Section outline
-
Middle level response
-
- Whole test - click to listen
Transcript and commentary
Example candidate response – middle
Role play card 9
Teacher/examiner: 你好，
[The teacher/examiner starts with a greeting.]
Candidate: 你好！
[The candidate responds confidently.]
Teacher/examiner: 现在我们开始口试。第一部分，今天你和你的朋友打算去听音乐会，我是你的朋友。
[The teacher/examiner clearly indicates the start of the test and introduces the first part. She introduces the Role Play scenario and what role she is playing. This helps set the scene for the candidate.]
Teacher/examiner: 音乐会在哪里举行？
[The teacher/examiner asks the first question.]
Candidate: [No response to the question.]
Teacher/examiner: 音乐会在哪里举行？
[The teacher/examiner repeats the first question.]
Candidate: 音乐在。。um。。学校的旁边。
[Communication achieved.]
Teacher/examiner: 几点开始？
[The teacher/examiner asks the second question.]
Candidate: 音乐开始。。早上十一点。
[Communication achieved.]
Teacher/examiner: 你喜欢听什么样的音乐？
[The teacher/examiner asks the first part of the third question.]
Candidate: 我喜欢听 。。um。。韩国和美国的音乐。
[Communication achieved.]
Teacher/examiner: 为什么？
[The teacher/examiner asks the second part of the third question.]
Candidate: 因为韩国的音乐是很。。。听很好。。um。。美国的音乐是很好。
[Communication achieved, clear of ambiguity.]
Teacher/examiner: 你上一次去听音乐会是在什么时候 ？
[The teacher/examiner asks the first part of the fourth question.]
Candidate: [No response to the question.]
Teacher/examiner: 你上一次去听音乐会是在什么时候 ？
[The teacher/examiner repeats the first part of the fourth question.]
Candidate: 上一次。。。 wait。。。上个周末。
[ Communication achieved but the teacher/examiner does not ask the second part of the question so the candidate can only achieve 1 mark.]
Teacher/examiner: 音乐会以后，你要做什么？
[The teacher/examiner asks the fifth question.]
Candidate: 我要。。。几个（？）饭。。。几个。。。和要 mm。。
[ No clear response. ]
Teacher/examiner: 音乐会以后，你要做什么？
[No understandable response so the teacher/examiner repeats the fifth question. ]
Candidate: 再一遍.
[The candidate asks for the question to be repeated a third time. ]
Teacher/examiner: 现在我们开始 第二部分。
[The teacher/examiner is only able to repeat a Role Play question once, so she announces that she is starting the second part. She does not state what the topic of the conversation is but proceeds directly to Topic Conversation 1.]
Topic conversation 1 (Topic 1)
Teacher/examiner: 你喜欢做哪些运动？
[The teacher/examiner asks the first question.]
Candidate: 我喜欢做打篮球，游泳和…和排球，打排球。我喜欢打篮球，因为我有很多的哥哥。我的哥哥…我的哥哥都很喜欢打篮球，所以我喜欢打篮球。我喜欢游泳因为我的妈妈说对我…游泳很有意思的，所以我喜欢游泳。我喜欢排球因为我的班…很喜欢打排球 。
[The candidate gives a full answer with some good extension which is a bit repetitive in places. ]
Teacher/examiner: 你常常跟谁一起打篮球？
[The teacher/examiner asks the second question.]
Candidate: 我常常跟我的哥哥一起打球，因为我的妈妈和爸爸从…打篮球，所以我跟我的哥哥一起打篮球。
[The candidate replies well.]
Teacher/examiner: 说说你上次野餐的经历。
[The teacher/examiner asks the third question.]
Candidate: [No response to the question.]
Teacher/examiner: 说说你上次野餐的经历。
[The teacher/examiner repeats the third question.]
Candidate: Um [No response to the question.]
Teacher/examiner: 你上次在哪儿野餐？吃了什么？喝了什么？
[The teacher/examiner asks the first part of the alternative question. ]
Candidate: 我上次…我上次…经历…去…吃…um…吃汉堡包，比萨饼，咖喱牛肉面条和咖喱鸡肉。我喝可乐和茶，因为我去…我跟妈妈一起去吃饭。我的妈妈很喜欢茶但是我很喜欢…很喜欢喝可乐，所以我喝可乐也茶。
[ The candidate partly answers the question, talking about food and drink but it is not clear if she has understood the first part of the question ‘Where did you go for a picnic?’ The teacher/examiner does not ask the second part of the question ‘What did you think about it?’ ]
Teacher/examiner: 你觉得有不同的爱好重要吗？
[The teacher/examiner asks the fourth question.]
