4-1 Tasks 4 and 5: Speaking Skills

4-1 Task 4: Speaking Skills

Skill 1: Reading quotes out loud in support of your position

As indicated above, in academic classrooms expression of personal opinions are often related to specific readings that have been done in class. Often in the course of making a presentation or responding to a question, you may want to reinforce what you are saying by reading directly from a reading. It is important to develop this skill so that your classmates can understand your reading without having to refer back to the original text. In the test, you will be asked to demonstrate that you can read clearly and effectively so that others can easily understand you.

Skill 13: Speaking clearly and comprehensibly

Speaking clearly and comprehensibly is a critical part of effective oral communication. The test will provide you with important diagnostic information about what is working and what needs work. Overall, the test is designed to evaluate the clarity and comprehensibility of your talk across a number of different academic tasks, levels of formality, audiences, and purposes.

Skill 14: Using appropriate expressions, phrasing, or words in relation to the purpose (formal presentation, group discussion) and the audience (professor, classmates)

The ways in which we say things in English changes in relation to whom we are saying them to and for what purpose (see above). You should, for example, find the kind of talking you do in your academic classroom differs in many ways from the kind of talking you do when you meet your classmates outside the class. It is important to be aware of what is appropriate. Overall, the test is designed to evaluate how appropriate your talk is across a number of tasks, audiences, and purposes.

Skill 15: Controlling the task by managing how much detail is included

When you are speaking in any language, it is important to gauge how much time you have to get your message across. The test is timed. You need to take into account how much information you will be able to communicate given the limitations of time.

4-1 Task 5: Speaking Skills