Compilation of exercises to prepare for the English SIMCE test

Abstract

Chile has chosen English as a second language because it is the world‟s official language. English is the globalization‟s vehicle. In reference to the current prominence of English: Dieu, B. argued that "English has official or special status in at least seventy-five countries with a total population of over two billion. English is spoken as a native language by around 375 million and as a second language by around 375 million speakers in the world. Speakers of English as a second language will soon outnumber those who speak it as a first language. Around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language. One out of four of the world's population speaks English to some level of competence. Demand from the other three-quarters is increasing" (as cited in the future of English, 1997). Dieu, B. argued that The British Council asserts the influence of this language by saying "English is the main language of books, newspapers, airports and air-traffic control, international business and academic conferences, science, technology, diplomacy, sport, international competitions, pop music and advertising. Over two-thirds of the world's scientists read in English. Three quarters of the world's mail is written in English. Eighty per cent of the world's electronically stored information is in English. Of the estimated forty million users of the Internet, some eighty per cent communicate in English, but this is expected to decrease to forty per cent as speakers of other languages get online" (as cited in the future of English, 1997). For all these reasons, Chile is looking to bilingualism as a way to enter to the globalized world using the English Language as a tool. Concerning this aim, the SIMCE Test is a relevant instrument for measuring the proficiency of the student‟s second language acquisition. The different government administrations have been trying to include English in the educational system. In 2005, Sergio Bitar, Minister of Education, promoted a very ambitious project that is maintained today: to incorporate English language into education in a powerful and definitive way through the “English Opens Doors” program. The entire project is directed toward a long term objective: provide 15 million Chilean people with a good command of English. In 2010, Mr. Piñera‟s Government established the English SIMCE Test. The first English SIMCE was administered in October, 2010. A total of 207.996 students from 2607 schools participated in the exam. The results were the following: only 11% of the students comprehended easy and brief sentences of everyday language. Moreover, the 89% of the students were not able to achieve the elemental level. Due to the poor results on the first examination, Mr. Piñera implemented a series of measures to improve the quality of the test results. For instance, one of the ideas was to bring English teachers from the U.S.A. “Experts on English teaching, to insert them in the „Liceos de excelencia‟ to work with them and to train our English teachers” (Minister of Education Joaquín Lavín). Although English is needed all over the Chilean Educational System, there is not specific English study material available neither for teachers nor for students to prepare the SIMCE. There is a deficit of study guides, sample tests, special units, and official tests. That‟s why we chose this subject matter to aid schools in their English SIMCE preparation programs. The English SIMCE Test is based on the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication); an International English test taken by people whose mother tongue is not English. TOEIC has been developed by ETS (Educational Testing Service), a non profit private organization located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, USA. This corporation is a leader in the creation of standardized systems of evaluation (of the English level) in different areas. It is estimated that 4.5 million people take the TOEIC around the world. There are different versions of this test; one of them, TOEIC Bridge, is for beginners and intermediate learners. This version of the test is designed especially for students whose purpose is to measure their skills for English language. TOEIC Bridge has been chosen by the Chilean Ministry of Education as the official version of the English SIMCE, which purpose is to measure the abilities of the Chilean students in terms of the English language acquisition. The TOEIC Bridge has the goal of measuring the reading and listening comprehension level of Chilean students of third grade of secondary education, and infers their writing and speaking skills from the final score of the student. The test takes an hour, and it is divided into two parts: Listening and Reading comprehension. The former lasts 25 minutes whilst the latter uses the remaining time (35 minutes). The ideal score corresponds to 180 points. The TOEIC Bridge contains topics such as: Activities, Going out, Entertainment, Business, Health, Office, among others. The mentioned topics refer to daily situations, therefore contains vocabulary that is used in real life by people who speak and know English. The aim of English SIMCE is to make sure that students are able to start a conversation with an English speaker, or to show comprehension of the language in its different skills. Our work consists of the preparation for the different parts of the test in which listening and reading comprehension exercises are found. Two full-length tests which imitate the official number of exercises and time are included as well. In those tests, some units previously done by the students are added with the purpose of reinforcing vocabulary and grammatical structures, making learners acquainted with the contents of the SIMCE. Consequently, pupils will discover their own techniques for properly answering the test questions. As they continue practicing, students will be able to reduce the time they use to respond to and complete the evaluation. All the information mentioned before supports our main goal: to provide a guide to teachers of English for the purpose of training their students for the English SIMCE Test, in order to contribute to the bilingualism of the Chilean population.