Foundation English Test (FET)

Writing

Developed by:
Murshida Begum, Language Trainer
Email: murshidabegum2016@gmail.com
December 2023
 What will cover in this lesson
•Recap of the previous lesson: FET reading
•Format of the writing test
•Learning about each part of writing in
details
•How to teach writing in class
•Practice exercise for candidates
•Demo practice test
Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer 2
 Recap of FET Reading
Make sentences with the following
words on FET Reading
Text Gap fill task
cohesion 3 parts,
4 short 5 questions 25
paragraphs Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer
minutes 3
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FET writing overview

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 FET – Writing basics
• There are four parts of the writing test.
• The writing test is 27 minutes long
• Each task stimulates a relevant real-life situation such
as interacting via social media.
• All tests are marked by examiners
• Test takers should be allowed enough time to plan on
what they are going to write, then to respond, review
and edit their writing before moving to the next
question. Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer 6
FET writing Part 1:
Writing words and
phrases
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 FET Writing test: Part 1
• This part consists of five questions that need short answers.
• The questions are general that ask for information about
you.
• This part of the test assesses the candidate to A1 level
• For this part of the test, you are not expected to write
complex sentences rather simple sentences and individual
words are fine.
• You will be asked to write 1-5 words. Don’t write more than
this.
Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer 8
Writing
Task 1
 FET Writing: Part 1 answer
Balance your replies so that they sound natural.
For example,
• Question: How are you?
• Response 1: I am feeling wonderful, thank you very much. And how are you?
• This sentence is too long
• Response 2: Fine!
• This sentence is too short and sounds a little rude:
• Response 3: I’m fine thanks.
• This sentence achieves the task.

• The focus of this section is only on communication

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 Part 1: Basic personal information
Remember:
• Name: First letter of your First and Last Name are written with
a CAPITAL LETTER eg. John Doe
• Months: are written with a CAPITAL LETTER eg. June,
September
• Languages: are written with a CAPITAL Lettereg Arabic, Korean
• Hobbies and Interests: should be related to the general topic of
your writing task.
• Example: If you are enrolling for a travel club, you wouldn’t
list hobbies and interest about playing football. Would you?
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 How to teach Part 1 in class
What different strategies can you use to teach students on how to
answer personal questions within 5 words?
• Keep it simple
• Always check for understanding
• Give them lots of time to practice
• Try to show, not tell
• Always use positive reinforcement

Types to questions to practice:

https://www.vocabulary.cl/Basic/Personal_Information.htm 12
Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer
 Make Writing Fun
1. Finger Correction: give a number of words to the students. In groups
they make sentences. If the sentence is correct, show the thumb finger.
Use fingers to signal how many mistakes are in their sentence. Two
mistakes? The teacher holds up two fingers. Five mistakes? The teacher
holds up five.
2. Running Dictation: write the sentences on slips of paper, number them,
and post them around the room. Students who are runners must go
and read the sentence, memorize it, and return to their groups to tell
them what to write. The first group to write all the sentences correctly
wins.
3. Correct the Sentence Mistakes: show/give students wrong sentences.
Students must write the sentence correctly before the timer runs out. If
they do it, their team gets a point. 13
Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer
 Part 1: Writing words and phrases
• CEFR: Overall listening comprehension and skills targeted

Can give information in writing about matters of personal relevance (e.g. likes
A1 and dislikes, family, pets) using simple words and basic expressions. Can write
simple isolated phrases and sentence.
Key skills: writing at the word / phrase level

In this part, one word or short answers are enough to give a

meaningful response. Spelling mistakes are not penalised in this
part.
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 Marking scale
Areas assessed: task fulfilment and communicative competence
3. Above A1 Fully intelligible responses for all five questions. Candidate completely
achieves the task.

2. A1.2 Three or four of the responses are intelligible. Errors impede

understanding in one or two responses.

1. A1.1 One or two of the responses are intelligible. Errors impede understanding
in two or three responses.

0. A0 No intelligible responses.

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 Inspiration for your lessons
Learner level: Encourage your learners to maintain a vocabulary notebook to practice new
words related to familiar every-day topics such as work, family, hobbies,
A0-A1 weather, sports, tv, etc.
Vocabulary -
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/vocabulary/a1-a2-vocabulary
Play vocabulary games in class to help your learners remember new words and
spellings.
Vocabulary games -
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/vocabulary/vocabulary-games
Learner level: Teach questions and statements in present simple and give your learners a
chance to ask and answer questions about each other on familiar topics.
A1 and Filling a form and personal information -
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/a1-writing/student-card-
above application
Encourage your learners to play vocabulary games among their friends and
partner outside the class. There are many online and offline games they can
play. Johnny Grammar’s challenge -
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/apps/johnny-grammars-word-challenge

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FET writing Part 2 & 3:
Writing and linking
sentences
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Writing
Task 2
Writing
Task 3
 FET Writing: Part 3 sample answer
• Sample question:

“What kind of work do you enjoy doing?.”

