Preparing for Oral Exams!

Final exams are just two short weeks away, and students need to be preparing constantly for their oral exams. Here are some ways to help students during class time:

1. Always greet the students in the target language as the walk into the room. The first thing the examiner will probably do is to say "hello" and ask the student's name, so make sure that the students are so comfortable exchanging basic pleasantries and introducing themselves that they could do it in their sleep.

2. Review basic expressions like, "Could you repeat the question, please?" in the target language. The students might be nervous, but if they can maintain the conversation entirely in the target language, they're still earning points.

3. Have the students engage in 5-minute conversations. For a review of how to conduct this activity, click here.

4. Spend ten minutes at the end of each class chatting with students in the target language about one of the topics covered. For example, my class has studied how to talk about university life, their families, vacation plans, and their hobbies. So, at the end of a class, I might conversationally ask the sort of questions that the examiner might ask about these topics - "How many classes are you taking this semester?" "Which class is your favorite?" "What time is your science class?" "Who is the professor?" "What is he like?" "Where is that class?" "Do you like to study sciences?" Practice until the students can respond comfortably, and without asking for vocabulary or checking their books.

Above all, make sure they're comfortable keeping the discourse in the target language. I remind my students that their answers don't have to be true, they just have to be in Spanish ;).

Have a nice weekend!