YLE Starters Speaking Part 3 Teachers Notes

Description
This activity gives students practice in giving short answers to questions about a picture. To give all of the
students some practice in answering questions about a picture, you should repeat this activity over several
lessons with different students each time.
Time
required:

5 minutes over several lessons.

Materials
required:

Aims:

to introduce students to Part 3 of the Starters Speaking paper and to the task type

to encourage students to respond to questions

to give students practice in using language asking for repetition and clarification.

Sample Task (one copy for each student)

(Taken from Starters Sample Paper)
YLE Starters Sample Paper downloaded from the Cambridge English website.

Before the lesson

Prepare 12 questions to ask about the scene picture in the Sample Task, e.g.:
How many elephants are there?

How many people are there in the boat?

What colour are they?

How many fish are there?

Whats this? (pointing to the water)

What colour is the frog?

What colour is the boat?

Whats the boy doing?

What colour is the water?

Whats the girl doing?

Students must be able to answer the questions using one-word answers.

Procedure
1. Set up the 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.

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use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms and Conditions

Divide the class into groups of four.

For three of the groups, set an activity from their workbook or activity book that they can do
on their own for about 5 minutes, e.g. a word search, a colouring activity, a sentencematching activity.
2. Sample Task
Work quietly with one group of four.
Hand them each a copy of the Sample Task. Elicit from/remind students that this is the same
picture as the one they see in Parts 1 and 2 of the YLE Starters Speaking test. (See YLE
Starters Speaking Classroom activities Part 1 and Part 2.)
Do a quick Point to activity to review the vocabulary. Make sure you ask all the students in the
group to point to one or more things in the picture.
Using the questions you prepared before the lesson, ask each student in the group 3 questions
about the scene. Remind them to give one-word answers.
Ask the students at random: dont always ask the next student in the circle.
If a student doesnt understand your question, prompt him/her to use appropriate classroom
language, e.g. I dont understand / Can you repeat, please? / Again, please? / Sorry?
If a student gives a wrong answer, dont say No, thats wrong. Try to be encouraging and nod
and repeat the question or ask another question.
Repeat the steps above in following lessons, working with a different group of four (or fewer)
each time until all the students have had a turn to talk about the scene picture.

Suggested follow-up activity

Its important to give students this type of practice on a regular basis. You can use pictures in
your course book, or other materials such as posters.

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 Part 3 Sample Task

Original can be found in the Cambridge English: Starters Reading & Writing Sample Paper, which
can be downloaded from the Cambridge English website.

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 Part 1 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