The best mince pies - Functional English Tasks

Sparked after reading an article about a UK Which? report in The Guardian newspaper, and made in haste, this resource is aimed at Entry Level 3 (E3) and Level 1 (L1) learners but includes some E2 and L2 questions. There is no answer sheet – one might appear later for skillsworkshop contributors – but see below for general marking guidance. If you are stuck you can ask for help using my Twitter tag @skillsworkshop https://twitter.com/skillsworkshop

I referred to SAMs (sample assessment materials) and practice tests from the City & Guilds, OCR, Open Awards, NCFE and Pearson for inspiration and to familiarise myself with a variety of question styles. All such materials are available freely from the Awarding Organisations’ web sites.

This resource is not intended to emulate formal summative assessment papers. A few questions are deliberately challenging and open ended: I hope they prompt discussion, and a questioning or curious attitude to popular seasonal media reports.

Unlike formal assessment papers, questions are arranged by topic so that teachers can pick and choose the subjects they want to focus on.

• Alphabetical order and dictionaries
• Spelling
• Purpose and main  points
• Detailed reading
• Working out word meanings
• Using images
• Style and tone
• Organisational and structural features
• Language and textual features
• Facts & opinions
• Using punctuation to aid understanding

An accompanying Functional Maths resource, using the same text, is also available. (See "See also")