24Aug 2021
- posted by : singaporeenglishtutor
- Reading
- Comments Off on Oral Part One
Oral Part One
The oral paper has two components: Section A-Reading Aloud and Section B- Spoken interaction
The Two sections are thematically linked
The duration of the paper will be approximately 20minutes, taking into account 10 minutes preparation time.
Section A: Reading Aloud
Students will need to read aloud a short passage and be able to identify the purpose, audience and context of the passage.
Students will be assessed based on:
- Pronunciation and Articulation: read a passage with good pronunciation and clear articulation.
- Rhythm and Fluency: read with appropriate rhythm and stress to achieve a well-paced, fluent rendering of a passage.
- Expressiveness: read with appropriate variation of pitch and tone in order to convey the information, ideas and feelings in a passage.
The text could be in the form of:
- Short narrative
- News report
- Speech
- Announcement
Section B: Spoken Interaction
- Engagement in Discussion: Discuss issues that arise with the examiner stemming from the picture (which is thematically linked to the text in Section A)
Preparation for Oral
- Normally you will have about 5 to 10 mins to read the passage (section A-Reading Aloud) and see the visual stimulus (Section B-Spoken Interaction) before the examiner tests you. Use this time wisely for preparation.
- Use the first few minutes to read the passage through a few times to yourself for familiarity.
- Use the next few minutes to prepare yourself mentally to study the visual stimulus in detail.
- The spoken interaction would be related to the visual stimulus given. Use the remaining time to anticipate questions from this section and come up with intelligent responses to them.
Section A: Reading Aloud
- Be sure to greet the examiner politely before you begin
- Read the passage loudly and clearly. Make sure you read every word.
- Read at a measured pace.
- Pause at the appropriate points of the passage e.g., full stops, commas, colons, semi-colons, paragraph breaks
- Pronounce words correctly by stressing the correct syllables.
- Vary the pitch of your voice appropriately as you read so that you would not read monotonously and put the examiner to sleep.
Dos and Don’ts
- Even if you are unable to pronounce certain words you don’t know, do not skip the word hoping the examiner won’t notice.
- Make smart guesses. If you show that you are making attempts to read the difficult words, at least the examiner knows you have put in effort.
- Do not be too contrived or overly dramatic. Do not should. Do not put on a fake accent.
- Do not stress every word or every phrase. You need to have an overall understanding of the passage in order to know which parts of the passage should be stressed (e.g., the climax of a narrative) and which shouldn’t.
- You may speak with a different tone and pitch for dialogues between people.