teaching skills

Hi, speaking classes! Here's a document with instructions for your final exam presentation, and I'm also pasting it into this

e-mail. We'll discuss it briefly in class. See you!

Joel

Speaking class semester 2 test

We will have an oral test during regular class times on weeks 17 (Translation class and Class 4) and 18 (Business English Class). For your oral test, I want you to tell me something about yourself. I have been talking about English speaking topics with you for almost a year, but I still know nothing about most of your lives.

Directions: Prepare a statement, similar to a speech, that you would like to tell to just me. It should be about your life, your background, your experiences, your opinions or ideas or beliefs, some hope or fear you have for the future, or something similar. I hope it will be true, but of course I can’t check it. We will sit together, without the rest of the class, and you will make your presentation. I won’t ask any questions.

Your statement should be between two and three minutes long. You should practice beforehand and check to see that it’s not more than three minutes long.

I will give you points based on the following criteria:

1.You prepared a statement that is on topic.

2.Your presentation is at least 2 minutes long and not more than 3

minutes long. I will time you.

3.You speak fluidly and naturally without uncomfortable hesitation.

4.You speak in a dynamic, engaging way, not like a robot.

5.You use good, correct grammar.

6.You use intelligent, adult vocabulary, not excessively simple

vocabulary

7.You use two of these words or phrases from our final semester:

Read (noun) into (noun) (e.g. Read anger into my words), escalate, defuse, do X in vain (e.g. save money in vain), draw inspiration from

(e.g. I draw inspiration from nature), a far (+/- adjective) (noun) (e.g.

Guangzhou is a far safer city than Dongguan), chemistry between people, from a (adjective) point of view (e.g. from a scientific point of view, people are big monkeys), take X for granted, boils down

(e.g. this argument boils down to jealousy), counterfeit, plagiarism,

X enthusiast (e.g. cigar enthusiast), a shift toward/away from (e.g.

cigarette advertisers make a shift towards women customers), just regard X as Y (e.g. just regard hamburger as a kind of baozi), don’t give a damn, the odds are (e.g. the odds are, you’ll lose at gambling in Vegas), promote a product, brainwash, et cetera, tactic, receive a person (e.g. my family didn’t receive my gi rlfriend well),

bandwagon, snob, X doesn’t necessarily lead to Y, platonic, climax, twist, gawk

8.You anticipate the audience’s questions and concerns and explain

relevant issues fully.

What if you don’t know what to talk about? You could just give me a brief biography of yourself, but that probably wouldn’t be so interesting. Try to focus on a more specific topic, such as a special event that happened to you, something you don’t agree with others about, something that makes you interesting or unique, something you think about a lot, a problem that gives you a lot of trouble,

etc. Please consider originality and my interest, though I’m not

grading you for these things.