Edmodo as a Perfect MUET Learning Platform

For my Master's I researched the efficacy of Edmodo as a really wonderful tool for language learning. Helps students to use an FB like platform for academic purposes esp to polish reading skills as well as writing. They then talk about what they have researched online (flipped classroom) and have to listen and ask questions meaningfully with an authentic purpose. Basically, it combines all 4 skills and injects excitement into the lesson as all students are very geared up when it involves digital tech of any kind. 

I set up a teacher's account and creat a class, then tell them to download the Edmodo app from Playstore n get them to register as a student n sign in with the auto generated Class Code. 

The first task was for them to introduce themselves. 

The second task was to upload a website link for a food item from a country of their choice. Make sure they do not choose the same country. I then use the content as an individual 2 min speech followed by a group discussion. 

Third task was to find a picture n write 50 words on a famous place to visit. They will also do a speaking activity on this.

Encourage students to read others' posts as it will maximise usage of the researched items and also give ample opportunity for critical thinking and writing+reading skills. All good!!

Bah.. here r some screenshots. Happy teaching and learning. 

If u would like to join my Edmodo class for teachers, just WhatsApp me at 0168451270. Cheers!

PKP MUET Online Lesson 2 - Blogging as a Homework Hub

Hey hey! So I'm back with another video, this time I faced so many technical problems I was ready to punch my laptop but I managed to hold back. Anyway, the ending is a little abrupt but I think I got across all the necessary points in less than 10 minutes. Happy watching and do leave a comment if you'd like to give me feedback. 

Special thanks to all my students who in one way or another end up as lab rats... kudos and great jobs on updating your blogs. Basically a blog is quite easy to do with either Blogger or Wordpress and there are a multitude of YouTube videos that they can watch to learn how to start a blog. It is an excellent Homework Hub to compile all their individual work and gives them free reign to be creative and expressive while using the target language in an authentic manner. 

Some of the blog tasks I have given are: 

1. Write about a typical day being quarantined under MCO restrictions. 

2. Post about anything you like (K-pop, K-drama, food, cats, hobbies, poetry etc) 

3. Analyse the sample answer for the recent March MUET report writing test and retype the answer onto your blog. 

4. Record yourself giving a 2 minute speech following the MUET format. 

For No.4... the students can explore by themselves which applications suits them best. Most of them uploaded to YouTube but some used different applications like InShot, Moviva, Anchor (Podcast) etc. Interesting apps that can be explored further. 

Happy teaching and learning and most importantly, keep safe! 

Special thanks to Ann Suhana because I highlighted her blog and to Zul because I printscreened him in the midst of his speech on YouTube. 

Or click here to view my YouTube Channel Video 

PKP MUET Online Lesson 1: Academic Essay

Hi all.. by popular demand, I am back! Here is a good video to share with your students on how to brush up their academic essay writing skills.

For teachers, get students to watch the video and you can ask them to list the 10 tips they garnered from the video. Alternatively, get them to write an essay of their own and you can use the Review button on MSWord to write comments on sections of their essay.

For students, you may do any of these tasks.
1. Write a good thesis statement for this essay.
2. Make two lists, one list for nice vocab, another list for good points.
3. List down 10 Tips for good academic essay writing
4. Write an essay (free topic) and submit to your teacher. Be careful to follow the MUET format rather than copy and paste stuff from the internet which is PLAGIARISM!

Good luck and may I have more motivation to make another video. Cheers n stay safe!

Or your can click this link:Syna's Academic MUET Essay

CEFR Readiness FREE MATERIALS

Update: MPM's MUET HANDBOOK 

Click this link 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ISxpth6Pd5VK-ANOLF8UCPntHTPGhMaK/view?usp=drivesdk 

Hi all... so I'm sorry I just realised that I should hv put all my materials up for public use since the first batch of CEFR Readiness, anxious teachers all over Malaysia, have been facing the heat of the hot seat.

Anyway, since I'm writing new materials for the new format and designing mostly new handouts and slides, I now believe that all my past materials should be put up free in the link below to help the masses. After all, the new MUET CEFR aligned format means that I can have a bonfire party and burn my 17 years of hard work with a single match. Haha. How melodramatic am I being? Very.

My only wish is that you support my new model test and reference books which I co-wrote with other authors under Oxford Fajar. Hold your horses, the two books are slated to be out soon. Hopefully by May.

