SPEAKING ASSIGNMENT

Work in pairs. Videotape your assignment. You can upload your recording either onto
YouTube or google drive and then submit your link.

PART 1: Self introduction

Talk about yourself. Remember to include information about:

- Your personality
- Your hobby/hobbies/likes/dislikes
- Your study
- Your skills
- Your social activities
- Your future job

PART 2: Dialogue

Make a conversation/dialogue with each other on the given situation.

Situation 1

Student A: You are an ice-cream taster. You want to change your career. Talk with
a job counselor about your job, tell him/her about your skills, characteristics and
strengths, and ask him to help you find the right job.

Student B: You are a job counselor and you talk with an ice-cream taster about
his/her job. Ask him/her for as much information as possible about his/her job and
then help him/her to identify skills, characteristics and strengths and find another job
that may be good for him/her.

………………………………………………………………………………………….
Situation 2

Student A: You have an offbeat job. You want to change your career. Talk with a
job counselor about your current job and ask him to help you find another job which
might be better for you.

Student B: You are a job counselor and you talk with an offbeat job holder about
his/her job. Ask him/her for as much information as possible about his/her job and
then help him/her to find another job that may be better for him/her.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

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Situation 3

Student A: You have a big test tomorrow and want to study. You are nervous. Your
roommate wants to hold a party in the room and you disagree.

Student B: You want to have a party this evening but your roommate disagrees. You
are so upset with him/her.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Situation 4

Student A: You are a student. You need some help managing your time and learning
better study habits. You ask the counselor for help.

Student B: You are a student counselor. You talk with a student about his/her study
habits. Ask him/her for as much information as possible about his/her job and then
help him/her to manage his/her time and learn better study habits.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Situation 5

Student A: You are a student. You want to get more time to finish your assignment.
Talk with your lecturer about the assignment and ask him/her for time.

Student B: You are a lecturer. Your student talk with you about his/her assignment
which is due. He/she would like to get more time to finish his/her assignment. You
disagree but want him/her to turn it in on time.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Situation 6

Student A: You are a reporter. You want to interview people in the street about
manners .

Student B: You are walking in the street when a reporter stops you to interview
about manners. Try to give him as much information as you can about good or bad
manners.

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Situation 7

Student A: You are a counselor who works with people who are trying to develop
healthier eating habits. Ask student B some questions to find out about his/her eating
habits. Then give him/her some advice.

Student B: You are tired a lot of the time. You are visiting a counselor because you
want advice on how to improve your eating habits so that you will have more energy
and feel better. Answer student A’s questions.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Situation 8

Student A: You are a counselor who works with people who are trying to develop
healthier eating habits. Ask student B some questions to find out about his/her eating
habits. Then give him/her some advice.

Student B: You are tired a lot of time and you don’t have good appetite. You are
visiting a counselor because you want advice on how to improve your eating habits so
that you will have more energy and feel better. Answer student A’s questions.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Situation 9

Student A: You are a doctor. Ask your patient some questions to find out about
his/her health problem. Then give him/her some advice to prevent or treat the disease.

Student B: You have not been able to sleep recently. You are visiting a doctor
because you want advice on how to improve your health problem. Answer the
doctor’s questions.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Situation 10

Student A: You are a doctor. Ask your patient some questions to find out about
his/her health problem. Then give him/her some advice to prevent or treat the disease.

Student B: You have diabetes. You are visiting a doctor because you want advice on
how to improve your health problem. Answer the doctor’s questions.

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Situation 11

Student A: You are a doctor. Ask your patient some questions to find out about
his/her health problem. Then give him/her some advice to prevent or treat the disease.

Student B: You have stress. You are visiting a doctor because you want advice on
how to improve your health problem. Answer the doctor’s questions.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Situation 12

Student A: You are a doctor. Ask your patient some questions to find out about
his/her health problem. Then give him/her some advice to prevent or treat the disease.

Student B: You have had headaches recently. You are visiting a doctor because you
want advice on how to improve your health problem. Answer the doctor’s questions.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

PART 3: Discussion

Discuss one of the following questions:

1. What is most important to you when choosing a job?

2. What do you think is the most important factor in student success?
3. What skills do you think are most important for students to learn so they can
find a job/start a career in the future?
4. What job skills do you think are the most difficult to learn? Why do you think
they are difficult to learn?
5. What are some challenges you face as a student? (e.g. having trouble
remembering information for tests, managing time poorly)
6. Discuss your study habits and strategies for improving them.
7. Do you think it’s better for students to live at home with their families, or away
from home?
8. What is the most important factor in student success?
9. Do you think most people have too much stuff? Why or why not?
10.Do you agree or disagree with this idea: “The general public doesn’t have good
manners anymore.”
11.“People are less polite these days than in the past!”
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12.What are some unhealthy eating habits?
13.What are some problems caused by unhealthy eating habits?
14.How to develop healthy eating habits?
15.The government should take whatever steps that are necessary to reduce obesity.
16.Do you think we are responsible for caring others in our community?
17.Discuss problems in your community that you think need to be solved, such as
homelessness, hunger, not enough education/jobs, pollution.
18.What are some positive/negative effects of video games on our health?
19.What are some ways that technology can help us to stay healthy?
20.Do you think we are responsible for caring for others in our communities?
21.Do you think English will threaten your native language?

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General tips

 Find a happy balance between accuracy and fluency. Accuracy is the use of
correct grammatical forms and vocabulary. Fluency is communicating
spontaneously and with ease.
 Check your fluency and accent and whether your words and phrases need to be
adjusted.
 Avoid using foreign proper names for places or people unless the listener will
know who or what you are talking about. A mispronunciation could lead to a
whole sentence becoming nonsensical.
 Try recording and listening to yourself. It will help you memorise the important
vocabulary and get an idea of the timing.

Your script

 Put up or down arrows above some parts of a sentence to indicate where your
voice should rise and fall - the intonation pattern.
 Underline or highlight parts of words or phrases where the stress or emphasis
falls.

Prepare brief notes about what you want to say, glancing at them from time to time to
refresh your memory. Try using mind maps or flow charts to guide you through the
delivery of your presentation. Draw forward and backward arrows to indicate positive
and negative statements, opinions or contrasts.

Recorded presentations

Make sure you practice recording your voice before the assignment to help you gain
confidence.

 Try using an external microphone rather than the internal one on your recording
device as it often gives a clearer sound.
 Make sure that you have the time and a quiet place to record, with no-one
listening.
 Practise recording with different volumes to find out which works best and how
far from the microphone you need to be.
 Remember to state your name.
 Always check afterwards that the whole of your presentation has been recorded
properly.

Giving the presentation

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 Deliver what you have to say within the time limit - it is usually between two
and six minutes, depending on the speaking part.
 Speak clearly, remembering that intonation and stress are important.
 Speak in a natural way. Spoken language is structured quite differently from
written work and, if you are reading from a written script, you should write in a
way that suits your natural speech patterns.
 Spoken presentations can be more formal than everyday speech, so consider
your audience and the subject.
 Have some useful phrases ready, such as 'first of all', 'secondly', 'by contrast', 'to
conclude'.