Managing a large group of students for the paired
speaking paper of the Cambridge English First Certificate for Schools demands
for the teacher to be an excellent organizer as well a good manager of group
dynamics and presentation techniques. These skills should be put at the service
of raising students’ awareness of the requirements of the test, improving their
accuracy, fostering their fluency, and giving every one of them the chance to
practise. In order to achieve this, I divide the work into sequenced phases,
each of which leads to building their speaking competence.
The first phase aims at making
students aware of the dynamics of the speaking paper. In order to let them discover
the communicative strategies that have to be used in each one of its parts, I
consider that L1 is an invaluable tool: without the constraints of using the
second language, it is easier to grasp what is expected from them when they are
asked, for instance, to compare, disagree or take turns. In order to put this
into practice in the target language, the teacher then makes students analyze
recorded interactions provided by the textbook.
The second phase involves
going deeper into the focus of evaluation in each part of the paper. Here the
teacher makes students analyze the descriptors of each band for the assessment
criteria used in the Speaking Test by ESOL examiners. This helps future
candidates gain further insights into the requirements of the test. Then they listen to the recorded material
again and evaluate the speakers’ performance using the criteria previously
analyzed.
Now students are ready to come
into the third phase, in which everyone in the group has the chance to
speak. The class is divided into groups
of four students, and they take turns to play the roles of candidates and examiners.
While one member of latter pair will be the interlocutor,
the other one will play the role of assessor,
so he is expected to take down comments and control timing. As for the candidates, they interact with each
other and with the examiner – depending on the part of the test – in order to
perform the task.
The final phase aims at
improving the students’ accuracy and communicative strategies. Here the
examiners report on their peers’ performance; the teacher, who will have moved
around the groups while they were working, will also make their own
contribution. The discussion will be used as input to improve accuracy and
interactive skills.
As I said before, to prepare
students for the oral paper of an international examination in a large class is
a daunting challenge for EFL teachers. It is imperative to be knowledgeable,
creative and organized at the same time. But if it is carefully planned
and well implemented, it is a highly
rewarding experience.
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