Speaking Facilitator

delivery
Live oral interview with a facilitator who asks questions and adapts follow-ups within the official timing. A written transcript cannot assess pronunciation or oral fluency. A fixed three-block source representation is not a claim that the real interview has exactly three scored questions.
total minutes
  1. 11
  2. 14
parts
  1. q
    83
    part
    1
    minutes
    1. 4
    2. 5
    learner direction
    Answer the interviewer's questions about familiar topics. Give natural answers rather than a prepared speech.
    facilitator opening
    Good morning or afternoon. My name is [facilitator name]. What name would you like me to use? This practice interview will begin with some questions about you and familiar topics.
    topic 1
    Work or study
    work questions
    1. What kind of work do you do?
    2. What do you enjoy about a usual working day?
    3. Is there anything you would like to change about where you work?
    4. How do you organise your time when you have several things to do?
    study questions
    1. What are you studying at the moment?
    2. What do you enjoy about your course?
    3. Where do you usually do work for your studies?
    4. How do you organise your time when you have several things to do?
    neither route
    If neither work nor study applies, ask about a usual weekday, activities the learner enjoys, a place where they spend time, and organising several tasks. This is an editorial practice accommodation, not a quoted official script.
    topic 2
    Shared places
    questions 2
    1. Is there a public place near your home that you visit regularly?
    2. What do you usually do there?
    3. Do you prefer visiting such places alone or with other people?
    4. Have the places you visit changed since you were younger?
    followups
    Use a brief why/how/example follow-up where an answer is very short; move on naturally to fit4–5minutes. Do not require every listed prompt if timing is already met or treat one prompt as a separate scored item.
    illustrative answer
    I often go to the small park near my flat after work. Most days I just walk for twenty minutes, but on Saturdays I sometimes meet a friend there. It is useful because I can get outside without planning a long journey.
  2. q
    84
    part
    2
    minutes
    1. 3
    2. 4
    preparation seconds
    60
    long turn seconds
    1. 60
    2. 120
    cue card
    topic
    Describe a public place where you learned or practised something.
    points
    1. where the place is
    2. when you went there
    3. what you learned or practised
    final point
    and explain why that place was suitable for the activity.
    facilitator direction
    Give the learner one minute to prepare with paper for notes. Then invite the long turn, allow1–2minutes without taking over, and stop at2minutes. A short turn may be encouraged with a neutral prompt such as 'Can you tell me a little more about why the place was suitable?' This is practice administration, not a copied official examiner script.
    rounding questions
    1. Would you like to go there again?
    2. Did anyone help you while you were there?
    illustrative answer
    I would describe the community centre near my old school, where I went to practise speaking English about a year ago. I had been studying by myself, and I could understand quite a lot when I read, but I found it difficult to answer someone quickly. A friend told me that a conversation group met at the centre on Wednesday evenings, so I decided to try it. The first evening was awkward because I did not know anyone. We sat around a large table, though, and the person leading the group gave us a simple question about places we liked visiting. That made it easier to begin. After a few weeks, I could ask follow-up questions instead of only preparing my next answer. The centre was suitable because there was a small room away from the louder activities in the main hall. We could hear each other, and nobody minded if someone needed extra time. It was also close enough for me to walk there, which meant I kept going even when I was busy. I would not say that the group solved every language problem, but it gave me regular practice in responding to other people. That was the part I had been missing when I studied alone.
    model limits
    This fictional first-person illustration is transparently a learner model, not an assertion of the author's life. Timing must be measured in actual speech, not assumed from its word count. Do not memorise it or infer a pronunciation band from the text.
  3. q
    85
    part
    3
    minutes
    1. 4
    2. 5
    transition
    We have talked about a place where you learned something. Now I would like to discuss public places and learning more generally.
    questions
    1. What can public places offer people who want to learn something outside school?
    2. Do people learn better when they practise alone or with a group?
    3. How can a city make learning spaces available to people with different needs?
    4. When money is limited, should a city improve existing spaces or build new ones?
    5. How might the ways people use public learning spaces change in the future?
    adaptive probes
    1. What makes you think that?
    2. Would that be the same for people of different ages?
    3. Can you explain a disadvantage of that approach?
    4. How would a city decide which need comes first?
    administration
    Select follow-ups that respond to the actual answer and prompt explanation, comparison or speculation. Sustain4–5minutes without demanding the whole prompt bank, debating the learner or treating agreement with the interviewer as a criterion.
    illustrative answer
    Practising alone can be useful when someone needs to repeat a difficult step at their own pace. A group offers something different: other people can notice mistakes or ask questions that the learner had not considered. I would expect the best arrangement to depend on the activity, so a public space could provide quiet areas as well as places where discussion is welcome.
criteria
  1. Fluency and Coherence
  2. Lexical Resource
  3. Grammatical Range and Accuracy
  4. Pronunciation
criterion weights
  1. 0.25
  2. 0.25
  3. 0.25
  4. 0.25
scoring limits
Use actual spoken performance across the interview with the current descriptor framework. No point-per-prompt scoring, official band prediction, transcript-based pronunciation score or penalty for an opinion different from the model. The language examples illustrate content and organisation only.