Into Europe [antikvár]

SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE Modern Europe encourages mobility of labour and of students across the frontiers of the European Union and beyond. In order to be able to take up study places or work opportunities, knowledge of a foreign language is essential. In the modern Europe, it is increasingly important not only to be able to use a foreign language, especially a widespread and widely learned language like English, but also to be able to prove that one can use the language at the level required by employers, schools, universities or other agencies. And that means passing a recognised, valid examination which offers certificates in a foreign language. The 'Into Europe' series is intended to provide teachers and learners alike with opportunities to prepare to pass modern European examinations of English. The series originated in a British-Council-funded project spanning some seven years, which initially developed communicative, skill-based test tasks to contribute to the reform of English school-leaving examinations in Hungary. Recently the Council decided to make these tasks and associated guidelines and advice more widely available, in order to help teachers and students understand the levels and demands of modern European exams. This book is the third in the series, and it provides an introduction to tests of writing ability, as well as guidance on how teachers can assess writing. It looks at how writers write, what tasks they perform and what features make a learner's text good, from a testing perspective. It also describes key concepts in assessing writing in teaching and examination settings (for example, the use of rating scales, the importance of ensuring reliable scores and how to do this, and so on). The Writing Handbook provides a range of different writing tasks, together with a description of what the main features of these tasks are and how teachers can create similar writing tasks. It also presents scripts produced by real learners, which are annotated with raters' comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the scripts. The tasks and scripts have been selected to represent the levels specified by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This volume focuses on the most frequent writing tasks used in modern English language tests. It will serve as a tool for professional development, giving teachers advice on how they can prepare their students for the writing section of modern European English examinations. The Writing Handbook is also a valuable resource for practice of writing in class, and for classroom-based assessment of students' writing ability.