Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / September 2005

Standard Greek practice nowadays is to run kids through an
upper-intermediate coursebook before tackling FCE. Some schools,
generally speaking the daring, intrepid ones, don't bother.

Your source is most likely ill-informed.

However, even OUP and CUP occasionally decide what labels to put on
books on the basis of something other than clear and rational
judgement. For instance, I use English Vocabulary in Use,
Upper-Intermediate (CUP), right after FCE, if necessary. There are good
reasons why the book is as difficult as it and still called an
"upper-intermediate" book. I don't use Clockwise Advanced (OUP) for
anything other than CPE holders who want to prepare themselves for a
trip to England. Great book, but wickedly hard on most pre-CPE people
here in terms of organizational format and natural expression.

In general, the European market is stricter than the Asian market in
labeling books by level of difficulty.

So, in general, upper-intermediate and FCE mean the same thing, even
according to Cambridge ESOL. Good luck convincing your source!

These sorts of terms are notoriously difficult to pin down, partly
because they're relative; a language level considered 'intermediate' by
a University language department might well be equivalent to 'advanced'
in a street-corner private school.

Some sort of standardisation does come from Exam boards - it looks from
http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/index.htm#IELTS like Cambridge ESOL
calls FCE 'upper-intermediate' and PET 'intermediate'. They know what
they're talking about of course, but having taught both exams in a
variety of contexts I'd feel more comfortable with FCE as intermediate
and PET at lower-intermediate.

The other idea is to look at the levels on differing course books,
comparing, say, two lower-intermediate books.  But while there may be a
consensus on books like Headway and Cutting Edge, as Credo pointed out
there will always be books whose perceived level is wildly different
from what you'd expect - my example is the grisly BE text 'Market
Leader' (aka 'Market Bleeder'), whose upper-intermediate version looks
post-CPE to me.

Then again there is an argument that some textbooks like Headway become
so ubiquitous (20 years ago it was Streamline...) that how they define
a level becomes the standard.  In the vast number of private schools
around the world where the course book *is* the curriculum,
upper-intermediate or intermediate *are* what Mr & Mrs Soars say they
are.

Regards
DC

Hi Jan:
I took the FCE exam in the last session of June, and as long as I know,
the exam corresponds to an upper-intermediate level. All the books
published by Cambridge Univ. Press that have to do with the test agree
with this, as well as the professors that prepare for the level.
Therefore, it is my believe that the school in which you are taking
private classes is not well informed.
For more advise, please consult the web site of Cambridge ESOL. You´ll
learn more about this.
Good luck convincing your information source.
Regards,
Eric GG

Ps: When you receive the Statement of Results of the exam it is
literally said that the level you reached is an upper-intermediate
level. "No more for the questions"

I've been teaching for two years and I find the two to be basically
synonymous, level-wise.  The courses differ becasue FCE courses spend a
lot of time on test-taking skills, whereas Upper Intermediate courses
just focus on language.

I really dislike it when a regular UI course uses an exam book because
they spend so much time on the various FCE writing types instead of
learning the language.  I do really like the FCE listening stuff,
though.

I find conditionals to be a good benchmark.  I think UI students should
be able to correctly use 1st and 2nd conditionals 90% of the time.
They should know what 3rd conditional is, but it's not fair to expect
them to use it too often.

Hope this helped.
Aaron