• Answer:

I deal with customers and it is the most important part of my

work. Moreover, I understand the products we sell to help
customers. I am polite and smile always. (30 words)
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 FET Writing: Part 2 & 3 marking
You will be assessed for:
• Vocabulary: This means you have to choose words that are appropriate for the
level.
• Paraphrasing will help you answer the question but not if you use the same
words and sentence structure because you will lose marks.
• For example: Please tell us why you are interested in travelling.
• Paraphrase: Travelling has always been a great love of mine because…
Not I am interested in travelling because…
• Grammar: This question is looking for: ‘simple grammatical structures to
produce writing at the sentence level.’
• Cohesion: Your response will be around two or three sentences long. For your
answer to be cohesive you will only have to use one or two linking words.
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 FET Part 2 & 3: Writing a short text –
example task
• You must write in complete sentences, and you
have to write 20–30 words.
• The most important aspects here are staying on-
topic and using accurate grammar, spelling and
punctuation.
• In other words, make sure you answer the
question, and try not to make mistakes!
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 FET Writing Part 2 & 3: short texts

•These questions are simple to

answer, but you should try to not
just only use simple sentences.
•Note: Use complex sentences and
interesting vocabulary, but don’t go
over the word limit.
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 How to teach Part 2 & 3 in class
What different strategies can you use to teach students about
short text writing?
1. Use simpler words and phrases
2. Minimize the number of negatives in a sentence
3. Write short simple and compound sentences
4. Use important key terms/content words consistently
5. Balance the use of simple and sophisticated language
Use the following website for students to practice:
https://test-english.com/writing/ Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer 24
 Activities to teach short texts
• Topics from a Hat: have a range of questions to pick
from. Student picks one and writes 20 to 30 word answer
• What’s the Question? - Make a question for each topic.
Each question has to be specific for that topic with a
single answer.
• Find your Dream Job - In pairs, students ask each other
“do you want..” questions. Based on that, students write
responses of 20 to 30 words
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 Part 2 & 3: Writing and linking sentences

• CEFR: Overall listening comprehension and skills targeted

Can write a series of simple phrases and sentences linked with simple
A2 connectors like ‘and,’ ‘but’ and ‘because’.
Key skills: short written description of concrete, personal information at the
sentence level

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 Part 2 & 3: Writing and linking sentences
Consider: What is the task construct? In other words, what is the task trying to test?
 Relevance / topic relevance
 Sentence formation
 Use of connectors to link sentences
 Punctuation and spelling
 Simple grammatical structures

• What is the genre?

 Form filling / providing personal details (in the context of work – Part 3)

• What are the targeted functions?

 Describing (people, places, job), describing likes/dislikes/interests, describing habits and
routines, describing past experiences (based on British Council EQUALS Core
Inventory) Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer 27
 Marking scale
Areas assessed: task fulfilment and communicative competence
5. B1 (or above) Likely to be above A2 level.
2. A1.2  Not fully on topic.
4. A2.2  On topic.  Grammatical structure is limited to words and phrases. Errors in basic
patterns and simple grammar structures impede understanding.
 Uses simple grammatical structures to produce writing at the
sentence level. Errors with basic structures common. Errors do not  Little or no use of accurate punctuation. Spelling mistakes common.
impede understanding of the response.  Vocabulary is limited to very basic words related to personal information
and is not sufficient to respond to the question(s).
 Mostly accurate punctuation and spelling.
 No use of cohesion.
 Vocabulary is sufficient to respond to the question(s).
 Some attempts at using simple connectors and cohesive devices
to link sentences.
1. A1.1  Response limited to a few words or phrases.
 Grammar and vocabulary errors so serious and frequent that meaning is
3. A2.1  On topic.
unintelligible.
 Uses simple grammatical structures to produce writing at the
0. A0 No meaningful language or all responses are completely off-topic (e.g. memorised
sentence level. Errors with basic structures common. Errors
script, guessing).
impede understanding in parts of the response.
 Punctuation and spelling mistakes are noticeable.
 Vocabulary is mostly sufficient to respond to the question(s) but
inappropriate lexical choices are noticeable.
 Response is a list of sentences with no use of connectors or
cohesive devices to link sentences.

Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer 28

 Inspiration for your lessons – Part 2
Learner level: Teach your learners to fill every-day forms such as those used to sign up for
different facilities (gym membership, health club, reading club, library membership,
A0-A1 etc.).
Filling in a form -
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/a1-writing/application-form
Encourage your learners to discuss different forms they encounter in their daily life
and ways to answer the questions in there. At the library -
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/a1-writing/library

Learner level: Teach your learners how to form compound sentences using and, but, so, or, etc.
An article on how to help learners use linking expressions -
A2 and https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-help-english-learners-use-
linking-expressions
above Train your learners to give peer feedback on topics learned in the class and
encourage them to give feedback to each other on their homework tasks.
Creative ways to give feedback and teach peer feedback/ self – assessment -
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1934259160106133

Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer 29

 Inspiration for your lessons – Part 3
Learner level: Teach your learners vocabulary to express preferences and interests and ways to
justify them. Expressing opinions -
A0-A1 https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/speaking/b1-speaking/agreeing-
disagreeing
Encourage your learners to paraphrase or use synonyms when they are unable to
recall a word when speaking.
What to do when you can’t remember a word -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=5OvDv-
RoBZw&ab_channel=BritishCouncil%7CLearnEnglishTeens
Learner level: Give your learners opportunities to talk about common workplace situations and
their pros and cons. For example, working from home vs. working from office,
A2 and above working in groups vs. working alone, attending meetings in person vs.
videoconference, etc.
Some common workplace topics and vocabulary -
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/business-english/podcasts-professionals
Hold short debates in class on the above topics and encourage your learners to
justify their opinions appropriately.
Challenging someone’s ideas -
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/speaking/b2-speaking/challenging-
someones-ideas

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FET writing Part 4:
Writing paragraphs

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Writing
Task 4
 FET writing Part 4:
Social network Conversation.

•Again, these questions are pretty simple

•but here as well as part two and three try
to use a range of interesting grammar,
vocabulary,
•and stay within the word and time limits.

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 FET Writing part 4: MARKING
These are responses to questions on a social network site or platform.
In this section, you are assessed to B1 level and the areas are:
• Task Fulfilment: This means answering the question fully
• Topic Relevance: answer the question without moving from the topic or using language
that is not necessary.
• Punctuation: Using capitals letters, commas, full-stops at the end of sentences, correct
use of question marks.
• Grammatical range and accuracy: use tenses and structures relevant to the question.
Verbs and nouns should agree. Good use of countable and uncountable nouns, articles,
and determiners also improves accuracy.
• Vocabulary range and accuracy: Using the appropriate vocabulary to explain.
• Cohesion: For your answer to be cohesive you will only have to use linking words,
pronouns, and other referencing words like these/those/that/this.
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 How to teach Part 4 in class
What different strategies can you use to teach students write
interactive paragraphs?
• Be very concise and focused when writing
• Get straight to the point and do what you have been asked to do.
• The following steps will give you guidelines:
• Step 1: Brainstorm your information
• Step 2: Write the topic sentence
• Step 3: Organise your information / write relevant details
• Step 4: think about a closing sentence
• Step 4: Write & revise your draft paragraph
• Step 5: Proofread your paragraph
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 Tips for Fun Writing Paragraphs
• Choose Engaging Topics: Select topics that resonate with your students’ interests
and experiences. When they are passionate about the subject, writing becomes a
fun adventure.
• Group Discussions: Foster collaborative learning through group discussions.
Encourage students to brainstorm ideas together before embarking on their
individual paragraphs. This not only enhances their writing but also develops
teamwork and communication skills.
• Use Story Starters: Provide students with intriguing story starters or opening
sentences to kickstart their paragraphs. This can be an exciting way to get their
creative juices flowing.
• Creative Writing Exercises: Incorporate fun creative writing exercises, such as
“What If” scenarios. These exercises make writing feel like an enjoyable game.
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 Part 4: Writing paragraphs
• CEFR: Overall listening comprehension and skills targeted

Can write straightforward connected texts on a range of familiar subjects within

B1 his/her field of interest, by linking a series of shorter discrete elements into a
linear sequence.
Key skills: interactive writing, responding to a series of written questions with
short paragraph level responses

