Conversation
Students should:
- listen to the details of the question and respond addressing the requirements of the question
- be prepared to talk about a variety of topics relating to their personal world
- answer the question asked and not just memorise responses on topics and recite them irrespective of the question
- express their ideas and opinions and justify their point of view
- manipulate the language to fulfil the requirements of the question
- avoid repetition of the same vocabulary, phrases and expressions.
In better responses, students were able to:
- respond to questions using a variety of vocabulary, sentence structures and grammar
- offer opinions and support their points of view by describing, explaining and justifying
- respond in the tense required by the question
- respond using correct tense in relation to question asked
- use the conditional tense and the hypothetical appropriately
- use correct vocabulary in the context of response
- respond in a fluent and confident manner, and provide relevant information when answering the examiner’s questions.
Areas for students to improve include:
- avoiding repetition of the same vocabulary, adjectives, phrases and expressions in responses.
Discussion
Students should:
- choose a topic that has a focus on an issue which will aid discussion
- choose at least three appropriate texts, one of which is a literary text
- choose a topic that has good quality sources available
- demonstrate evidence of their research into their topic and the texts that they sourced
- express and justify opinions and points of view on the in-depth study topic
- apply research findings to support their conclusions
- refer to their texts to analyse, evaluate and reflect on their topic.
In better responses, students were able to:
- support their point of view and provide evidence from their texts
- give well-structured and grammatically correct responses
- identify the sources used in the research of the in-depth topic
- refer to at least three texts, one of which was a literary text
- demonstrate link between research and conclusions drawn
- respond appropriately to the questions asked
- compare and evaluate information and ideas presented in texts
- synthesise information researched and use it to support their point of view
- demonstrate a high level of grammatical accuracy and use a variety of vocabulary and sentence structures.
Areas for students to improve include:
- avoiding superficial responses which are not linked to evidence of research.
