fce_hb_samp_p5.pdf

PAPER

SPEAKING

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

STRUCTURE AND TASKS

Paper format

The Speaking test contains

four parts.

PART 1

Task type Conversation between the interlocutor and each

and format candidate.

The interlocutor encourages the candidates to

give information about themselves, to talk about

past experiences, present circumstances and

future plans.

Timing

14 minutes.

No. of parts

Interaction

Two candidates and two

pattern

examiners. One examiner

acts as both interlocutor and

assessor and manages the

interaction either by asking

questions or providing cues

for candidates. The other acts

as assessor and does not join

in the conversation.

Focus

General interactional and social language.

Timing

3 minutes.

PART 2

Task type The interlocutor delegates an individual task to

and format each candidate.

In turn, the candidates are given a pair of

photographs to talk about.

Task types

Short exchanges with the

interlocutor and with the

other candidate; a one minute

‘long turn’; a collaborative

task involving the two

candidates; a discussion.

Focus

Organising a larger unit of discourse by comparing

and contrasting, giving information, expressing

opinions.

Task focus

Exchanging personal and

factual information,

expressing and finding out

about attitudes and opinions.

Timing

One minute ‘long turn’ for each candidate.

PART 3

Task type Two-way conversation between the candidates.

and format The candidates are given visual and spoken

prompts, which are used in a decision-making

task.

Marks

Candidates are assessed on

their performance throughout

the test.

Focus

Exchanging information, expressing and justifying

opinions, agreeing and/or disagreeing, suggesting,

speculating, decision-making etc.

Timing

3 minutes.

PART 4

Task type Discussion on topics related to the collaborative

and format task.

The interlocutor leads a discussion to explore

further the topic of the collaborative task.

Focus

Exchanging information, expressing and justifying

opinions, agreeing and/or disagreeing.

Timing

4 minutes.

fce examination | paper 5 : speaking

The four parts of the

Speaking test

PART 2 – LONG TURN

This part tests the candidates’ ability to produce an extended piece

of discourse.

Format

Sample tasks and assessment criteria: pages 57 and 59.

The paired format of the FCE Speaking test (two examiners

and two candidates) offers candidates the opportunity to

demonstrate, in a controlled but friendly environment, their

ability to use their spoken language skills effectively. The test

takes 14 minutes. One examiner, the interlocutor, conducts the

test and gives a global assessment of each candidate’s

performance. The other, the assessor, does not take any part in

the interaction but focuses solely on listening to, and making

an assessment of, the candidates’ oral proficiency.

In this part of the test, candidates are given the opportunity to

speak for one minute without interruption. Each candidate is

asked to compare and contrast two colour photographs,

commenting on the pictures and giving some personal

reaction to them. They are not required to describe the

photographs in detail.

Candidates can show their ability to organise their thoughts

and ideas, and express themselves coherently in appropriate

language. Candidates should pay attention while their partner

is speaking, as they are asked to comment briefly (for about

20 seconds) after their partner has spoken. Candidates should

be made aware, however, that they should not speak during

their partner’s long turn.

At the end of the Speaking test, candidates are thanked for

attending, but are given no indication of the level of their

achievement.

The standard format is two examiners and two candidates,

and wherever possible, this will be the form which the

Speaking test will take. In cases where there is an uneven

number of candidates at a centre, the last Speaking test of the

session will be taken by three candidates together instead of

two. The test format, test materials and procedure will remain

unchanged but the timing will be longer: twenty minutes

instead of fourteen. A 1:1 test format will only be allowed in

exceptional circumstances and emergencies.

Candidates will always be asked to ‘compare and contrast’ two

photographs. They will also be asked to say something which

relates directly to the focus of the photographs.

PART 3 – COLLABORATIVE TASK

The Speaking test consists of four parts, each of which is

assessed. Each part of the test focuses on a different type of

interaction: between the interlocutor and each candidate,

between the two candidates, and among all three. The

patterns of discourse vary within each part of the test.

