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YLE Starters Speaking Part 5 – Teacher’s Notes

Description

This activity gives students practice in asking and answering questions.

Time required: 15 minutes.

Materials required:

questions written on pieces of paper before the lesson – 1 question for each

student.

Aims: to introduce students to Part 5 of the Starters Speaking paper and to the

task type

to give students practice in asking and answering questions.

Before the class

Prepare for the activity by writing questions on pieces of paper before the lesson.

You will need one question on each piece of paper and one piece of paper for each student.

You can repeat the questions.

Questions must be personal (not factual).

Choose from the following questions or use your own, using these grammatical structures.

What’s your name?

How old are you?

Where do you live?

Have you got any brothers or

sisters?

What’s your favourite toy?

What’s your favourite colour/animal/sport/food?

Do you like milk?

Do you like chicken?

Is you bedroom big or small?

Do you like playing football?

Do you like watching TV?

Can you fly a kite?

Can you count to 20 in English?

Procedure

1. Activity

Greet the students at the beginning of the activity. Say Hello (name) to different students in turn

and have them greet you in return.

This is an important aspect of the Starters Speaking test and being able to respond to

the examiner at the start of the test helps to put the children at ease.

Start with the student whose name is first in the alphabet. Ask the class to tell you who it is.

Hand the student a question.

© UCLES 2014. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms and Conditions

Don’t look at the question you give him/her. The student asks another student in the class the

question from his/her piece of paper.

Let the student asking the question choose who to ask.

The other student answers. Short, one-word answers are acceptable, e.g. Yes / I do / No / I

can’t. Students don’t have to give long answers.

Then hand another question to the student who has just answered.

Repeat the steps above until all the students in the class have asked and answered a

question.

During the activity, remind students to use language to request repetition if they don’t hear the

question, e.g. I don’t understand. Can you repeat, please? Again, please? Sorry?. Don’t repeat

the question for them yourself.

Finish the activity by thanking students and by saying goodbye to students in turn. Have them

say goodbye to you also.

This is useful as Part 5 is the end of the Speaking test and children should get used to

saying goodbye to the examiner.

2. Important things to remember

Point out to the children that they have been practising Part 5 of the Speaking test. Tell them the

following points:

The questions will be about themselves, their families, things they can do, things they like, etc.

They can answer with short answers.

This is the last part of the test, and at the end the examiner will say goodbye. Children should

say goodbye to the examiner as well.

Remind them of the language they can use to ask the examiner to repeat the question, e.g. I

don’t understand. Can you repeat, please? Again, please? Sorry?, and that using this

language when they don’t understand shows how good their English is.

Suggested follow-up activity

You can repeat this activity on a regular basis using the same/different questions.

You can vary the order you nominate the students, e.g. the students whose name is last in the

alphabet starts the activity.

© UCLES 2014. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms and Conditions

YLE Starters Speaking – Teacher Support Page

Additional information about the Starters Speaking test There are three aspects that are assessed in the Starters Speaking test:

Reception – listening and interaction

Production – words and phrases

Production – pronunciation.

Each criterion carries a maximum mark of 3.

In the test, each student is taken into the examination room by an usher. The usher is someone who

speaks the student’s first language and who is possibly known to the student, e.g. a teacher. The usher

explains the test format in the student’s mother tongue, before taking the student into the examination

room and introducing him/her to the examiner.

Starters is aimed at young children who are at the beginning of their English learning and who probably

have little experience of test situations. Therefore, a major aim of the Speaking test at this level is for them

to show their comprehension of what the examiner says. This may be through actions (pointing to

something in the picture, for instance) or by producing a short phrase or a one-word answer to questions

such as What is your teacher's name? or How old are you?.

At this level it is not necessary for candidates to say more than a few words or to be totally accurate in order to achieve a higher score.