The guidelines for the final oral examination in the teaching subject English The procedure of the oral examination: Total time 45 min: the division outlined below is approximate estimation and can vary by a couple of minutes, though the total time is fixed. ● 5-10 min student’s presentation ○ In this part we will listen to you carefully without interruptions. Start by briefly telling us what your synopsis is about and give us a very short outline of your speech. ○ You may decide what you want to present about. However, be careful not to directly repeat what you have written but rather to either elaborate on something or to come up with another perspective or to tell us about something you didn’t include but had plans of doing. ○ The central part of the presentation should be focused on the analysis that you just gave an outline of in your synopsis. ○ Be conscious of the time constraints- I will give you a sign if you need to wrap up. ● App. 30 min tripartite discussion between a student, the examiner (Marija), and an external examiner (unknown until the examination day) ○ This part is divided into two parts: ■ Discussion related to the actual synopsis- practice element ● In this part we will ask questions related to either what you wrote in your synopsis or what you said in your presentation. Usually, we will ask questions where the external examiner and I mean we need more clarification; such as why you selected a particular theory or how you selected the data or anything in relation to your work. Some of the questions can be of reflective nature; such as ‘What do you think?’ or ‘Why do you think?’ etc. where we will probe you on your ability to reflect both on the theory and practice. ● The success criteria in this part is your ability to reflect and to use the concepts in a logical way to describe your data or practice ● As well, the ability to use the concepts in a precise and concrete way as well as to go in depth with them is another aspect that is highly valued. ■ Discussion related to the pupils’ language/ interlanguage Samples ● In this part of the examination, we will discuss the data- pupils’ language that you included in your synopsis or you brought along to the examination. We expect you to carry out the analysis of pupil’s language in metalanguage terms. E.g. you included a piece of writing and you analyse it linguistically, both focusing on the errors as well as the successful parts of a pupils’ work. You also comment here on the learning aims of the sample and carry out an assessment and evaluation of the pupils’ work to let us know to what extent the pupil has fulfilled them. Further, you comment on the feedback and/ or feedforward you would give to this or these pupil(s). ● The success criteria in this part is analysing the sample in a precise and concrete way. E.g. when commenting on the verbs avoid using generic terms such as ‘the text is written in the past’. Instead, try being more precise e.g. in the past simple or in the past perfect etc. Another example, if you are working with a genre text or children’s literature: avoid using too broad terms like ‘The text is a narrative genre and there are some adjectives and verbs’. Instead try to be more concrete and tell us what kind of language characterises this genre and where we can see it clearly in the sample. I write here unofficially because there is no strictly determined time, rather a spontaneous transition will take place. ● 5 min: mark deliberation ○ During this time you will be asked to leave the room so that I can agree with the external examiner on your mark ○ We will give you a notice as soon as we’re finished, so please don’t go too far away. ● 5 min: mark and feedback given to the student ○ We have limited time to tell you the mark as well as to give you brief feedback on why we decided to give you this particular mark ○ Marija will usually do this ○ I also strive to give feedforward even if it is the highest mark the student was awarded ○ Since we only have 5 min, there is not a possibility of ping-pong exchange- so this time you will only receive feedback and there won’t be any time for questions- please respect this.
