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Example of B1 reading | ||
Tags: Measuring Progress | Reading | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4081 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes  Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 1 of 12 07 July 2014 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I came across this B1 level book:
http://www.amazon.de/Death-Compact-Lernkrimi-Englisch-Wortsc hatz/dp/3817489684/ The text seems reasonable advanced to me, for a learner. Is this the sort of output I can expect to generate in other languages (say in German) when I get to a high B1? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| drygramul Tetraglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4467 days ago 165 posts - 269 votes Speaks: Persian, Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: French, Polish | Message 2 of 12 07 July 2014 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think the vocabulary and grammar is appropriate for the level.
You don't have to take in account what is written in red ink. I never heard "rumpled" or "beads", and I don't think that's particularly bothersome. I've looked up those words and I've seldom if ever used them in my motherlanguage. I'm not really sure why those would be required for a B1/B2 level. Edited by drygramul on 07 July 2014 at 10:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5598 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 3 of 12 07 July 2014 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, the text is obviously written in an easy style with short sentences and reduced syntax, the difficult words are glossed (never heard of "rumpled" too), so I think it to be adequate for a high B1 learner.
But this is INPUT, not what you are expected to generate as OUTPUT. The road to high B is a long one nevertheless... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4051 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 12 07 July 2014 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Gemuse,
I have a collection of over sixty German-language graded readers (A1 through B2) from Hueber, Cideb, Eli, Spiga, Langenscheidt, Klett, and Emc, all of which I have read. My experience has been that the CEFR grading system seems to be applied fairly consistently within a given publisher's collection, but that it is quite inconsistent between different publishers' collections. That is, one publisher's A2 reader might be easier than another publisher's A1 reader. I have noticed similar inconsistencies in the grading of course manuals, CDs, and DVDs, either for self-study or for classroom use. As a result, I no longer rely much on publisher-assigned CEFR levels or rather, use them only as a rough guide. Also, having read so many of these Graded Readers, I am under the impression that the vocabulary used therein might not necessarily reflect what one would be expected to master in normal conversation in "the real world", perhaps because the readers themselves are often either simplified versions of 19th century literary classics or mini-dramas written specifically for a younger audience. 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4706 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 5 of 12 08 July 2014 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | ||
I have heard of both of these words, rumpled isn't as uncommon as you think (it's what happens when you fold paper and it looks ugly, which in my case happens every day, hehe...) but beads sound like a rarer word to me. They aren't useful for a B1/B2 text, but they're needed in context of the text. Knowing what you can skip, even in a B1/B2 text, is paramount. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| drygramul Tetraglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4467 days ago 165 posts - 269 votes Speaks: Persian, Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: French, Polish | Message 6 of 12 08 July 2014 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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I guess it depends also on the availability of other - more common - synonyms.
I'd use wrinkled or creased to explain that, and maybe that's what made me overlook that precise word. With German, on the contrary, it looks like they use each of hundred synonyms as often as the other 99. That is precisely the only annoyance I have with the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4706 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 7 of 12 08 July 2014 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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No, because if you fold it, that is neat. Rumpled is when it is very wrinkled or creased
and looks like you just threw it into a corner and manhandled it. Creasing it doesn't really get the same effect across either ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4908 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 8 of 12 08 July 2014 at 5:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would consider both "rumple" and "bead" to be quite common. But when wrinkling paper, the first word I would choose would be "crumple", in fact I wouldn't describe paper as rumpled. Paper a bit wrinkled is "wrinkled", but paper wadded into a ball is "crumpled". Rumpled is used more for things like hair and clothing. It's something a bit more than wrinkled.
"Bead" is possibly the most common way to describe a drop of sweat, maybe even more common than "drop" when it comes to describing sweat on your body. I don't think the red words are there to ignore. I think they are words that a B1 student might not know, but ought to learn. This is supported by the fact that the exercises on those pages are based around many of the red words in the vocab boxes. I did laugh when I saw the German translation of "backup plan": "plan B". Actually, it's the same in French. EDIT: I thought I might take a stab at answering the original post, LOL.
I think using levelled books to judge output is a bit tricky. They obviously think a B1 student can read the book, and would probably be a bit challenged by it. But that's a different thing to saying the B1 student can produce that level of language. I would think that a B1 reader would be pitched higher than the expected output of a learner at B1. Edited by Jeffers on 08 July 2014 at 5:43pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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