I returned from my holiday yesterday and already got some good news. I went down to the exam centre today and picked up my TKT exam results: both bands 4!
I can't say it was a complete surprise, but as any written exam it has an element of unpredictability. And here are my thoughts on the exam itself which maybe useful for you if you're considering taking it.
What is it?
It's a multiple choice test that checks basic knowledge of English and English language teaching. There are three basic modules of TKT and some more additional modules like Young Learners and CLIL. Each module has 80 questions and you have 1,5 hour to do the test.
Why take it?
TKT is recommended for new teachers but can be useful for more experienced ones. If you have CELTA certificate, I imagine basic TKT modules will not be an interesting choice for you (however, some of the additional modules can be). I was interested in the exam itself, it presented some kind of a challenge and helped me organise my esl studies. While preparing, I had more motivation to read extensively on esl topics, finally created my esl blog feed (which i still read regularly) and more importantly followed it.
In addition, it's relatively cheap and you can take it module by module in any order.
Is it difficult?
It depends. If you are a complete rookie in teaching, then yes. I have 6 years of one-to-one teaching experience, 3 years of which are in private language schools and 2 of them I was more or less actively studying esl books, reading teachers' blogs and participating in various training seminars and conferences. The exam was not difficult for me. My average mock test result was 78 out of 80. In terms of studying the relevant books, I would say 85 % of the terms were familiar to me. Out of these, 50% I had a very definite notion of and the rest needed some clarification or revision. A practising teacher meets many of those in their course books and accompanying teacher's books as well as in specialised literature.
How to prepare?
I bought a TKT handbook which contains theory sections and practice tests. In a shop I was hesitating between the first and the second edition (difference in the price, obviously). I haven't regretted having chosen the latter since it has additional references to Internet resources and some more 'additonal stuff' which I cannot comment on since I don't have the first edition.
The exam has an official Glossary which can be found on Cambridge website. It can be useful to download it and check yourself on the knowledge of the terms before the exam.
An alternative to the above-mentioned book could be Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener. I found that it covers almost entirely the material tested in the exam.
To consolidate your knowledge I highly recommend to follow esl blogs (there are examples on the Links page in my blog). Apart from being extremely useful they also recycle the vocabulary tested in the exam.
So why again?
Overall, I found it relevant at this stage of my professional development. It helped me to broaden and consolidate my knowledge of basic terms and concepts related to second language teaching. At the same time, I understand that the knowledge of theory itself does not make me a better teacher. But it does make my self-studies easier as it introduces you to the context of language teaching nowadays.
I passed first two modules to get a feeling of what the exam like and just see if I can perform well on it. Since it has lived up to my expectations I'll start preparing for the third module very soon.
I can't say it was a complete surprise, but as any written exam it has an element of unpredictability. And here are my thoughts on the exam itself which maybe useful for you if you're considering taking it.
What is it?
It's a multiple choice test that checks basic knowledge of English and English language teaching. There are three basic modules of TKT and some more additional modules like Young Learners and CLIL. Each module has 80 questions and you have 1,5 hour to do the test.
Why take it?
TKT is recommended for new teachers but can be useful for more experienced ones. If you have CELTA certificate, I imagine basic TKT modules will not be an interesting choice for you (however, some of the additional modules can be). I was interested in the exam itself, it presented some kind of a challenge and helped me organise my esl studies. While preparing, I had more motivation to read extensively on esl topics, finally created my esl blog feed (which i still read regularly) and more importantly followed it.
In addition, it's relatively cheap and you can take it module by module in any order.
Is it difficult?
It depends. If you are a complete rookie in teaching, then yes. I have 6 years of one-to-one teaching experience, 3 years of which are in private language schools and 2 of them I was more or less actively studying esl books, reading teachers' blogs and participating in various training seminars and conferences. The exam was not difficult for me. My average mock test result was 78 out of 80. In terms of studying the relevant books, I would say 85 % of the terms were familiar to me. Out of these, 50% I had a very definite notion of and the rest needed some clarification or revision. A practising teacher meets many of those in their course books and accompanying teacher's books as well as in specialised literature.
How to prepare?
I bought a TKT handbook which contains theory sections and practice tests. In a shop I was hesitating between the first and the second edition (difference in the price, obviously). I haven't regretted having chosen the latter since it has additional references to Internet resources and some more 'additonal stuff' which I cannot comment on since I don't have the first edition.
The exam has an official Glossary which can be found on Cambridge website. It can be useful to download it and check yourself on the knowledge of the terms before the exam.
An alternative to the above-mentioned book could be Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener. I found that it covers almost entirely the material tested in the exam.
To consolidate your knowledge I highly recommend to follow esl blogs (there are examples on the Links page in my blog). Apart from being extremely useful they also recycle the vocabulary tested in the exam.
So why again?
Overall, I found it relevant at this stage of my professional development. It helped me to broaden and consolidate my knowledge of basic terms and concepts related to second language teaching. At the same time, I understand that the knowledge of theory itself does not make me a better teacher. But it does make my self-studies easier as it introduces you to the context of language teaching nowadays.
I passed first two modules to get a feeling of what the exam like and just see if I can perform well on it. Since it has lived up to my expectations I'll start preparing for the third module very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment