Each school or exam centre is left to organise their own speaking exams and they are usually given a window of time between late March and mid-May to do this. Some of my students received their exam date this week. Look at it this way - it gives you an incentive to start seriously learning some phrases and tenses. Despite the stress factor, it's also the shortest out of the various language exam papers. A gentle easing into the exam process.
So what do I have to do?
The different boards vary slightly, but they all have a photo card and a conversation part. For the Edexcel iGCSE you have to provide your own picture/photo and prepare this in advance of the exam, focusing on 5 particular types of questions that you will be asked. For AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas GCSE you are given an unseen picture card with three questions to prepare at the start of the exam and the examiner will ask you a further two unseen questions. It's a good idea to have at least three fairly detailed pieces of information up your sleeve for the first question as there tends to be a bit less to say later on.
There are usually two random conversation topics for each board, based on the modules you will have studied. Try to do as you would in the writing exam, aiming to impress with a range of complex phrases, different tenses, negatives, connectives and just anything a bit different that you can wheel out.
For the GCSEs, there is a role play card to prepare at the start of the exam too. You will have to carry out a short transaction, maybe buying tickets at the theatre or booking a table in a restaurant. There is usually one unseen question and you are told to ask the examiner a question or two too. It varies a bit with different boards and between Foundation and Higher. If you find it hard to think of the correct wording for the question you have to ask, try just reading the phrase with your voice going up at the end, as this will sometimes be enough to get you the points.
The conversation part is meant to be as unstaged and natural as possible, and you will receive a higher band mark if the conversation flows well, you say more than the examiner, and there are no major silences. However, for the photo card and role play, things are more rigid and the examiner will have a set script to read from. If you don't understand the question they can repeat once or simply ask if you have more to say, but they are not allowed to rephrase. Don't be put off if there is a silence and don't take it personally if the examiner doesn't seem to be helping here. Remember that for this bit, you could lose points if the examiner strays from the script. Afterwards, focus on what you did say, rather than what you didn't say.
Can I erm... not do the speaking? When the exams were cancelled in 2020/21, students were given the option to do a shortened version of an oral exam online, and the mark wouldn't affect their overall grade. If they preferred, they could opt out altogether and just be graded on their Reading, Writing and Listening. This year though, there are no such options. The Speaking is back on. While it's wise to turn up for an exam that makes up 25% of your grade, you can however find ways to minimise the stress factor. It goes without saying that you should look out for emails from your exam centre, and make sure you have sent in any information they need, such as a picture you will use, if you are doing IGCSE. Some centres allow you. sometimes for an extra fee, to meet the examiner before exam day, to run through what you will have to do. If you can do this, it's also a chance to familiarise yourself with the examiner's accent.
Language examiners are usually very kind to candidates. It's in their interest to encourage students to give their best performances, so they will want to put them at ease. They will usually talk to you briefly in English before the exam starts, perhaps testing the sound quality ready for the recording. However unforgiving their torrents of foreign language might have been during lessons, in the exam they tend to speak slowly and clearly, nodding and smiling, teasing out phrases,
Above all, remember you are there to communicate... something. And again, your examiner is your friend in this. In the conversation, if you dry up or don't understand the question, they can rephrase, or move swiftly on. If you have answered the question but you seem to have remembered some extra phrases that are sort of relevant too, they can let you continue. Coaxing good phrases and sound tenses out of students is their game and they will also be registering which tenses you have used and whether they need to ask you another past tense because they think you can improve on the verbs you used just now.
Despite your nerves, remember to listen as carefully as possible before formulating any answers. You will need to listen for the questions words, but also make sure you listen out for time cues in the questions, such as "recently", "next week". If you don't quite catch the verb tense, these cues can help you work out which tense you need to use in your answer.
Once you settle into it, the formula for the speaking is not that different from the written papers. You need to communicate at whatever level you can, and this means you have to try and say things, without worrying about whether they are perfect. When the assessors come to listen to your speaking exam, they will register each time you communicate a piece of information. You may not be able to use the right tense to talk about your holiday, you may have forgotten the word for beach, but if you just manage to say in the target language "good weather", "to swim", "my parents", "big hotel", that will get you some points. If you are aiming for a sound grade, pull out all the stops to use a few different tenses, perhaps a different person, some negatives and a few complex phrases and to ease it up to a top grade, make it slightly more complex, more accurate and perhaps add a subjunctive or two.
You'll be fine. And hopefully it will get the adrenalin going and you can reuse some of the things you learn for the Writing. And then... holidays...
Buena suerte!
Bonne chance!
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