ADVICE FOR THE SPEAKING EXAMINATION
Prepared Oral Topic: advice to candidates
For this unit, you must research a topic dealing with an aspect of culture or society in a Spanish-speaking country. You present the topic for 1-2 minutes, then discuss it with the examiner for 9—11 minutes.
Before the exam, you give the examiner a list of 5—10 headings, in Spanish, indicating the aspects of the topic which you wish to discuss. You are allowed to take a copy of this list into the exam room with you for reference.
This unit is marked out of 60:
— 20 marks for Quality of Language
— 20 marks for Response
— 20 marks for Knowledge and Understanding
This can help you to plan your presentation and prepare for the discussion.
Look at each of the three aspects in turn:-
Quality of Language
When preparing for the exam, think hard about the vocabulary you use. Make sure you include as many specialised words as possible, and be prepared to give specific examples to illustrate any point you make. This will show a broad range of vocabulary. Try not to repeat yourself. Remember you are trying to show the examiner how much Spanish you know.
Think about the structures you use, and try to prepare more complex sentences if you can. Your answers to unpredictable questions will probably be in quite simple Spanish, so make sure that your answers to predictable ones and your presentation are in more ambitious language.
Work on your pronunciation and intonation. Listen to any recorded material on the topic over and over again, and practise repeating key phrases. Talk to yourself about the topic as much as possible.
Key phrases to include:
— Hoy en día, …
— Creo que es importante decir que …
— Es esencial que … [= subjunctive]
— Muchas personas creen que …
— Mi opinion personal es que …
— Los expertos dicen que …
Response
Remember that after the first couple of minutes, this is a discussion. However, the examiner’s questions are intended as prompts — you should be doing most of the talking. Do not just answer a question with one short phrase or sentence — treat it as an invitation to speak about that aspect of the topic for a minute or two. This is what is meant by ‘independent discourse’ in the mark grid.
As part of your preparation, work out for yourself the most likely questions for each of your 5—10 headings. You can then prepare and learn detailed answers to all of them.
Do not forget that you can ask the examiner questions. This is often a good way of leading the discussion in a particular direction:
— ¿Qué cree usted?
— ¿No cree usted que …?
— Me imagino que estará de acuerdo conmigo en esto, ¿verdad?
If you do not understand a question, it’s better to ask the examiner to rephrase it rather than sit in silence or risk a wrong answer:
— Lo siento pero no he entendido bien la pregunta.
— Lo siento mucho pero no sé qué significa la palabra … .
If you need time to work out what to say, the following initial responses can be useful:
— Sí, es una pregunta interesante.
— Es un tema bastante complicado.
— Bueno, la verdad es que necesitaría pensármelo muy bien antes de contestar.
Don’t forget that you can include several possibilities in your answer. Use expressions like these:
— Tal vez
— Quizás
A lo mejor
— Por una parte …. , pero por otra parte …
— Hay que considerar todas las posibilidades
Knowledge and Understanding
You must make sure that you research your topic thoroughly, so that you can give factual information as well as opinions.
Choose a topic where you have access to plenty of information in Spanish. Make sure that there are several different aspects of it which you can deal with in turn. Your initial presentation should refer to most of the aspects and include as much factual information as possible.
Refer to your research when you answer the examiner~ s questions:
— He leído que …
— Leí un artículo en el cual el autor decía que …
— Encontré información sobre este tema en Internet
If you genuinely cannot answer a question, be honest and say so - do not waffle! The examiner will then move on quickly to something different:
— Desafortunadamente, no sé nada sobre este tema.
— Lo siento pero sé muy poco sobre este tema.
— Disculpe, pero la verdad es que no sé contestar sobre este asunto.
Model answer plan
“La comida en España”
Key aspects of the topic might be:
— platos típicos de España
— las comidas y la vida familiar
— la dieta mediterránea
— los jóvenes y la comida
— el vegetarianismo en España
Our Home Page
Back to our Years 12 and 13 index
steveowens@talk21.com