Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English as a Second Language (4ES2 (units 4WES1–4WES4)): syllabus, papers and marking

Reading, listening and writing are the three written-answer units. Writing is marked task by task, with spelling, punctuation and grammar assessed.

Specification Issue 3 (December 2025), first teaching September 2024, first assessment June 2025; unitised · June and November series · grades 9–1

IGCSE ESL: where the marks go

Edexcel International GCSE English as a Second Language (4ES2) is four units, each 25 percent and 50 marks: Reading (1 h), Listening (45 min), Writing (1 h 15 min, three tasks including a summary) and Speaking (22 to 23 minutes, recorded). It is a single tier, unitised, with units available in June and November, and no dictionary in the written units. Pearson’s 2025 reports say Reading answers lose marks when they repeat the question or rely on opinion instead of the text, and Listening answers lose marks when they are not specific enough to show the extract was heard.

Our papers cover Reading and Writing, with original texts and tasks, and marking returns the mark for each point and, for writing, task-by-task marks with spelling, punctuation and grammar noted. Listening needs a recording and Speaking is recorded for examiner marking, so both depend on how your school sets up the audio.

How we mark a real script

Paper structure and what we mark

PaperTimeMarksWeightQuestions
Unit 1 (4WES1) — Reading1 h5025%Single tier; passages of information, explanation, opinion and narrative text; no dictionary
Unit 2 (4WES2) — Listening45 min5025%Single tier; recorded extracts of rising length and challenge; no dictionary
Unit 3 (4WES3) — Writing1 h 15 min5025%Three tasks, each with a specified context and target reader, including a written summary task
Unit 4 (4WES4) — Speaking22–23 min5025%Recorded oral examination with the teacher or examiner, including a pre-prepared topic talk (not marked here)

Syllabus outline

  1. Unit 1 Reading: information, explanation, opinion and narrative texts, with multiple-choice, gap-fill and short-answer questions
  2. Unit 2 Listening: recorded information requests, explanations, opinions, monologues, dialogues and narration
  3. Unit 3 Writing: informative and explanatory texts, discussions of opinions, advantages and disadvantages, a written summary
  4. Unit 4 Speaking: relating information, delivering a speech, discussing opinions, asking questions, and a prepared topic talk
  5. Five topic areas, including a chosen subtopic from Global Issues

How each paper is marked here

Where IGCSE ESL candidates lose marks

  1. Question repeated instead of answered — On short Reading answers, restating what the question says earns nothing; the answer must give the specific detail from the text.
  2. Opinion in place of the text — Marks are only awarded for what the text says, such as the future job opportunities in the passage, not for the student’s own view.
  3. Imprecise Listening answers — Saying “office” where the extract says “head office”, or “her email” left as “she was hacked”, shows the detail was not caught.
  4. Distractor chosen — A correct-sounding option that appears in the recording but not as the answer is the commonest Listening loss.
  5. Writing for the wrong reader — Each Writing task names a context and a target reader, and tone and detail that miss them hold the content mark down.

Sample papers, mark schemes and marked reports for IGCSE ESL

See a real handwritten script marked by eight examiners at admitportfolio.com/examiners.

Questions teachers ask

Is it 4ES1 or 4ES2?
The current specification is 4ES2, first taught September 2024 and first assessed June 2025, with unit codes 4WES1 to 4WES4.
Which units can you mark?
Reading and Writing are the written-answer units. Listening depends on the recording and Speaking is marked by the examiner.
Do you already do ESL?
ESL marking is run privately for one school; this page is the public listing for the course.
Is this official Pearson Edexcel marking?
No. Pearson Edexcel International marks the real exam. This is examiner-style marking of mocks and homework for IGCSE ESL. Only you see the marking, and you decide what reaches the student.
Do you reproduce past-paper questions?
No. Every 4ES2 (units 4WES1–4WES4) paper here is original and written to the specification issue 3 (december 2025), first teaching september 2024, first assessment june 2025; unitised, in the same structure as the real papers shown above.
Which papers are marked?
None yet are marked question by question. Practical exams sat at the centre are not marked here.
How is the next paper chosen?
From the marks a student lost: the concepts behind them are ranked by marks dropped, and the new paper weights those topics. It is the same syllabus and structure, with new questions.
When are the exams?
June and November series. Grades 9–1.

Other Pearson Edexcel International GCSE courses

Start marking English as a Second Language scripts · See a real marked script