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Examice Cambridge Exams Speaking Teacher’s Notes

Pract
Practice Videos
Pre A1 Starters

Introduction What is being tested?

The Cambridge English Pre A1 Starters Speaking
Exam is a face-to-face exam with one examiner
and one candidate. It lasts 3–5 minutes and
comprises four parts, as follows:
Part 1: Talking about a scene picture
Procedure
The examiner asks the candidate to locate and
point to things in a scene picture (see page 4).
Then the examiner asks the candidate to put
object cards (see page 5) in different places on
the picture.
What is being tested?
Understanding and following instructions.
Tips for success
• Give the pupils practice in identifying people,
animals and things and where they are located
in a big picture.
• Practise putting object cards in position, e.g.
under, next to, behind, between.
• Tell the pupils not to worry if the position isn’t
exactly correct. The examiner will guide them.
• Tell the pupils that they don’t have to say where
the objects or things are in this part, but they will
be given credit if they do.
Part 2: Tell me about …
Procedure
Using the same scene picture, the examiner asks a
Tell me about … question.
What is being tested?
Understanding and following instructions.
Producing simple sentences.
Tips for success
• Practise answering simple questions about a big
picture. Focus on numbers, colours, etc. and
simple activities with the present continuous,
e.g. He’s reading.
• Practise giving longer answers as opposed to
one-word answers, e.g. What’s this? It’s a cat.
Understanding questions.
Producing simple sentences.
Tips for success
• Practise asking and answering simple questions
about objects, food, drink, people and animals.
• Practise Wh- questions and yes/no questions,
e.g. What’s this? What do you drink for
breakfast? Do you like (frogs)?
• Encourage the pupils to give more than one-
word answers.
Part 4: Personal information
Procedure
The examiner will ask a couple of personal
questions.
What is being tested?
Understanding simple personal questions.
Producing some simple phrases and sentences.
Tips for success
• Review answering simple personal information
questions, e.g. about friends, hobbies and
family with full answers, e.g. How many brothers
have you got? (Answer: I’ve got three brothers.
They are all older than me.)
Stages for watching the video
Stage 1: Before watching
• Divide the class into two. Divide the board into
nine sections and play Noughts and Crosses.
Assign each section of the board a topic, e.g.
food and drink, toys, transport.
• Each team chooses either O or X. The teams
take it in turns to choose a topic and then
answer a question. If they get the question
right, they put their symbol in that square. The
winner is the first team to make a line, either
horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Repeat
the game as necessary, keeping score of the
teams’ points.
• Suggested questions:

Part 3: Answering questions What’s this? / What are these? (Show a picture
Procedure of a food.)

The examiner uses the object cards to ask Tell me one thing in a living room.
simple questions. How many people are there in your family?
(Choose an individual pupil in the team.)

