Today we are going to talk about a very important topic for many of our students: the CAPLE exams. We will briefly explain what they consist of and, most importantly, we will give advice for better preparation.
What are CAPLE exams?
The name answers the question. CAPLE is the acronym for Centro de Avaliação de Português Língua Estrangeira (Centre for Evaluation of Portuguese as a Foreign Language). Therefore, these exams officially certify the student’s level of Portuguese. For this reason, for activities such as study and teaching, obtaining residency or nationality and qualified work, one of these certificates is often required.
There are exams/certificates of different levels, the most common being the CIPLE (Initial Certificate of Portuguese as a Foreign Language), corresponding to level A2. These exams assess oral and written expression and comprehension and any student can register for any exam through the website. Of course, if, for example, the student is going to take the A2 exam, it is highly recommended that the student already has this level. Otherwise the chances of failure will be high.
However, it is not important how the student learned Portuguese: alone, with a private teacher, in a language school, etc. However, there are specific places and dates for its realization, so it is important to be aware of the news on the CAPLE website.
What to expect from the exam
As we have already said, the exam assesses four components: written comprehension, oral comprehension, written expression and oral expression. Thus, you will find exercises for reading, writing, listening (using audio files) and for speaking/orally interacting.
In comprehension exercises, the answers are multiple choice, correspondence or to complete with words. In written expression there are usually two tasks with different contexts and with different number of words. In oral expression there are also different tasks. As a general rule, tasks are of three types: talking alone (about yourself or a topic), talking with another student and talking with the teacher.
How to get prepared
We believe that students shouldn’t study a language just for the sake of passing an exam. The focus should always be to increase the level of your language skills and, above all, communicative skills. However, we understand that for certain purposes, you need to have a reasonably rigorous, impartial, and universal tool to certify a student’s level.
That said, exams become a “necessary evil”. And as they are necessary, students who intend to take these exams will at some point have to focus on them. This is very important because the specificity of these exams can surprise students. And it is usually an unpleasant surprise as it can lead to an unfair end result. In this case, the result does not reflect the student’s real level, but only a misunderstanding of the exam itself. This will cause frustration. So, to avoid this, it doesn’t hurt to put some time and effort into preparation.
– Take Portuguese classes
As elementary as it may seem, at some point the student will need the help of a teacher. A well-prepared and experienced teacher can save student of many hours of inglorious effort and guide him on the right path. He will also be able to evaluate the student at each moment in the different components and, thus, provide him with the resources and tasks suitable for each stage.
The teacher/school must follow a defined program and in line with the levels of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). Especially at beginner and lower intermediate levels, you should use a good textbook, but never limit yourself to it. A good textbook will present a structured program, but it needs to be complemented, especially with tasks of oral expression and listening.
– Simulate exam situations
Students often get used to their everyday reality. As a result, they become “experts” in familiar topics, but unprepared for other topics. However, CAPLE exams do not only assess whether the student speaks well or badly, but the different skills of each level.
On the CAPLE website you can find a list of situations for which a student at a given level must be prepared. It is obvious that time does not allow to evaluate them all, but certainly many of them will be there.
So the best way to get prepared is by simulating dialogues and oral expression situations corresponding to different situations. Here the presence of a teacher is crucial, as he will not only serve as an interlocutor, but will also guide you in the different tasks. Besides, it can help you to acquire new vocabulary and correct your mistakes.
– Listen a lot
Oral comprehension is something we insist on and constantly remind of the importance of this component. The principle is simple: if the student understands he is able to answer. However, if he doesn’t understand what people say or ask him, he won’t be able to do it, even if he speaks very well.
It is obvious that all skills must be developed. Even so, we warn about this one because for many students it is the most difficult to develop. In addition, students tend not to give due importance to it, especially at an early stage of the study. So focus on the audio!
At the moment there is already a reasonable supply of listening comprehension exercises for beginners. Start by repeatedly listening to the audios of the textbook(s) you use. Buy some specific listening textbooks for your level. Do the exercises and listen to the audios repeatedly throughout the day.
At beginner levels it is better to use specific textbooks because they are adapted to the needs of the students. In this way, the results will be much more consistent. Using not adapted materials is counterproductive at this stage.
In the intermediate levels you should not only use materials from these levels, but also incorporate some “real” content. You can start by watching non-specific series (about life in general) and then watch news.
Conclusion
This article is primarily intended for students who are studying to reach a certain level. As we said, the focus should not be on the exam, but on improvement. However, we also recognize the importance of these exams in certain situations.
Thus, the purpose of this article was to provide information that helps students to get prepared better. In the next article we will talk about how to pass a CAPLE exam. That is, we will tell you what to do during the exam to have greater chances of success.
Until then, learn Portuguese!