The oral test lasts for 20 minutes. Candidates are examined in groups of five by a trained oral examiner. The test consists of two 10-minute tasks which focus on the language of the level being tested. The oral part accounts for 20 marks.
Stages of the exam:
- The candidates do the board game.
- The candidates take turns picking a card from the pack of topic cards and talking about the topic written on it. After each mini-presentation the other candidates and, if needed, the examiner asks the speaker some questions about the topic.
Task One
The first task is a board game. Candidates take it in turns to throw a dice and then move their counters the relevant number of spaces around the board. Each square on the board has a question or instruction written on it. When a candidate’s counter lands on a square, the examiner directs the candidate to address the question or instruction to another candidate, who must respond. It is then the next candidate’s turn and the game continues in this way until 10 minutes have passed and all the candidates have responded to at least two of the prompts.
The questions on the board are based on the language of the level and always reflect the language in the syllabus. As candidates move through the levels, the questions grow in difficulty.
Examples of Firstwords questions:
Have you got a dog?
What is your family name?
How old are you?
Task Two
In the second task, the 5 candidates take turns picking a random Topic Card from a pack. Each card has a topic on it. The candidate has to talk for one minute about the topic. This is followed by a further minute of questions from other candidates and possibly the examiner. This continues until all candidates have spoken.
Examples of Firstwords topic cards:
My family
My bedroom
My favourite toy
In order to prepare for the second part of the oral test, you should refer closely to the LTEfC syllabus. The language and topics in both parts of the test will be taken from the syllabus at the level being tested. It should be noted that the language content of a given level includes that of all previous levels.