Requirements of Candidates during Oral Examinations

By cryotosensei | diaperfinancingfund | 21 Jul 2022


I taught sixth graders at an elementary school last year and moved on to a junior high school this year. These are my notes I wrote down when I reflected on the similarities and differences in the oral examination sixth graders and tenth graders had to take to demonstrate their competency in the English language. This is probably of little relevance to you but if you are raising a child, maybe you can view these notes as a guide to raise him or her to be a confident communicator. 

Similarities between PSLE Foundation English Oral (for sixth graders) and NT EL Oral (for tenth graders)

  • First question requires students to respond to either a picture (PSLE) or a video (NT). Getting weak students who can’t express themselves well to describe (or even list) things they observe in the picture/video is a good way to help them pick up certain elements so that they can just start talking.
  • Second question is aimed at getting the candidate to share about himself/herself. So students who have a strong sense of self and have passions and pursuits beyond their studies will be likely to do well because they live rich, varied lives. Think hobbies for the primary school context and part-time jobs, volunteering and travel experiences for the secondary school context.
  • Third question is aimed at getting candidates to look beyond themselves and either state the pros and cons of an issue or articulate a stand in response to an argumentative question. Students who can state both sides of the coin and choose one side/explain why they can’t pick a side will impress examiners with their maturity.
  • Stories work, regardless of age. Getting students to use sentence starters like “I remember a time when…” and “This reminds me of…” will help them inject anecdotes into their speech.

 

Differences between PSLE Foundation English Oral and NT EL Oral

  • Questions for the sixth graders tend to revolve around their class, school, co-curricular activity and neighbourhood. NT kids will grapple with broad themes like environmental friendliness, living in modern cities, careers, physical fitness, sightseeing etc.
  • Perspective taking is not so required for the sixth graders but for their older counterparts, students who can put themselves in the shoes of another group of people (senior citizens) will usually appear to be more mature than the rest since adolescents tend to only think about people in their age group. (E.g. An advantage of living in a city is the ease of making friends.)

 

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cryotosensei
cryotosensei

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diaperfinancingfund
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