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 Part 4: Writing paragraphs
Consider: What is the task construct? In other words, what is the task trying to test?
• Answering the question relevantly and completely
• Control of simple grammatical structures
• Attempting complex structures
• Sufficient vocabulary for the question
• Creating a linear sequence of events using cohesive devices
What is the genre?
• Online chat / discussion forum
What are the targeted functions?
• Describing (people, places, job), describing likes/dislike/ interests, describing habits and
routines, describing past experiences, describing feelings, emotions, attitudes, describing
hopes and plans, expressing opinions, expressing agreement / disagreement (based on
British Council EQUALS Core Inventory). Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer 38
 Marking scale
Areas assessed: task fulfilment / topic relevance, punctuation, grammatical range
and accuracy, vocabulary range and accuracy and cohesion
5. B2 (or Likely to be above the B1 level. 2. A2.2  Not fully on topic.
above)  Grammatical structure is limited to words and phrases.
Errors in basic patterns and simple grammar
4. B1.2 Responses to all three questions are on topic and show the
structures impede understanding.
following features:
 Little or no use of accurate punctuation. Spelling
 Control of simple grammatical structures. Errors occur mistakes common.
when attempting complex structures.
 Vocabulary is limited to very basic words related to
 Punctuation and spelling mostly accurate. Errors do not personal information and is not sufficient to respond to
impede understanding. the question(s).
 Vocabulary is sufficient to respond to the questions.  No use of cohesion.

 Uses simple cohesive devices to organise responses as a 1. A2.1 Response to one question is on topic and shows the
linear sequence of sentences. following features:
 Uses simple grammatical structures to produce writing
3. B1.1 Responses to two questions are on topic and show the following
at the sentence level. Errors with simple structures
features: common and sometimes impede understanding.
 Control of simple grammatical structures. Errors occur  Punctuation and spelling mistakes are noticeable.
when attempting complex structures.
 Vocabulary is not sufficient to respond to the
 Punctuation and spelling mostly accurate. Errors do not question(s). Inappropriate lexical choices are
impede understanding. noticeable and sometimes impede understanding.

 Vocabulary is sufficient to respond to the questions.  Responses are lists of sentences and not organised
as cohesive texts.
 Uses simple cohesive devices to organise responses as a
linear sequence of sentences. 0. Below A2 Performance below A2, or no meaningful language or the
responses are completely off-topic (e.g. memorised script,
guessing).

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 Inspiration for your lessons
Learner level: Invite your learners to practise writing full sentence responses to questions.
Social media posts -
A0-A2 https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/a1-writing/social-media-posts
In your class WhatsApp group or online forums, encourage your learners to
interact with each other socially and give full sentence responses.
Online course introductions -
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/a1-writing/online-course-
introductions

Learner level: Get learners to practise phrases to give simple suggestions, descriptions, and
opinions on abstract topics.
B1 and above Writing activities -
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing

In your class WhatsApp group or online forums, encourage your learners to

interact with each other socially and practice different language functions.
A chat - https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/a2-writing/chat

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 Exam Tips for writing
• The focus is on communication.
• Make sure you link your answer to the question.
• Try to use words connected to the topic.
• Use different sentence structures
• Do not use SMS spelling.
• You will not get extra marks for writing more
than the word limit.
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 FET Writing – common mistakes
The most common mistakes include:
• Not understanding the question
• Writing too much and with poor grammar, spelling and
punctuation
• Not planning what to write and then editing the writing
before clicking to the next question
• Not using a variety of sentence structures
• Not writing in sentences or paragraphs when needed
• Using SMS spelling

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 A summary of general points to remember
• Keep an eye on your grammar, spelling and punctuation. Use
connectors (link words) to make your writing coherent.
• Stay on-topic – don’t just write generally about the subject.
Make sure you address the questions, or you will lose marks
on task fulfilment’.
• The word count is important – you will lose marks on ‘task
completion’ if you write too many or too few words.
• NOTE: You don’t have to count the words yourself, as there’s
a word-counter on the screen to show you how much you’ve
written.
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 Practice writing interactive sentences

•https://wordwall.net/resource/3500248/en
glish/paragraph-sequencing - sequencing
sentences

•https://wordwall.net/resource/29604059/p
aragraph-writing
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 Take a practice test
•https://www.britishcouncil.org/exa
m/foundation-english-test/results

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 Recap of the lesson
• FET writing is 27 minutes long
• It consist of 4 parts
• Part 1 is writing responses within 5 words
• Part 2 and 3 are short text writing about 20 to 30
words
• Part 4 is about writing an interactive paragraph of 30
to 40 words
• How to teach each part in class
• Some practice exercises to use with the students
Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer
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Time for …

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Foundation English Test

Developed by: Murshida Begum, Language Trainer

49