Introduction
On the course, your ability in speaking, and other language skills, will be assessed.
This will be done for two main reasons: firstly, to help you measure your progress;
and secondly, to reassure your departments that you are ready to start your course.
In this lesson, we will look at how your speaking will be tested.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson you will be better able to:
- understand the way your speaking will be assessed
Key tasks: all
Consolidation: video
Working by yourself
Introduction to Seminar Exam
On the course, there will be two ways for you to monitor the progress of your speaking:
- continuous feedback
- seminar exam
We will look at each of these in turn.
Continuous feedback
Throughout the course, you will be engaging in speaking activities. You will be giving
presentations, as well as taking part in group discussions, and you may get feedback from
your tutors and from other students in your class.
You will not receive a mark for this work but you should consider the feedback you get
carefully, as it will help you improve your speaking.
Seminar exam
Before the seminar exam, your tutor will ask you to read two articles. It is important that
you note the titles so that you know which ones you are supposed to read. At least one more
student in your class will be asked to read the same two articles. You will need to work with
them in order to prepare for the seminar.
The preparation will involve you finding the articles, reading them and taking notes, then
comparing the information with your partner(s) in an Integrated Learning session in week 9
in order to complete the document called 'Reading Circles 3'.
On the day of the seminar exam, you will need to make sure that you can access the document
with your notes. You will use them to support your arguments in the discussion. Your notes
must not include complete sentences and you must not memorize what you are going to say in the discussion.
The table below shows the different stages of the testing process and the dates and timing for each stage.
Be aware of the following points:
- The seminar exams will start at 8.30 am and 9.15 am UK time on Monday week 10. Your tutor will let you know
which of the two you should attend.
- It will last about 30 minutes and involve a group of approximately 8 students.
- Your seminar exam will take place in the same room as your live learning lessons.
- The seminar question will be revealed at the beginning of the exam.
- You need to stay in the session until the end of the seminar.
How you will be marked
The mark you will receive for speaking on this course will be based solely on the seminar exam. It is a test of your
ability to take part in a group discussion based on the articles that you and your classmates have read. You will be
marked on whether you have:
- effectively expressed your ideas.
- maintained interaction with others and actively engaged in the seminar.
- presented convincing and well-developed arguments supported by references to the articles.
- spoken fluently.
- produced a range of grammatical structures accurately.
- produced a range of vocabulary accurately
Don't worry if some of the points above are not clear to you now, as we will look at all of them later in the course.
A full list of the criteria used to mark your answer can be found by clicking on the button below. You can also find it
in the assessment folder on Blackboard.
Video
You're going to watch a video of a seminar in which the participants are discussing the following question:
Gun Control: Under what circumstances should citizens be allowed to own a gun?
Before you watch, discuss the questions below:
- a) What vocabulary do you think you might hear during the discussion? Make a list.
- b) What circumstances might participants talk about where owning a gun should be allowed?
- c) What arguments against citizens owning a gun do you think will be mentioned?
- d) What is your own opinion?
Now watch the video and answer the questions.
