Teaching for exam preparation

English teaching at the United Nations
I work in a small team preparing international civil servants for the United Nations English Language Proficiency Examination. With this certificate, they can prove that they can work successfully in English. The level required is therefore quite high. They have to be able to function well in all the skill areas.
http://www.un.org/exam/lpe/welcome/main.asp
Only people working at the United Nations and other agencies are able to sit this examination.

The benefits range from being able to get a more interesting job where English proficiency is required, to getting a supplementary allowance for having additional languages or going up the salary levels faster.

The examination is quite similar in level to the Cambridge Advanced English or Proficiency level. The exam format is quite similar to the TOEFL. The content is more aligned to the work of the United Nations.

To prepare for the examination, students have to be comfortable reading and listening to English without reference to a dictionary. Students have to be able to write in a time limit of 50 minutes. The topic may be work-related - such as writing a memo requesting something of a superior - or an essay of a general nature. The speaking part is a recorded interview about the candidate's work and free time interests.

As a teacher I use a mixture of Cambridge examination preparation coursebooks and authentic newspaper articles from the Guardian Weekly on topics of interest for UN people and podcasts from news sites like the BBC. I also encourage them to watch documentaries on sealife, wildlife, topics of general interest from sites where there is also a transcript. Such programmes can be found on ABC Catalyst website or Foreign Correspondent. Students will also succeed well if they start reading books in English without a dictionary. Advanced level graded readers can do the trick, but best of all are real books.