Candidate: 我觉得不同的爱好重要因为我们可以…我们可以…我们可以做我们爱的…工作。
[ The candidate starts off with a confident reply, but the response is a little ambiguous at the end as she appears to refer to work.]
Teacher/examiner: 下个周末你会帮忙做哪些家务吗？
[The teacher/examiner asks the fifth question.]
Candidate: [No response to the question.]
Teacher/examiner: 下个周末你会帮忙做哪些家务？
[The teacher/examiner repeats the fifth question.]
Candidate: 下个周末，我。。。做。。。我去。。我去一家人。。。我跟一家人去一起去动物园。
[ No creditable response. The candidate does not appear to understand the key word 做家务in the question. The teacher/examiner could have asked the alternative question to give her another chance. ]
Teacher/examiner: 好的，现在我们开始 第三部分。
[The teacher/examiner announces she is moving to part 3. She does not introduce the theme of Topic Conversation 2.]
Topic conversation 2 (Topic 4)
Teacher/examiner: 你一般跟谁一起买东西？
[The teacher/examiner asks the first question.]
Candidate: 我跟。。um。。
[No creditable response to the question.]
Teacher/examiner: 你一般跟谁一起买东西？
[The teacher/examiner repeats the first question.]
Candidate: 我跟妈妈一起…一起去…。
[ Correct simple answer.]
Teacher/examiner: 你喜欢去什么样的商店？
[The teacher/examiner asks the second question.]
Candidate: [No response to the question.]
Teacher/examiner: 你喜欢去什么样的商店？
[The teacher/examiner repeats the second question.]
Candidate: 我喜欢去 。。um。。(??) 的商店
[ The candidate gives an ambiguous response. It is not clear what sort of shop she likes but it could be the name of a shop in the country where she lives. Benefit of the doubt given here.]
Teacher/examiner: 说说你上一次去超市买菜的经历。
[The teacher/examiner asks the first part of the third question.]
Candidate: [No response to the question.]
Teacher/examiner: 说说你上次去超市买菜的经历。
[The teacher/examiner repeats the first part of the third question.]
Candidate: 我跟。。我跟。。妹妹一起去。菜..一起去菜。。一起去买菜。我们买白菜，土豆等等。。也我们买，也我们买几个水果。我们买苹果…um… 香蕉等等。
[ The candidate responds fairly well but the teacher/examiner does not ask the second part of the question which could elicit an opinion.]
Teacher/examiner: 你觉得上网购物有什么好处？
[The teacher/examiner asks the first part of the fourth question.]
Candidate: [no response to the question.]
Teacher/examiner: 你觉得上网购物有什么好处？
[The teacher/examiner repeats the first part of the fourth question.]
Candidate: 我觉得上网购物有几个。。um。。好处。好处是很好的和。。。um。。。很有意思。
[The candidate responds with some simple generic information which has some relevance to the question but not much detail.]
Teacher/examiner: 有什么坏处？
[The teacher/examiner asks the second part of the fourth question.]
Candidate: 坏处是。。。这个坏处是。。。有一点儿难的。
[The candidate responds with some simple generic information which has some relevance to the question but not totally comprehensible.]
Teacher/examiner: 如果你有很多钱，你想怎么花？
[The teacher/examiner asks the fifth question.]
Candidate: 如果我有钱，我买几个衣服。我买毛衣因为我很喜欢穿毛衣和我买运动鞋因为运动鞋看好，好看。也我买饭因为我很喜欢吃饭。
[The candidate responds well. The teacher/examiner did not need to ask the second part of the question (why?) as the candidate had already answered it in her first response.]
Teacher/examiner: 好的。谢谢，我们的考试结束。
[The teacher/examiner signals the examination has finished. ]
- Whole test - click to listen
-
Moderator comments - Role play
Role play card 9
Conduct of the testThe role play was conducted well by the teacher/examiner. She had clearly read the Paper 3 (Speaking) Instructions for Teachers/Examiners and understood the need to adhere precisely to the teacher/examiner script. The teacher/examiner read the scenario for the role play as instructed in Chinese. This is important to set the scene for candidates.
