ORAL EXAMINATION

1
ORAL EXAMINATION

• INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION

2
What you should know about Part one?

• What is an individual presentation?
• How long are the reading passages?
• What are the reading passages about?
• Will the passages be difficult to understand?

3
What you should do about Part one?

• What should I do in the 10-minute preparation
  time?
• So what are the key words in the passage?
• How can I avoid copying excessively from the
  passage?
• What kind of information should I note down?
• How should I organise my notes?
• What should I include in my presentation?
• How do I make my presentation lively and
  interesting?

4
What is an individual presentation?

• An individual presentation is a natural
  o_____account of your reading passage. It should
  be based on your r______ passage and given in
  your o___ words. In order to make it n______,
  you should speak clearly and animatedly. You
  should make your presentation in an in______ way,
  as if you were telling a s_____ to a small group
  of people. You should also make frequent e__
  contact with the other group members and the
  examiners during your presentation.

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What is an individual presentation?

• An individual presentation is a natural oral
  account of your reading passage. It should be
  based on your reading passage and given in your
  own words. In order to make it natural, you
  should speak clearly and animatedly. You should
  make your presentation in an informal way, as if
  you were telling a story to a small group of
  people. You should also make frequent eye contact
  with the other group members and the examiners
  during your presentation.

6
How long are the reading passages?
The reading passages are approximately 300
words in length
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What are the reading passages about?

• The passage will usually be in the form of an
  article or report, and are normally divided into
  four paragraphs.
• The passage cover topics that are thought to be
  interesting, current and relevant to you. That
  means that they may be related to your
  experiences at home or at school.

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Examples of the passages (1996)

• Passage A Teachers on strike in Russia
• Passage B Violence in Bulgarian schools
• Passage C Kidnapped teachers in the Philippines
• Passage D Hurricane damages schools
• So each passage is different. However, a general
  theme links the passages together, and this theme
  will be the focus of Part Two, the group
  discussion.

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Will the passages be difficult to understand?
NO

• The guidelines say the the passages
• should be easily read and understood
• by virtually all candidates.

10
What should I do in the 10-minutes preparation
time?

• You should read carefully all the instructions,
  even if you think you are already familiar with
  the procedures for the examination.
• You should read the passage provided. You may
  take notes on the note-card using either a pencil
  or a pen. The passage will be taken away from you
  before you begin Part One, but you can keep the
  note-card during the presentation.
• The preparation time of 10 minutes should be
  enough time for you to read the instructions,
  read the passage, and take notes.

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Read the instructions

• DO NOT WRITE ON THIS PAGE
• Candidate A
• Preparation Time (Total time 10 minutes)
• Part One Individual Presentations 9 1-1/2__2
  minutes each total time 8minutes)
• Read the following passage. You may make notes to
  use as the basis for your presentation. If you
  wish, you can add your own opinions or ideas.

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Read the passage

• You skim read the passage only ONCE before taking
  notes to try to establish the theme of the
  passage.
• You should read the title to give you a good idea
  of the theme of the passage.
• You should then skim read the four paragraphs in
  the passage, looking for key words related to the
  theme.

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What are the key words in the passage?

• A. Practise brainstorming for ideas
• Country Park
• 1. Picnics
• 2. __________
• 3.___________
• 4. ___________
• 10. __________

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What are the key words in the passage?

• B. Practise identifying repeated words
• Look out for nouns or verbs that are
  repeated. they are probably important to the
  general theme of the passage.

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What are the key words in the passage?

• Practise identifying the most important
  information in the passage
• Find out the structure of the passage
  Explanatory?( What? Who? Why?)
• Experience of somebody?(who? What happened?
  Significance?)

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Take notes

• All notes must be taken on the note-card
  provided. You may write on both sides of the
  card.
• You must not write or underline key words and
  phrases in the passage in the examination
• The purpose of note-taking allow you to remember
  important items, since you will not be able to
  refer to the actual text during presentation.

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What are good notes?
Good notes should be Why? How?
CORRECT -so you can give an accurate presentation of the passage -by reading the passage carefully to find the main ideas and key information
CONCISE -to save time in writing -to make them easier to read -by noting only key words -by using abbreviations and symbols whenever possible
CLEAR -to make them easy to refer to quickly -to help you remember them better -by organising your notes -by using outline or point form
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Look at Ex 1 on pg. 7 and see whether they
are good notes or not.
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How can I avoid copying excessively from the
passage?

• You should try to paraphrase information from the
  passage.
• Paraphrase means write or summarise the
  information in your own words.
• It is acceptable to repeat certain key words and
  phrase from the passages, but you should try to
  make your presentation original.
• One way to prevent excessive copying from the
  passage is to replace key words with alternatives
  that have a similar meaning

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What kind of information should I note down?

• The main theme of the passage
• The main point made in each paragraph/part
• Any key names, data or figures
• A brief outline of the passages conclusion
• Your own ideas or opinions about the theme of the
  passage
• Any ideas, stories or examples you would like to
  add

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How should I organise my notes?

• Main theme
• Specific points or ideas about the main theme
• Main points of the passage, in the order in which
  you want to mention them
• A brief conclusion
• Try doing the exercise on p.8,9,10 11 of your
  book.

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p.8
23
p.9
24
p.10
25
p.11
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Lets do an exercise
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Note-card
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How do I make my presentation lively and
interesting?
Using attention-gettingexpressions You may be amazed/pleased/shocked to hear
Asking rhetorical questions Did you know that only 20 of all managers in Hong Kong are women?
Using feeder words fortunately, sadly, luckily, worryingly
Using question tags doesnt?, cant you?, shouldnt they?
Giving personal opinions I find this tragic.
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Listen to the presentation and identify the
different methods you can use to make your
discussion more interesting

• Using attention-gettingexpressions
• Asking rhetorical questions
• Using feeder words
• Using question tags
• Giving personal opinions

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Answers

• Using attention-gettingexpressions Youll be
  pleased to hear
• Asking rhetorical questions Have you ever
  noticed the amount of rubbish people leave behind
  in the country parks? So what, you may ask, are
  they doing about it? Dont you think thats
  great?
• Using feeder words Sensibly,
  Unfortunately,
• Using question tags Isnt it?
• Giving personal opinions It certainly is a
  disgrace that some visitors can be so
  thoughtless.