Practising Preliminary Speaking Part 2
Contents
A. TEACHERS NOTES ...........................................................................................................2
A1.
Lesson Plan ...............................................................................................................2
A2. Part 2 instructions ......................................................................................................5
A3.
Classroom Handout 1 ................................................................................................6
A4. Classroom Handout 2 ................................................................................................7
A5.
Suggested homework/self-study activities .................................................................8
B1.
Guidance for follow-on activities ................................................................................9
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Practising Preliminary Speaking Part 2
A.TEACHERSNOTES
Description
Time required:
Materials
required:
Aims:
5560 minutes
Six items of realia (representing presents a teacher might
receive, e.g. a bar of chocolate, a flower, a book about teaching,
a pen, a framed photo, a stapler)
a bell
Classroom Handout 1 (1 copy for each pair in half of the class)
Classroom Handout 2 (1 copy for each pair in half of the class
To give learners practice at speaking in an activity similar to Part 2
of the Preliminary Speaking test
A1. LessonPlan
1. Put the realia in a bag so learners cannot see them. Explain to the learners that you
are going to describe an object. As soon as anyone knows what the object is, they
should shout out the word. Choose one of the objects and start describing it. For
example: This is long and thin, its covered in paper to protect it. You can eat it. Its
brown, sweet and delicious. (chocolate). Continue in this way to introduce all the
items of realia.
Timing: 5 minutes
2. Ask learners to imagine that they want to buy a present for their English teacher (or
choose another teacher if you prefer). You will pass each of the items around the
class and they should talk about each item in turn, deciding together whether it would
be a good present or not. They will have one minute to talk about each object.
Put the learners into groups so that there are six groups in the class. Give one of the
items to each group. Give the learners one minute to talk about their first item, then
ring the bell.
Timing: 3 minutes
3. Before you pass on the items, ask learners to put up their hands if they didnt have a
chance to speak in the first discussion. Explain to learners they need to make sure
that everyone in the group has a chance to speak about at least one of the next two
objects. Elicit some useful questions they can ask, e.g.:
What do you think Sara?
Do you agree? etc.
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Practising Preliminary Speaking Part 2
Remind them they can also use eye contact (look at the person youd like to speak
next) or gesture.
Each group passes their object on to the next group. Allow one minute for the groups
to talk about the second item. Ring the bell.
Repeat with the third object.
Timing: 8 minutes
4. For the fourth object, ask learners to compare it to one of the other objects. Again,
they should encourage as many people in the group as possible to speak. Allow one
minute before ringing the bell.
For the final object, learners should discuss whether this item makes a good present.
They then need to decide which, out of all the objects they have seen, is the best
present for a teacher. Again, learners should encourage as many members of the
group as possible to speak. Allow two minutes before ringing the bell.
Timing: 5 minutes
5. Write the following on the board.
A student is leaving her English class and she wants to buy her
teacher a present.
Talk together about the different presents she could buy and say
which would be the best.
Explain to learners that this question is from Part 2 of the Preliminary Speaking test
and that all groups have now practised this part of the exam. Elicit what theyve learnt
from the activity theyve just done (they must talk about each object in turn; they
should encourage other learner/s to speak; they can compare the objects, they
shouldnt decide until theyve discussed everything).
Collect up all the realia and put them on a table at the front of the class. Put two
chairs next to the table. Ask two volunteers to come to the front of the class in order
to demonstrate a timed run through of this part of the test for the class. Explain that
they should talk for two to three minutes.
Encourage the volunteers to pick up the items as they talk about them and to make
sure they talk about each item. Read the interlocutors instructions from A2. Part 2
instructions.
When they have finished, explain to learners that the important thing about this part of
the exam is that they keep talking. They should not reach a conclusion too quickly or
they will have nothing to talk about. Encourage learners to imagine picking the
different items up in the exam.
Timing: 10 minutes
6. Organise learners into two large groups, A and B (or multiples of 2, with up to 8
learners per group).
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Practising Preliminary Speaking Part 2
Give out A3. Classroom Handout 1 to Group A.
Give out A4. Classroom Handout 2 to Group B.
Learners read the exam instructions. They then need to decide on one item that they
could draw/write in each box. Monitor and help the learners with this, giving them
suggestions if they are finding it difficult. For example,
Group A (Classroom Handout 1): camera, umbrella, back pack, map book, dictionary,
money
Group B (Classroom Handout 2): books, coffee machine, new TV, a new teacher, a
school minibus, a video camera
There are no right answers and learners can use their imaginations, but try to steer
them towards appropriate options.
