{"id":4455,"date":"2012-10-11T16:00:02","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltchat.org\/wordpress\/?p=4455"},"modified":"2012-10-11T16:00:02","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T16:00:02","slug":"4455","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/2012\/10\/11\/4455\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Students Improve their Speaking Abilities for Proficiency Tests – an #eltchat summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summary was contributed by\u00a0Andrea Wade\u00a0on her blog<\/a>\u00a0and is reproduced here with her kind permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This is a summary of the #eltchat which took place at 12noon BST on Wednesday, 11th July, 2012.\u00a0 It was an informative discussion with most of the ideas coming from the\u00a0participants themselves, rather than through links to external websites and articles.\u00a0 The chat was expertly moderated as always, this time by\u00a0@Shaunwilden, @rliberni\u00a0and @BrunoELT.<\/p>\n

We began by establishing that we were including all types of speaking tests in our chat, not just CPE.\u00a0 We also agreed that the main worry for students taking a proficiency test (apart from the speaking itself!) is the thought of the exam room and wondering what the examiner expects.<\/p>\n

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Should we be aiming for accuracy or fluency?<\/span><\/strong>
\nWhilst in an ideal world we\u00a0want our learners to be both fluent\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>accurate, the consensus seemed to be that fluency is the key for proficiency tests.\u00a0 ‘Drying up’ is the worst case scenario for most students and, if it happens, it knocks their confidence and it’s very difficult for them to get going again.\u00a0 Accuracy is more difficult to achieve in the heat of the moment and the effective communication of ideas is usually the most important thing.\u00a0 If we focus on accuracy or grammar over fluency, the danger is that students think about words and structures and don’t actually speak!
\nWhat role does personalisation play in a speaking test?<\/span><\/strong>
\n@teacherphili told us that, in his experience, some institutions ‘help’ students by making the test easier with familiar pictures.\u00a0 This is probably not a problem if the tests are internal, but could mean that students are ill-equipped for external tests.<\/p>\n

Of course, we all like to talk about ourselves, so it’s helpful to have personal anecdotes to tell.\u00a0 Students are given the opportunity to do this in all internationally recognised proficiency tests.\u00a0 When students talk about something that matters to them, they sound naturally enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

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Practical ideas to help learners improve their speaking for tests:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 
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