IGCSE+Speaking

Back to IGCSE: Grade 9 and 10

Approximately 15 minutes, 100 marks

The Speaking examination consists of a single interview with three compulsory parts: • Test 1: Role Plays • Test 2: Topic Presentation/Conversation • Test 3: General Conversation.

Each candidate is given one card containing two role play situations, each of which consists of five tasks. Each candidate is examined in both role play situations on the card they have been given. The first role play (Role Play A) is more straightforward than the second (Role Play B). Candidates should be allowed **approximately 15 minutes to prepare** their two role play situations. They may **not take any written notes into the preparation room nor may they make any notes during their preparation time.**
 * Test 1: Role Plays (approximately 5 minutes, 30 marks)**

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This part of the examination starts with a **one to two minute presentation by the candidate on a topic of their choice which they will have prepared in advance**. The teacher/Examiner will **follow up the presentation with specific spontaneous questions on the topic**, bringing the total time for the Topic Presentation and Topic Conversation to approximately five minutes. Candidates are encouraged to choose a topic in which they have a personal interest. Suitable subjects might be, for example: ‘School life’, ‘Hobbies and pastimes’ (general or specific), ‘My country’, ‘Life in another country’, ‘My ambitions’, ‘Holidays’. Topics dealing with politics or social and economic issues are ambitious for this level of achievement and may disadvantage candidates if they do not possess the linguistic skills and maturity of ideas which such topics necessitate. Candidates should be encouraged to prepare different topics within a Centre and should **not be allowed to present ‘Myself’ or ‘My life’ as topics**, as these can often pre-empt the General Conversation section. Candidates **may use illustrative material, e.g. photographs**, if this seems appropriate to their topic, but are **not allowed to use written notes of any kind**. The teacher/Examiner will allow the candidate to speak for one to two minutes uninterrupted on their chosen topic before starting the Topic Conversation. Where a candidate has been talking for two minutes and shows no sign of finishing their presentation, the teacher/Examiner must interrupt and start the Topic Conversation. n the Topic Conversation, candidates should be able to respond to the teacher/Examiner’s questions in **a spontaneous and natural manner**. It is the extent to which candidates can manipulate their prepared material according to the needs of the teacher/Examiner that determines their marks and they must **not be allowed to deliver a prepared monologue or a series of obviously prepared replies**. The teacher/Examiner must try to **lead the candidate into using other tenses**. For a mark of 7 or above to be awarded on Scale (b), Linguistic Content, candidates **must show that they can convey past and future meaning** and teacher/Examiners need to ask questions which allow them to do this. In order to extend the candidate as far as possible, the teacher/Examiner should probe, explore, ask for explanations, enlargements, descriptions (**how? when? why? tell me a bit more about... etc.**).
 * Test 2: Topic Presentation/Conversation (approximately 5 minutes, 30 marks)**

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 * Test 3: General Conversation (approximately 5 minutes, 30 marks)**

The Topic Conversation will lead into **a spontaneous discussion** of a more general nature. The teacher/ Examiner will announce the transition to the General Conversation and should ease the candidate into the General Conversation by starting out from any point of interest noted earlier or by asking a couple of general **'starter' questions relating to the candidate’s everyday life**, e.g. school, home, town, journey to and from school, free time (evenings, weekends), holidays, hobbies. All candidates can reasonably be expected to have the command of vocabulary and idiom necessary for this. The teacher/Examiner should **aim to cover two or three of the Defined Content Examination Topics** in this section of the examination (listed in the Curriculum Content section). With weaker candidates, it may be necessary to cover a greater number of topics superficially, but with more able candidates, it is preferable to ask a series of linked questions on two or three topics, in order to explore these in greater depth. Precise factual information or knowledge is not required and candidates must not be penalised for lack of such knowledge. Questions must be adjusted to the candidate’s ability and the teacher/Examiner should **be ready to pass on quickly to another subject if candidates are obviously out of their depth**. Candidates are expected to **give natural replies to questions**; their answers need not therefore be in the form of **complete sentences**. The teacher/Examiner should **avoid asking questions which can be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’** and should instead use a variety of interrogatives, e.g. **when? how? why? how many? how long? with whom? with what? etc.** Questions should be adjusted to the candidate's ability. However, as in the Topic Conversation, the teacher/Examiner must try to extend the candidate as far as possible by giving them the opportunity to provide opinions and justifications. As in the Topic Conversation, the teacher/Examiner must **try to lead the candidate into using other tenses** (themes could be visits to other countries, plans for the future, etc.) and he or she can then be extended as far as possible. For a mark of 7 or above to be awarded on Scale (b), Linguistic Content, candidates must show that they can convey past and future meaning and teacher/Examiners need to ask questions which allow them to do this.

At the end of the Speaking examination, based on the candidate’s overall performance, the teacher/Examiner awards a mark for pronunciation, accent and fluency.
 * Impression (10 marks)**

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