When the groups have come up with 6 options, encourage them to draw these
options in the boxes. Alternatively, they can write the options in the boxes.
Timing: 10 minutes
7. Organise each group into pairs. Join up one pair from Group A with one pair from
Group B, so all the learners are working in groups of 4.
Explain that Pair A is going to ask Pair B their exam question. Pair B will have two to
three minutes to discuss the options and answer the question.
Pair A reads out the question and shows Pair B the options. Time the discussions
and ring the bell at the end of three minutes.
Repeat with the Pair B asking the Pair A their question.
While learners are speaking, note down good examples of language used and some
things they say that contain errors. (aim to write down four good ones and four that
contain errors).
Timing: 8 minutes
8. After the discussions, ask learners to discuss the following questions in their groups:
Did you and your partner both speak equally in your discussion? If not, why
not? What could you do better?
Did you talk about all the objects? If not, why not? What could you do better?
Did you keep talking until the bell rang? If not, why not? What could you do
better?
Feed back any issues and discuss if learners feel they need more practice at this part
of the Speaking test.
Timing: 5 minutes
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A2. Part2instructions
Im going to describe a situation to you.
A student is leaving her English class and she wants to buy her teacher a present.
Talk together about the different presents she could buy and say which would be the
best.
Here is a picture with some ideas to help you (indicate the realia)
PAUSE
Ill say that again
A student is leaving her English class and she wants to buy her teacher a present.
Talk together about the different presents she could buy and say which would be the
best.
All right? Talk together.
Allow the candidates enough time to talk without intervening (2-3 minutes).
Prompt only if necessary.
Thank you
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Practising Preliminary Speaking Part 2
A3. ClassroomHandout1
GROUP A
A student is going to study English in England. What should he take?
Talk together about the different things he could take and say which you think would
be good and why.
Here is a picture with some ideas to help you.
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A4. ClassroomHandout2
GROUP B
A language school has some money to spend on new things for the school.
Talk together about the different things the school could buy and say which you think
would be best and why.
Here is a picture with some ideas to help you.
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A5. Suggestedhomework/selfstudyactivities
1. As homework, write the sentences you have noted down on the board, or make them
into a handout or electronically available. Learners decide which are correct and
which contain errors. If they think there is an error, they should correct it. Go through
the answers in the following lesson.
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Practising Preliminary Speaking Part 2
B1. Guidanceforfollowonactivities
1. This part of the Speaking paper tests whether candidates can take part in a
conversation. Any kind of classroom discussion will help with this. Encourage learners
to listen to other learners and to respond to what they say, so their conversations
become more cohesive.
2. The discussion topic from A1. Lesson Plan Step 5 is from a Preliminary past paper.
You can make up your own discussion topics. Useful topic areas include:
Trips/travel (study trip/types of holiday, etc.)
Presents (birthday/wedding/thank you, etc.)
Recommendations (improvements to a school/sports centre/youth centre/local
town, etc.)
Real life topics (what to discuss in class/which career to follow/how to improve
your English/local or national issues, etc)
Think about the details and try to be specific so that learners have a useful context.
Consider:
Who you are going to advise (a friend? A teacher? etc.)
What you are giving advice about (E.g. if its a holiday, what kind of holiday?)
What language will learners need? Is it suitable for B1 level learners?
Is it interesting and relevant to your learners?
For example, here are some other possible discussion questions:
A boy is going to his grandfathers 90th birthday. Talk together about the different
things he could buy as a present.
A girl is going on a camping trip with her school. Talk together about the different
things she should take with her.
3. In A2. Classroom Handout 1 and A3. Classroom Handout 2, learners were motivated
by choosing their own options. Alternatively, you could let learners look for pictures in
newspapers and magazines for homework. When you have collected enough photos
for one of the themes, put them up around the classroom walls and learners work in
pairs to answer the exam question by walking around the room and ensuring they talk
about each photo before reaching a decision.
4. Following on from the use of realia in this lesson, for homework ask learners to go
shopping in pairs so that they can practise this exam exercise in a real situation. f
they are discussing what to buy someone for a present, ask them to think about a
family member or friend whose birthday is coming up and to go shopping for the
present. They can then look at different options for presents and discuss each of
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Practising Preliminary Speaking Part 2
them before deciding what to buy. This will show learners that the exam task has a
real world application and may motivate them to do well at this part.
Alternatively, they could browse online shopping sites and chat with each other using
Skype to decide what to buy.
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