The teacher/examiner read the questions as written however she did not ask the second part of Task 4 which meant the candidate could not gain the full 2 marks. In all tasks, the teacher/examiner gave the candidate sufficient time to respond.
Candidate response
The candidate was fairly hesitant in her replies but achieved full communication in Tasks 1, 2 and 3, using language that was appropriate to the situation and that was generally accurate. She understood task 4, once it was repeated and was able to reply but she was not given the chance to answer the second part of the task, as the teacher/examiner did not ask it. It was only task 5 in which she gave no creditable response.
Mark awarded for task 1 = 2 out of 2
Mark awarded for task 2 = 2 out of 2
Mark awarded for task 3 = 2 out of 2
Mark awarded for task 4 = 1 out of 2
Mark awarded for task 5 = 0 out of 2
Total mark awarded = 7 out of 10
Moderator comments - Topic conversationsTopic 1:
Topic 4:
Conduct of the testThe teacher/examiner generally conducted the two topic conversations well, asking the questions as written and repeating the original question or using the alternative question where appropriate. She asked the questions clearly and at a good pace. She gave the candidate sufficient time to answer. The teacher/examiner did not use any extension question, as the candidate was able to give fairly full responses in those questions that she understood. In the questions which the candidate found challenging to answer, the use of any extension question would not have been helpful to the candidate. The teacher/examiner knew her candidate well and so moved on which was appropriate.
Candidate response
The candidate demonstrated a mixture of responses in the two topic conversations. In topic conversation 1, Questions 1 and 2, despite repetition in places, she confidently communicated information relevant to the question and developed her opinions and gave explanations. In Question 3, it was not clear if she had fully understood the word 野餐(picnic). She was able to partly answer the alternative question and communicate some simple information on 吃了什么. In Question 4, her answer was ambiguous and appeared to communicate irrelevant information at the end. In Question 5, there was no creditable response.
In topic conversation 2, the candidate was not able to answer questions 1, 2, 3 and 4 on first asking but needed a repetition of the original question after which she could respond simply, communicating most of the information but occasionally giving irrelevant information. She offered a straightforward opinion in Question 4. She responded well to Question 5 and gave explanations for her answer.
Looking at the descriptors which best fits this candidate’s overall performance in Communication, the top of the Satisfactory band is appropriate. She was Good in some answers but to have achieved the good band overall, she would have had to communicate information which is almost always relevant to the questions which was not the case in several questions. Overall, in some of the answers, she could have developed her ideas and explanations more. There were some ambiguous or irrelevant answers, but her stronger earlier responses helped place her overall performance at a mark of 9.
For Quality of Language, she demonstrated some good structures (e.g 跟。。一起，因为，所以，等等)， but this was not consistent across all questions and she could have used a range of the structures more. Her vocabulary was satisfactory overall. In some questions her answers were fluent but in many there was frequent hesitation and some ambiguity. Her pronunciation was generally clear. Looking at the overall picture, this would place the candidate at the top of the Satisfactory band so 9 marks best fits.
Mark awarded for Communication = 9 out of 15
Mark awarded for Quality of Language = 9 out of 15
Total mark awarded = 25 out of 40
Moderator comments (Whole test)How the teacher/examiner performance could improve
The teacher/examiner could have asked the alternative question in Topic conversation 1, Question 5 to give the candidate a chance to communicate the required information. Similarly in Topic conversation 2, Question 3, she could have asked the second part of the question.
Although she stated the transitions to different parts of the test, it would have been useful to introduce the two topics of the Topic conversations in the target language with a phrase like: ‘First we are going to talk about [name of the first topic]’ and similarly for topic conversation 2. (See pages 7 and 8 of the Paper 3 (Speaking) Instructions for Teachers/Examiners.)
How the candidate performance could improve
The candidate could have been more succinct in some of her answers. She could have prepared herself better by making sure to use a wider range of vocabulary from the syllabus to develop her answers more. Additionally, it would have been useful to practice talking more in Mandarin to develop the confidence and fluency in reply.
-