, the task order has been changed so that the easier tasks are at the beginning of the test and the current Part 2 has been removed to make way for a new writing task – Part 7.

For Speaking, there are more opportunities to speak at all levels. Starters are now asked their name. Movers will also be asked their age, and Flyers have to give their first and last name.

The Speaking assessment criteria has been widened and candidates are scored on a scale from 0 to 5. Starters candidates are not graded on grammar and cohesion in the Speaking assessment, but are expected to know word stress, though not intonation. Movers and Flyers are assessed using a full set of criteria.

For details, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYfzO9eWUus and watch the webinar.