So here they are, my haphazard notes for the current MUET format valid until end of 2020:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ts2M46krdOfDB0F-FbWIlkfMiPvGWO-v?usp=sharing

Pls use with care, respect intellectual property, quote me wherever needed and do not reprint by deleting the bottom copyright lines.

If you would like to contact me, WhatsApp me Audrey@0168451270.

And if you'd like to buy my new self-published grammar book, do drop me a message too. Watch this video for a short intro to my MAGIC GRAMMAR BOOK: FIX YOUR BROKEN ENGLISH

https://youtu.be/YvZGbDs_7yo 

My Grammar Book Is Out!

Have you ever wished for perfect grammar? Do you feel that your grammar needs help but you don't know where to start or what to do? Now you can self-diagnose and fix your errors forever! All my grammar codes and quickfixes in one book!

WhatsApp me directly for a copy. I will post it to you. Mdm Audrey@0168451270

New MUET 2021 Writing Paper 25% Personal Commentary

(DISCLAIMER: I do not represent MPM, all opinions are my personal commentary and are not influenced by any person specifically, I have included documents from MPM's official new test specs and official sample questions available from their own website (links given below) and have taken screenshots/pics and uploaded here because most teachers from rural areas have approached me and told me that they find it hard to download or access info online due to various existing issues including lack of accessibility to highspeed data. All my thoughts and notes here are meant to help both teachers and students so they may face the MUET examination  both current and future to their best potential. Kindly save me a good word, or none at all if you have nothing sweet to offer. Have a pleasant day!)

Ah... and now we have reached the core of my distress. Ok, I'm just being overly melodramatic. Right, so I am actually in favour with the change as I have come to detest the report question over the years as honestly, it has morphed into some kind of monstrosity that was crippling both the weak ones as well as the good ones. Basically, over the years, to make marking more standardised and streamlined for every marker, rigid marking schemes were introduced which shaped the format of the report. The concept of successful and attempted analysis or synthesis became extra technical and even the most proficient B6 student would not achieve B6 if he or she was unaware of the format outlined by the team of examiners every test. Right... so out it goes and rightfully so. However, I was initially aghast with the introduction of such an elementary question compared to the current one in the form of answering a letter or an email, WITH notes on how to answer on the right hand side, which was indeed a nosedive in terms of quality and 'academic-ness' if there is such a term. I now accept that the Cambridge committee was right in throwing it out because it was pitched too high (C1) when actually the first task should be at an entrance level which would allow the lower bands to be able to respond appropriately rather then scare them off at first glance. I still feel that the content in the sample was overly simplistic and does not suit the content of entering tertiary education (English Camp? Living in a tent? Hmmmm.. questionable!)

FYI: Documents can be downloaded here.

The New Test Specs : http://portal.mpm.edu.my/documents/10156/3fd4da51-7768-4be2-ace5-5021ed73d9ad

The Sample Questions: http://portal.mpm.edu.my/documents/10156/8fbcb4bc-8f7a-4670-8b3a-f47781839974


Overall the paper has been reduced to 25% and time reduced to 75 minutes.

Task 1: Guided Writing
The task it itself looks rather easy and what makes it a little different from your conventional essay is that there are notes to be followed on the side which will determine how you should respond to the info. The language in the question itself must not exceed the B1 level. The presenter said that the task is pitched at a specific level but the response of the candidate to the task will determine the proficiency level of the student. I do agree that if the task is pitched too high, it will not be able to gauge the level of the lower bands accurately because they would not be able to respond to the question not because they don't know the language, but because they don't understand the question (as in the case of the current mutated Report Question with the rigid secret format/answering formula). Apparently in the new test, there will be no exact and specific format because the focus is more on the writing content as opposed to a rigid adherence to specific formats. Students are just required to respond to what is required, and do avoid prescribing templates so do be very careful of this. The running advice is to teach them informal writing where apt or switch to a more formal piece, conversational if necessary, definitely descriptive writing including the use of adjectives and a sound command of grammar with a flair for fluency. Easier said than done.

One of the issues already highlighted is that the instructions on the right hand side is not entirely consistent as some notes are the language required itself (Great! Yes,../No,..) but some were language functions (Describe./ Tell him/her!) Apparently, MPM has taken note of this and will further tweak future questions to be more consistent. It should be at least 100 words, and as mentioned, there will be no penalty for writing more if we are to take this phrase at face value. No news on marking scheme, so we will have to wait n see what will be revealed about marking in future.


