LAJ1201 Japanese 1 AY2015-16 Sem.

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ORAL INTERVIEW TEST

DIRECTIONS TO THE STUDENTS
1. Date/Time, Venue and the Way of Conduct
(1)Date/Time:
(2) Venue:
(3) Conduct:

In your normal tutorial B slot on Wed/Thu/Fri: 11-13 November 2015

Your B class venue
2 students (examinees) in pair, 1 examiner and 1 grader. All tasks and
their instructions are given by the examiner in the test venue.

2. Objectives
To assess your oral communication skills (all of listening, speaking and non-verbal
communication skills) of LAJ1201 Japanese 1, namely of lessons 1-10 in Minna no Nihongo.
3. Tasks
This oral test consists of the following four kinds of tasks:
Warm-up Task
The examiner will ask questions in Japanese and the examinee are expected to answer the
questions in Japanese.
Task 1: Practice C in your Main Textbook
Examinees are given cards which indicate a slightly modified Practice C picture (which you
have practiced in your tutorial classes) and the role, and asked to perform accordingly.
You need to ask to and/or answer the questions of his/her examinee.
Task 2: Role play
Task 3: Role play
For both Task 2 & 3, examinees are given cards which describe the situation/context and
the role, and asked to perform accordingly. You need to ask to and/or answer the
questions of his/her examinee.
4. Procedures
The interview takes about 8-10 minutes.
Prior to the test
(1) Check your test date/time, venue and seat number (A or B).
(2) Prepare for the test (see 8. below)
On the test day
(1) Be present in front of the venue by the designated time: come to the designated place 10
minutes before the specified time and wait outside the interview room quietly until
your name is called..
(2) Collect your quizzes (VQ, LQ, HM).
(3) When you and your fellow examinee are called, enter the room. If an examinee is not
present when he/she is called, it is regarded that the examinee renouncing the right to
take the test unless you have a valid reason (see 7. below) and will be given zero-mark

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for the test. No make-up oral test will be given if you arrive late. Also, please note
that the test starts when you enter the room (and finishes when you exit the room).
(4) Take the seat of your number (A or B) as designated.
(5) Do the tasks as the examiner directs. You may be interrupted by examiner when the
tasks are not conducted smoothly and the allocated time is up.
(6) Leave the venue immediately after finishing the test: do not stay around the test room
long. This is to prevent students chatting around the venue and disturb both ongoing
oral test and other classes held nearby.
(7) Never discuss the contents of the interview with the other students who have not done it yet.
5. Assessment Criteria
Examinees performance in this oral test will be assessed according to the following criteria:
Contents
variety of vocabulary, sentence structures, and expressions which are
context-appropriately, correctly, and smoothly produced;
Linguistic features
accuracy of vocabulary, sentence structures, and expressions which are
context-appropriate, correctly and smoothly produced
Communication strategies & delivery
clarification, continuation, & involvement of the conversation (i.e. survival strategies,
self-correction, fillers, intonation, and etc.); spontaneous/fluent response to
questions/statements by understanding the dialogue from the partner
Degree of achievement
how well you have achieved the given task
6. Notes
(1) This oral test should not be interrogation but should be a series of meaningful
conversation. In other words, an examinee will not be given plus marks if he/she
ignores the conversation partner(s) and simply utters what he/she memorised. Besides
precise and appropriate conversation production, it is too important to understand the
situation/context settings and to respond accordingly to what your conversation partner(s)
say. In this manner, good turn-takings, filler utterances such as ,

questions for clarification such as ,

commenting such as are all considered as important

elements which the examinee gets engaged in the conversation, where they are used
accurately and appropriately. Additionally, gestures and body languages are also
assessed.
(2) Only the grammar items (sentence patterns in lessons 1-10 in Minna no Nihongo) and the
vocabulary (those in the vocabulary list) in LAJ1201 Japanese 1 are taken account for
assessment. Other grammar items and vocabulary are not considered as plus marks.
(3) Be aware of the fact that this conversation will be held within a timeline. Hence the
examiner may intervene if your response is not spontaneous enough to make a SMOOTH
flow of the topic.
7. Make-up of the Oral Test
(1) In case you are unavailable due to a valid reason stated in the table below, you may claim
for a make-up oral test only by submitting the necessary documents. No personal
excuse will be taken into consideration.

LAJ1201 Japanese 1 AY2015-16 Sem.1

a)
b)
c)
d)

e)
f)
g)
(2)

(3)

(4)

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Valid reasons and necessary documents for evidence to claim a make-up test
Valid Reasons to claim a make-up Documents for evidence needed to claim a
Test
make-up test
Medical reason (e.g. illness, injury) An absence report form and
A Medical certificate (MC) issued by a qualified
medical institution
Death of a family member
An absence report form and
A death or burial certificate issued by a qualified
medical institution or by a statutory board
Summons to National Service or
An absence report form and
Reservist Training
An official letter from the Ministry of Defence
Attendance to a project or
An absence report form and
examination for another module
A signed letter from a teaching staff in charge of
the project or exam (no copy of an e-mail will be
accepted)
Attendance to an official interview
An absence report form and
e.g. a job interview, application for
A signed letter or document that shows the student
scholarship
duly attended to the interview
Attendance to an event held or
An absence report form and
organized by Hall(s) of Residence
A signed excuse letter from master, resident fellow
of hall(s) of residence
Participation in a performance
An absence report form and
directed or organized by Centre for
A signed excuse letter from the Centre for the Arts
the Arts
In case you are unavailable on the test date as well as on the date for a make-up test due
to a valid reason stated in the table above, it is your responsibility to inform the module
coordinator, Ms Yukiko Saito of your intension of not taking the test in person with the
document for evidence by Friday 13 November 2015, 17:00. At this point, No email
message will be taken into account later than this date/time. No personal excuse will be
taken into consideration.
It is your responsibility to request the make-up test since the make-up test will not be
automatically arranged for you. All requests must be made to the module co-ordinator
Ms Yukiko Saito in person with the document for evidence by Friday 20 November 2015,
17:00. No request will be taken into account later than this date/time. Claims by
e-mail or phone call are not valid.
The arrangement of make-up test(s) is subject to the approval from the module
co-ordinator. Therefore, you are strongly recommended to claim for a make-up test
(together with the documents for evidence) before the test; in case that the claim is made
after the test and your reason is found not valid for claim, you will be denied to take the
test and will consequently get zero-mark for the test.

8. How to Prepare the test

(1)
(2)

Revise what you have learned in this module by checking your

textbooks, lecture handouts, and vocabulary quiz list. The audio
and video clips in the IVLE are also useful.
Practise with the classmates. Make a list of possible questions
which might be asked, and ask and answer those questions. Also,
think of situations and roles of possible conversations and rehearse
accordingly. Do not forget to check pronunciation, intonation,
accent and appropriateness of utterance and body languages each other as they are also
important criteria for assessment in addition to the accuracy of grammar items and
vocabulary.