Foreign Language English - Advanced case studies
Foreign Language English - Advanced · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Foreign Language English - Advanced credential is a proficiency certification for non-native speakers who need to demonstrate English ability at a high level for academic, professional, or immigration purposes. It is typically taken by university applicants, professionals working in international environments, and candidates preparing for English-medium study or employment. The Foreign Language English - Advanced case studies are 5 cases and about 4,112 words.
1The Churlish Reviewer: Choosing Between Literal and Pragmatic Inference
Midway through a 700-word review of a biography of a Victorian engineer, the candidate meets this sentence: 'It would be churlish to dwell on the book's apparatus, so let us pass swiftly over the seventy pages of endnotes that largely duplicate the text and an index that omits half the engineers named in it.' The reviewer then returns to the endnotes twice more, once calling them 'a small tragedy of editing'. Question 4 asks what the reviewer implies about the book's endnotes.
775 words, about 4 min2The Hedged Lecture: Note-Taking When the Speaker Revises Herself
The candidate is on the second listening of a lecture extract about urban beekeeping, in which the speaker argues that the honeybee is a livestock species rather than wildlife. Her notes read: 'HB = livestock, not wildlife → bad for wild bees?' The relevant stretch of audio runs: 'The honeybee - and this is the point people miss - is an agricultural animal.
749 words, about 4 min3Two Marks per Item: Inversion, Collocation and Triage Under Six Minutes
The candidate is three items from the end of the key-word transformation section, where each item carries two marks (one for the grammatical structure, one for accuracy of the whole sentence). Her three attempts are: 1.
855 words, about 4 min4The 32-Minute Essay: Cutting, Committing and Counting Words
Candidate B reaches Part 1 of the writing paper with 32 minutes left, having overspent on the reading paper. The task: an essay of 240–280 words on 'To what extent has remote working changed the character of city centres?' Two source texts are supplied.
853 words, about 4 min5Forty Seconds Left: Disagreeing in a Paired Speaking Task
The paired speaking test reaches Part 3. The examiner gives the candidates a prompt - 'Public spaces: what makes a place feel designed for everyone?' - with three bullet ideas, two minutes to discuss, then one minute to agree a decision.
880 words, about 4 min