Get the message across

The emphasis in Paper 4 Oral Examination 1 is primarily on communication - how you get your message across to others, not on grammatical accuracy or perfect pronunciation.

In Part A, each candidate must, firstly, participate in a role play with one of the examiners, with the candidate asking the examiner a series of questions. This requires the candidate to create their own questions and make notes of the answers provided.

Then, the candidate will be asked by the second examiner to report the information he received from the first examiner. In Part B, a group of candidates are required to discuss an assigned task.

The marking scheme (on the basis of one examiner)

Part A Role Play - Tasks 1 & 2 (0-7 marks)

Individual Assessment (0-7 marks)

Five marks go to five correctly reported answers and two marks are given to an appropriate extra question and answer.

Global Assessment (0-7 marks)

In giving these marks, the examiners will concentrate on assessing conversational strategies, including such things as how the candidates greet the examiners and leave, the way they introduce themselves and explain the purpose, their questioning techniques and how well they ask for clarification when appropriate.

In this part, the examiners will also be assessing the candidates' other skills such as the coherence of the conversation, the fluency of questions and answers and their performance with regard to grammar and pronunciation.

Part B Group Interaction (0-7 marks)

In this part, each candidate will again receive 0-7 marks given by each examiner after their participation in the group discussion. The examiners will be particularly interested in the candidate's interactive skills, which include taking turns to speak, responding coherently, asking for and providing clarification, and facilitating the discussion by encouraging and helping the other candidates. I

In Part B, the examiners will also look at the candidates' contribution to the discussion in terms of quantity, quality and relevance. Finally, coherence, fluency, grammar and pronunciation are also important elements in assessing a candidate's performance in Part B.

Now you know the important aspects that you should concentrate on for this paper and how you will be assessed. In the next issue, we will tell you what you should do to get good results in this paper.