How to do well on the Enem foreign language test; see 9 tips

On the first day of this year’s National High School Exam (Enem), which will take place on Sunday (5), participants will face, in addition to writing, a marathon of 90 questions. Of this total, five questions will test your knowledge of a foreign language: English or Spanish.

Despite being only almost 3% of the total exam questions, adding up the two days of exams, they tend to scare students. To help simplify this journey, CNN He listened to sources specialized in the subject to gather tips for these issues. Look:

Practice with previous tests

Pearson, a company that brings together language schools such as Wizard and Yázigi, advises that people taking the Enem read more content in English and argues that practice is important for learning the language. Another important tip is to practice with versions of the exam applied in previous years, which can be found on the internet.

Exercise text interpretation

Professor Maria Cristina Armaganijan, English coordinator of the Course and Colégio Objective, explains that interpreting the text is essential to do well on the test. According to her, the person may not know all the words in a supporting material — and usually won’t —, but they need to understand the context of the question.

“He needs to exercise text interpretation, because the Enem vocabulary is intermediate. Sometimes he even understands the vocabulary, but does not interpret the text. You have to have a lot of common sense”, he defended.

Bet on music, newspapers and films

Both Cristina and Pearson recommend reading newspapers and publications in a foreign language to reinforce knowledge. Other valuable tips are to pay attention to the translations of the songs and the subtitles of the films.

“Language is knowledge that accumulates, [o aprendizado] It is the result of what the student has done in their school life. At Enem, English has no modules, you won’t study one chapter or another,” she explained.

Be aware of sociocultural topics

As Cristina pointed out, there is a concern about including sociocultural issues in Enem support materials. Understanding and knowing how to delve into these subjects can help those taking the test to better understand the texts and elements that help resolve the questions.

Topics such as gender, racism, diversity, social inclusion and social media can be covered, for example.

Browse different genres

Support materials, as with Portuguese language questions, tend to come in different formats. It is not uncommon for the participant to need to interpret poems, comic strips, news, music and literary works to answer the questions.

Pay attention to false cognates

Cristina also warns against false cognates. They are words in a foreign language that are similar in pronunciation and writing to words in Portuguese, but have a different meaning. Examples are the words lunch (lunch) and library (library), in English; It is scene (dinner) and extract (miss you), in Spanish.

Plan well and know how to divide your exam time

Many people who take the Enem every year have the habit of leaving foreign language questions until the end. Either due to lack of familiarity with the subject, or because there are only five questions.

Cristina recommends that participants organize themselves to reserve enough time to answer the questions.

“You have to know how to divide your time, the student gets lost in the Enem time. English questions require reading, those looking for the most popular courses need to get it right,” she explained.

Use a good dictionary

Dictionaries, whether physical or online, can be a great friend when studying a foreign language. For Pearson, it plays a fundamental role for anyone who wants to research or improve their vocabulary. She suggests two uses:

• Incorporate the dictionary into your study routine, consulting it whenever necessary;
• Perform random searches just to expand the universe of words known in that language.

Finally, review the content

In the final stretch of preparation, Pearson recommends that participants review the main points of the test in the days before the exams. It’s worth paying extra attention to content that always falls under the questions, such as:

• Verb tenses;
• Passive voice;
• Pronouns;
• Reading and text interpretation;
• General knowledge and text keywords

See also: Registration of black, brown and indigenous people in Enem does not return to pre-pandemic levels

Enem: registrations of black, brown and indigenous people do not return to pre-pandemic levels | LIVE CNN