Task 2: Extended Writing
2nd task is at least 250 words long and revolves around a commentary based on the featured statement. Safe to highlight that conventional academic essays with thesis statements, topic sentences, elaboration, exemplification and effective conclusions will help the students score better. I am going to assume that writing more is not an issue so some of my worksheets for this can still be salvaged, I presume but don't take my word on this.
The question is set at B2, so that it is not pitched too high but again the students' response can surpass this and easily go into the C1 or C2 range.
At this point, we are still unclear about the marking scheme, so we do not know how the marking criteria will be developed. If you are familiar with the PT3 writing marking scheme, we can sort of expect the same but again, I am not at liberty to draw far-fetched conclusions for fear of misleading readers. Anyway, we shall sit pretty and play the waiting game with utmost patience.


In future, I will endeavour to write sample responses to the writing tasks as we have been advised that the samples shown to us by MPM should not be reproduced and distributed. (Read: which is a shame because the whole idea is to share the knowledge and cascade it down to all teachers who are the frontliners so that at the end of the day the stakeholders stand to benefit in one way or another).


Bah, happy teaching!

New MUET 2021 Speaking Paper 25% Personal Commentary

(DISCLAIMER: I do not represent MPM, all opinions are my personal commentary and are not influenced by any person specifically, I have included documents from MPM's official new test specs and official sample questions available from their own website (links given below) and have taken screenshots/pics and uploaded here because most teachers from rural areas have approached me and told me that they find it hard to download or access info online due to various existing issues including lack of accessibility to highspeed data. All my thoughts and notes here are meant to help both teachers and students so they may face the MUET examination  both current and future to their best potential. Kindly save me a good word, or none at all if you have nothing sweet to offer. Have a pleasant day!)

Updates for Speaking:
Overall, they have kept mostly to the current one with some improvement in the 2nd part as the scope is wider and reduces incidences of repetitious content carried over from Task A.

In general:
Task A & Task B have been replaced with Part 1 & Part 2.
Not many changes but it will help students do better in Part 2 as it has a longer presentation time (between 8 to 12 minutes) and the two parts are thematically linked but allows for new ideas and interpretations.

Also another main difference is the Examiners' Guidebook which has the script for the rubrics so it is more standardised.

FYI: Documents can be downloaded here.

The New Test Specs : http://portal.mpm.edu.my/documents/10156/3fd4da51-7768-4be2-ace5-5021ed73d9ad

The Sample Questions: http://portal.mpm.edu.my/documents/10156/8fbcb4bc-8f7a-4670-8b3a-f47781839974


1. Subject/Topic Knowledge - context based info
2. Background/Cultural Knowledge - draw on their knowledge or understanding of real world settings. (Familiar to abstract - not just what and who but how and why)
3. Linguistic Knowledge - language based

Here is an excerpt from MPM's handbook:
3. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE SPEAKING TEST
The primary purpose of the MUET Speaking test is to assess the ability of test takers to give an
oral presentation of ideas individually, and to interact in small groups in both more formal and
less formal academic contexts.
Subject/topic knowledge: The test progresses from familiar topics within the test takers’ personal
experience to more abstract topics in a range of fields and interest areas that may be encountered
in late secondary/early tertiary education contexts. Possible areas include but are not limited to
people and culture, financial awareness and consumerism, science and technology, health and
environment, and education. In the case of the more abstract topics, the test is limited to covering
familiar and unfamiliar topics in different academic areas that a non-specialist would be able to
talk about.
Background/cultural knowledge: The test tasks are intended to be accessible to test takers, so that
they will be able to draw on their knowledge or understanding of real world settings to respond to
them.
Linguistic knowledge:
This refers to language as a system which includes the following:
• Accuracy: Using grammatically correct language; using correct pronunciation, stress and
intonation
• Range: Using varied sentence structures
• Fluency: Speaking with confidence and without unnecessary/undue hesitation
It also includes the pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects of language use. The former refers to the
functional use of language and knowledge of discourse, cohesion and coherence, and text types.
The latter is concerned with the knowledge of sociocultural rules of language use which includes
using language appropriate for the intended purpose and audience, using varied vocabulary and
expressions, and observing conventions appropriate to a specific situation.

Part 1 has not deviated much from the current format. 

Part 2 is less rigid, has more options and allows students to have at least 5 ideas in a slightly different situation so that there is no repetition of ideas from Part 1. 

MPM's Sample Questions: 

Part 1

Part 2:

You can view MPM's sample Speaking video here. 

In essence, I do like the new and improved version of the MUET Speaking test. Hopefully it will help all students up their game and present teachers with many opportunities to polish their speaking skills.