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Examice Cambridge Exams Speaking
Pract
Practice Videos
Pre A1 Starters
What’s he/she doing? (Show a picture of a
sport/hobby.)
What’s your favourite sport? (Choose an
individual pupil in the team.)
How old are you? (Choose an individual pupil in
the team.)
This is … (number). (Show/write an incorrect
number and have the team correct you.)
This is … (animal). (Show a picture of an incorrect
animal and have the team correct you.)
What’s your favourite animal? (Choose an
individual pupil in the team.)
Talk about your friend. (Choose an individual
pupil in the team.)
Stage 2: Watch and answer
• Play the whole video for the pupils to see the
length of the exam and how a candidate
handles the different parts.
• Ask What picture does Santiago talk about in
the exam? (Answer: a bedroom).
Stage 3: Watch the video again
• The pupils watch this part of the video again and
answer the following questions. Put the scene
picture and object cards (see pages 4 and 5)
on the board to refer to during the video.
Part 1: Talking about a scene picture
• Play to the end of Part 1 and pause the video.
Ask What does Santiago point to in the picture?
(Answer: a mirror, shoes). Where does Santiago
put the cat? (Answer: next to the train). Where
does Santiago put the teddy bear? (Answer: on
the table).
• Point out how Santiago says words and short
phrases in this part of the exam, e.g. Examiner:
Where’s the mirror? Santiago: Here, on the wall.
Part 2: Tell me about …
• Play to the end of Part 2. Point to the scene
picture and ask What colour is the chair?
(Answer: It’s blue.). How many chairs are there?
(Answer: There are two chairs.). What is the boy
doing? (Answer: The boy is reading a book.).
• Point to the bag and say Tell me about the bag.
(Answer: It’s orange. It’s open. It’s big.).
• Point out how Santiago uses short phrases in
this part of the exam, e.g. Examiner: What’s this?
Santiago: It’s a chair.
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Teacher’s Notes
Part 3: Answering questions
• Play the video to the end of Part 3. Ask What
is Santiago’s favourite animal? (Answer: a fish).
What does Santiago drink for breakfast?
(Answer: milk).
• Ask a few pupils about their favourite animals
and what they drink for breakfast.
• Point out how Santiago answers sometimes with
one word and sometimes with a short phrase,
which is completely acceptable at this level,
e.g. Examiner: What’s this? Santiago: It’s (a)
orange juice. Examiner: What do you drink for
breakfast? Santiago: milk.
Part 4: Personal information
• Play the video to the end. Ask How old is
Santiago? (Answer: seven). How many teachers
has he got? (Answer: two). Is his English teacher
a man or a woman? (Answer: a woman)
• Ask a few pupils their age and about their
teachers.
• Play the video again, pausing after the
examiner asks What’s your favourite animal?
Play Santiago’s answer and explain that it’s
OK to be hesitant and pause to think when
answering questions. Santiago uses sounds
(ahhh, ummm) which shows he is thinking about
his final answer.
Stage 4: After watching
• Use the scene picture (see page 4) to ask some
questions, e.g. Where’s the ruler?
• In pairs, the pupils take turns to ask and answer
questions.
• Ask a pupil to come to the board and give them
an object card (see page 5) and say Put the
(teddy bear) in the wardrobe.
• In pairs, the pupils take turns to give each other
instructions on where to put the object cards.
• For further practice, use the Pre A1 Starters
practice test. The pupils use the scene picture to
practise Part 1.
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Examice Cambridge Exams Speaking Teacher’s Notes
Pract
Practice Videos
Pre A1 Starters

Performance criteria Pronunciation assessment criteria

Santiago: assessment band 5 (strong
candidate)
Vocabulary and grammar assessment criteria
Can the candidate use the vocabulary necessary
to complete some or all of the exam tasks?
Can the candidate use any very simple structures?
The candidate may make mistakes, but is the
meaning generally clear?
Can the candidate give one-word answers
and can they also produce some short, very
simple sentences, even at Pre A1 Starters level?
(Producing more than one-word answers would
put the candidate at the higher end of the scale.)
Santiago’s performance
Santiago uses vocabulary required to manage
all the exam tasks (on the wall, under the bed,
blue, chair, book, orange juice, milk, frog, fish,
teachers, woman). He produces simple utterances
and makes very occasional mistakes. (My name is
Santiago, it’s a chair, it’s orange, it’s open, it’s big,
I’m 7 years old, are two chairs, is reading a book)
He answers at word level and mostly uses short
phrases.
Is the candidate generally intelligible?
Do they have some basic control of word stress
and individual sounds?
Santiago’s performance
Santiago is generally intelligible throughout the
exam. He has limited control of word stress.
Interaction assessment criteria
How well can the candidate complete each task?
Can they answer appropriately and promptly
when doing the tasks?
How much help does the candidate need?
Can they ask for help?
How often do they hesitate? (Hesitation is OK if it
doesn’t require a lot of patience from the listener.)
Santiago’s performance
Santiago responds appropriately to instructions,
questions and visual prompts. He doesn’t require
support. He generally replies promptly and there is
only one example of hesitation when he is thinking
about his final answer. (ahhh, ummm … fish)

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 Pre A1 Starters Speaking. Scene Picture.
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 Pre A1 Starters Speaking. Object Cards.
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