This part tests the candidates’ ability to engage in a discussion and

to work towards a negotiated outcome of the task set.

Sample tasks and assessment criteria: pages 58 and 59.

The candidates are given oral instructions and provided with a

visual stimulus (one or several photographs/artwork/computer

graphics, etc.) to form the basis for a task which they carry out

together. Candidates are expected to work towards a

negotiated completion of the task and are assessed on their

speaking skills while doing this; they are not penalised if they

do not complete the task.

PART 1 – INTERVIEW

This part tests the candidates’ ability to provide information about

themselves and to offer their opinions on a range of topics.

Sample tasks and assessment criteria: pages 56 and 59.

This part of the test gives candidates the opportunity to show

their ability to give basic personal information about

themselves, e.g. family life, daily routines, free-time activities,

etc. Candidates are expected to respond to the interlocutor’s

questions, and to listen to what their partner has to say.

The task gives candidates the opportunity to show their own

range of language and their ability to invite the opinions and

ideas of their partner. There is no right or wrong answer to the

task.

The candidates do not need to talk to each other in this part of

the test, though they may if they wish.

fce examination | paper 5: speaking

PART 4 – DISCUSSION

By part

PART 1

This part tests the candidates’ ability to engage in a discussion based

on the topic of the collaborative task in Part 3.

In this part of the test, examiners will ask candidates a

range of questions about their everyday life, for example

sports they enjoy, travel and holidays, work experience and so

on. Encourage students to respond promptly with answers

which are complete and spontaneous. Rehearsed speeches

should be avoided as these might be inappropriate for the

question asked.

Sample tasks and assessment criteria: pages 58 and 59.

In this part of the test, the interlocutor directs the interaction

by asking questions which encourage the candidates to

broaden and discuss further the topics introduced in Part 3.

This part of the test gives candidates an opportunity to show

that they are capable of discussing certain issues in more

depth than in the previous parts of the test.

Encourage your students to look for opportunities to

socialise with English speakers. In class, they could role-play

social occasions in which they meet new people, e.g. parties,

long train journeys, joining a new class, starting a new job.

Preparation

Students could be put into small groups to brainstorm

questions from the categories above. The different groups

could then answer each other’s questions.

General

The questions asked in Part 1 may relate to past

experiences, present activities, or future plans. Make your

students aware of the different structures required to respond

to these questions appropriately.

Classroom activities which involve students working in

pairs and small groups will give them practice in skills such as

showing sensitivity to turn-taking and responding

appropriately to their partners, which are essential to success

in the Speaking test.

PART 2

Teach your students to listen carefully to the instructions

and to carry them out. The examiner always asks the

candidates to compare and contrast the photographs ‘and

say…’ . Remind your students that they should listen carefully

to the instructions which follow the words ‘and say…’ . If they

do not do this in the test, they may miss the focus of the task

and find it difficult to speak for a full minute.

Make sure your students are familiar with the format of

each part of the test. They should be aware of the different

interaction patterns (who speaks to whom) and what stimulus

will be provided by the examiner.

Encourage your students to speak clearly and audibly so

that they can be heard by both the interlocutor and assessor,

and to paraphrase when they do not know or cannot

remember a word.

Encourage your students to paraphrase instructions orally.

This will help them to understand precisely what they have to

do.

Train your students to listen carefully to the instructions so

that they know precisely what they have to talk about.

Writing the instructions down in their own words may

improve your students’ awareness of the type of questions

asked. Remember, however, that while it is not possible for

candidates to make notes during the Speaking test, it is

acceptable for them to ask the examiner to repeat the

instructions if they feel it is needed.

Encourage your students to initiate discussion and to

respond to what other students have to say. Remind them that

they can always ask the examiner to repeat the instructions or

a question before they embark on the task.

N.B. In some centres candidates from the same school are paired

together. However, where candidates from a number of different

schools are entered at the same centre, some candidates may find

that they are paired with a candidate from another school. Students

should check with the centre through which they are entering for the

local procedure.

