YLE Starters Speaking Part 5 Teachers Notes

Description
This activity gives students practice in asking and answering questions.

15 minutes.

Time required:
Materials
required:

questions written on pieces of paper before the lesson 1 question for each
student.

Aims:

to introduce students to Part 5 of the Starters Speaking paper and to the

task type

to give students practice in asking and answering questions.

Before the class

Prepare for the activity by writing questions on pieces of paper before the lesson.

You will need one question on each piece of paper and one piece of paper for each student.

You can repeat the questions.

Questions must be personal (not factual).

Choose from the following questions or use your own, using these grammatical structures.
Whats your name?

Do you like milk?

How old are you?

Do you like chicken?

Where do you live?

Is you bedroom big or small?

Do you like playing football?

Do you like watching TV?

Whats your favourite toy?

Can you fly a kite?

Whats your favourite

colour/animal/sport/food?

Can you count to 20 in English?

Have you got any brothers or

sisters?

Procedure
1. Activity

Greet the students at the beginning of the activity. Say Hello (name) to different students in turn
and have them greet you in return.
This is an important aspect of the Starters Speaking test and being able to respond to
the examiner at the start of the test helps to put the children at ease.

Start with the student whose name is first in the alphabet. Ask the class to tell you who it is.
Hand the student a question.

UCLES 2014. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom
use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms and Conditions

Dont look at the question you give him/her. The student asks another student in the class the
question from his/her piece of paper.

Let the student asking the question choose who to ask.

The other student answers. Short, one-word answers are acceptable, e.g. Yes / I do / No / I
cant. Students dont have to give long answers.

Then hand another question to the student who has just answered.

Repeat the steps above until all the students in the class have asked and answered a
question.

During the activity, remind students to use language to request repetition if they dont hear the
question, e.g. I dont understand. Can you repeat, please? Again, please? Sorry?. Dont repeat
the question for them yourself.

Finish the activity by thanking students and by saying goodbye to students in turn. Have them
say goodbye to you also.
This is useful as Part 5 is the end of the Speaking test and children should get used to
saying goodbye to the examiner.

2. Important things to remember

Point out to the children that they have been practising Part 5 of the Speaking test. Tell them the
following points:

The questions will be about themselves, their families, things they can do, things they like, etc.

They can answer with short answers.

This is the last part of the test, and at the end the examiner will say goodbye. Children should
say goodbye to the examiner as well.

Remind them of the language they can use to ask the examiner to repeat the question, e.g. I
dont understand. Can you repeat, please? Again, please? Sorry?, and that using this
language when they dont understand shows how good their English is.

Suggested follow-up activity

You can repeat this activity on a regular basis using the same/different questions.

You can vary the order you nominate the students, e.g. the students whose name is last in the
alphabet starts the activity.

UCLES 2014. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom
use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms and Conditions

YLE Starters Speaking Teacher Support Page

Additional information about the Starters Speaking test
There are three aspects that are assessed in the Starters Speaking test:

Reception listening and interaction

Production words and phrases

Production pronunciation.

Each criterion carries a maximum mark of 3.

In the test, each student is taken into the examination room by an usher. The usher is someone who
speaks the students first language and who is possibly known to the student, e.g. a teacher. The usher
explains the test format in the students mother tongue, before taking the student into the examination
room and introducing him/her to the examiner.
Starters is aimed at young children who are at the beginning of their English learning and who probably
have little experience of test situations. Therefore, a major aim of the Speaking test at this level is for them
to show their comprehension of what the examiner says. This may be through actions (pointing to
something in the picture, for instance) or by producing a short phrase or a one-word answer to questions
such as What is your teacher's name? or How old are you?.
At this level it is not necessary for candidates to say more than a few words or to be totally accurate in
order to achieve a higher score.

UCLES 2014. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom
use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms and Conditions