Introduction to C2 Proficiency Writing Task 1 with TED talks: a case study

 
Sometimes introduction to exam preparation can (and arguably should) be integrated seamlessly into General English classes. In this post, I want to share an essay written by my wonderful student Olga who is in my wonderful General English C1+ group. The essay is based on two TED talks, so it turned out to be a great introduction to C2 Proficiency Writing Task 1. 

Preparation

  • It's not uncommon for me to use TED talks in class. But rather than work with one, I chose two talks this time:  

The talks discuss the same topic - a great career - but from different perspectives.  
  • I gave one talk to one to half of the group and the second one to the second half. 
  • I asked the students to prepare a summary of their talk for their partner and a vocabulary list that would help them present the summary. 
  • In class, what students did was they summarized their talk to their partner, using the vocabulary they had prepared, and then discussed each from the point of view whether they agreed with speakers. 
  • After class, I asked the students to put their vocabulary on our collaborative doc and watch their partner's talk.
And then it hit me, "Well, we've basically done C2 Proficiency Writing Task 1 now, but in speaking. It would be a crime not to ask the students to write it all up." So I did. I asked them to summarize and evaluate the talks, adding their opinions. The result is an essay driven by ideas and vocabulary. The skill will come in handy later, when the students embark on a preparation journey for real.  

Essay

“Follow your passion” is ubiquitous advice for people who strive to pursue a successful and fulfilling career. However, the attitude to this tip is highly ambivalent. The speakers in the given videos express opposite points of view on the notion “passion” as a fundamental criterion to make a glittering career.

Larry Smith in the first video advocates for “passion” as an indispensable ingredient to achieve success and reach your full potential. In the speaker’s opinion, a passion ignites work and lays the groundwork for a creative solution to any problem. Yet, people are struggling to find their real passion, mixing it up with an interest, which is shallow and trivial. Smith also broaches the subject of excuses people invent not to follow their passion. One of the plausible excuses the speaker focuses on is human relationships which are taken as a shield not to take any actions towards the dream. People are trying to make allowances for themselves as they do not want to sacrifice human relationships on the altar of great accomplishment.

In contrast, Benjamin Todd in the second video refutes the suggestions that following your passion guarantees a successful and rewarding career. To back up his stance, he mentions the research showing that people who heed the advice “follow your passion” do not always excel at their jobs or even do not find them rewarding and satisfying. Todd also points out that people’s interests are bound to change throughout their lives, so “follow your passion” advice is superficial, misleading and populist. Hence, instead of “following your passion”, he recommends “following your contribution” which means “do what is valuable”. The only way to make a worthwhile career, in the speaker’s opinion, is to find a job where a person can make a difference and help to solve social pressing problems.

Undoubtedly, there is some truth in both views, but I am inclined to agree with Larry Smith that passion plays a crucial role in making a brilliant career. We cannot ignore the fact that passions are difficult to prioritize but succeeding in figuring out your true passion can contribute substantially to living life to the full and thriving in it. What is more, only zealous and truly passionate people who put their heart and soul into what they are doing can make a real difference or even change the world. The rest are lay people.

You see, with some sleight of hand, anything can be turned into exam preparation.


Image credit: Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to tame your IELTS pie charts

Image
IELTS line graphs are easy to tame - you just go chronologically, so the description doesn't get out of hand. Information in pie charts, however, can be hard to organize because there are different directions you can go in. In this post, I want to share two IELTS pie chart answers I wrote for the same task. The task is from Cambridge IELTS 11 . The introduction and the overview are the same. As you read, pay attention to the organization and try to decide which description works better. ✼✼✼ Introduction  The pie charts compare the percentage of British students of one English university who knew foreign languages in 2000 and 2010. Main Body Version 1 The percentage of students in three groups grew. Speakers of Spanish formed the largest share in both years, rising by 5% from 30% to 35%. The increase was the same in the “Another language” and “Two other languages” groups. In 2010, the former amounted to 20%, while the latter comprised 15%, making up the second and third largest prop...
Read more

My Fulbright application or a teachable moment on essay writing

Image
I did it one day before the deadline. I submitted my Fulbright application on 30 May 2014. Now, 14 months later, I am going to the USA as a proud Fulbrighter! The program I am participating in is called Foreign Language Teaching Assistant or FLTA for short. As a participant of this program I will be teaching Russian and studying at an American university for an academic year. When my students heard the news, they asked, “What did it take to get this grant?” I replied, “Well, there were several stages. First, I had to write a lot of text. Then, I … .” And one student said, “I am curious to read what you wrote.” I suppose many are, so I am going to let you in on one of my application essays. One of the essays I wrote is called “Objectives and motivations.” What I wrote is too long to upload here (1274 words, no less!), so I am only going to share my introduction and conclusion . Oh, and I see a teachable moment here, which I just can’t help using. Introduction "Albe...
Read more

C2 Proficiency. Writing Task 2. Review (of a film I haven’t seen).

Image
I keep writing like crazy because I am preparing for the C2 Proficiency test (fka CPE). In my previous post, I shared my Writing Part 2 article . In this post, I want to share a review I wrote about a movie I haven't seen and give some insights into handling an unfortunate task. Task A film magazine has invited readers to submit reviews of films which are set in the future, but deal with themes relevant to today’s world, such as our relationship with technology or environmental problems. You decide to submit a review briefly describing such a film and explaining why its themes are relevant today. You should also consider how important it is for films set in the future to say something about contemporary society.   ( Cambridge English Proficiency 2 , Test 2, Question 4). This is a really unfortunate task for me because I watch very few movies, maybe 3 a year. But as I read it, I imagined myself sitting in the exam room not wanting to fail, so I had to come up with somethin...
Read more

Top 8 mistakes Russian learners of English actually make

Image
Due to the nature of my job, every once in a while I stumble upon an article about N most common mistakes that learners of English make. I look at them and go, “Who makes these mistakes? Russians certainly don’t.” (For example, Russians don’t confuse your and you’re .) In this post, I want to talk about 8 common mistakes Russian learners actually make. These mistakes persist on different levels, but are not usually addressed in EFL course books. The list is based on my personal teaching experience. The order is random. 1. I with I often ask students “What did you do at the weekend?” and what I hear is “ I with my friends went to the cinema. ” The right way to say something like this is “ My friends and I went to the cinema ,” or “ I went to the cinema with my friends .” In English, the word order is “subject+verb” and prepositional phrases can’t go in the middle. 2. How to say When students don’t know how to say something, they ask me or murmur to themselves “ How t...
Read more