Asking your students to talk for up to a minute about any

topic (such as things they do in their free time, or ways to

learn vocabulary) will give them practice in organising an

extended turn and in linking their ideas together.

Give your students practice for this part of the test by

cutting thematically linked pairs of photographs from

magazines and giving them a focus. For example, you might

choose photographs of two different types of holiday and ask

your students to compare and contrast the photographs and

say what people would enjoy about a holiday in each of the

different places.

Students could bring photographs to class and speak about

them.

fce examination | paper 5: speaking

At FCE level, candidates are not expected to give detailed

descriptions of each picture. Rather, candidates are asked to

compare and contrast the pictures and give some personal

reaction. Get your students to share ideas in pairs or small

groups about what they might say before attempting the task.

PART 4

Encourage your students to give full answers to the

questions asked.

Let your students practise asking each other for their

opinions on everyday situations and current events and

encourage them to give full answers to the questions asked.

Your students may find it useful to observe a good model

answer given by a more advanced learner of English or by the

teacher.

Candidates should take the opportunity to initiate

discussions and to involve the other candidate in the

discussion. Therefore, as with Part 3, classroom discussions in

pairs and small groups provide excellent preparation.

Encourage your students to focus on achieving accurate

production of structures and vocabulary which are likely to be

useful in this part. In particular, ways of expressing similarity

and difference may help: e.g. ‘ they both … ’; ‘ one similarity is that

… ’; ‘ one difference is that … ’; ‘ in this picture there’s … , whereas in

the other there’s … ’ . Remind your students that using

comparatives and linking words will produce a more extended

and coherent sample of speech than simply stringing together

a series of simple statements. This will help gain them marks

under the assessment criterion Discourse Management.

In order to raise awareness of the types of questions asked

and of effective ways of answering them, it may help to give

pairs of students different topics and ask each pair to think of

six discussion questions for their topic. These sets of

questions could then be exchanged by the different pairs and

discussed.

Encourage your students to focus on achieving accurate

production of functional language likely to be useful in this

type of discussion. This will probably include ways of

expressing and justifying opinions, and agreeing and

disagreeing.

Practice for this part of the test should be timed as students

need a feel for how long one minute is. Without this, they may

finish the task too quickly and as a result fail to give the

examiners an adequate sample of language.

PART 3

Remind your students that this is not a test of knowledge. It

is quite acceptable to admit to not knowing much about a

particular topic, but this should be followed by some sort of

opinion (e.g. ‘I don’t actually know very much about this, but …’ ,so

that the response provides a larger sample of language for

assessment than ‘I don’t know’ .

Remind your students to make full use of the visual

prompts before coming to a decision. If they decide too

quickly, they may run out of things to say. In this part of the

test, the examiner will say ‘ First talk about … Then decide … ’ The

‘ First talk about ’ instruction forms the bulk of the task. Train

your students to move on to negotiating a decision only after

having discussed the content of the visuals fully.

It is very important for candidates to interact with each

other when they carry out the task. All classroom discussion

in pairs and small groups, therefore, provides excellent

preparation.

Remind your students to make positive contributions to move

the discussion forward and show a willingness to take turns,

inviting others to speak and listening and responding,

as well as initiating discussion themselves.

In classroom activities, one student in each group could be

made responsible for ensuring that every member of the group

gets an equal opportunity to speak, so that students become

alerted to the importance of turn-taking.

It may be useful to focus on achieving accurate production

of functional language likely to be useful in this type of

discussion. This may include ways of managing the

discussion: e.g. ‘ Shall we start with this one? ’; ‘ What do you

think? ’; ‘Shall we move on to …? ’. Ways of expressing and

justifying opinions, and agreeing and disagreeing (politely) are

also likely to be useful.

fce examination | paper 5: speaking

PAPER 5: SPEAKING

Part 1

556

fce examination | paper 5: speaking – sample paper

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