Interview Feedback
Level5G1
20/02/12
1.) Shahin Shahriyari
Shahin gave some detailed answers to my questions and provided some useful vocabulary when discussing what she looks for when choosing a hotel. Her inclusion of conjunctions and their pronunciation was also good. Shahin does need to take care when listening to questions rather than just relying on picking up on key words so as to avoid mis-answering and should look to add more adjectives to her vocabulary rather than overusing the word ‘good’. I had to repeat a number of the questions for Shahin; she would benefit from some more listening practice in her free time.
2.) Sara Mohamadi
Sara’s pronunciation is good and she listened carefully and understood my questions without difficulty. She expressed her ideas and opinions well by including modals when discussing the topic of children and violence in films and used some pre-rehearsed phrases such as ‘it depends on my mood’ in an effective way. In order to improve, Sara must focus her attention on perfecting her grammar, in particular, when talking about free-time activities and should try to reduce the amount of hesitation she has before answering.
3.) Negin Azizi
Negin gave a detailed introduction at the beginning of the interview, which, although informative, should be a little more natural. She understood my question well and seemed relaxed in her answers. She immediately self-corrected after a using present simple rather than past simple when talking about the last hotel she stayed in, which shows a nice attention to detail, and produced lots of hotel-based vocabulary and a great sentence of: ‘it is considered rude’ when discussing the use of gestures and suitable topics for small-talk in Iran. Going forward Negin should try not to incorrectly include the verb ‘to be’ in her speaking, such as ‘my family are live in another city’ and could spend some time working on pronunciation of certain sounds, mainly the letter ‘w’.
4.) Raziyeh Farmani
Raziyeh spoke with confidence through the interview and expanded her answers without needing encouragement. She supplied a lot of hotel-based vocabulary and included useful expressions such as: ‘one of the best’ and ‘another factor...’ which worked well. Unfortunately, Raziyeh’s listening skills lost her some marks as she often picked up only on key words and subsequently provided the answer to a different question. Going forward, Raziyeh should giver herself time to understand the question fully before answering and ask for it to be repeated or rephrased if she is not sure. As her speaking is already fairly good, improving her listening would quickly increase her marks.
5.) Leila Safari
Leila has some useful topic-based vocabulary and displayed this when discussing her opinion of violence in movies. She also included an excellent expression at the right moment; when I asked for her advice on suitable gestures and small-talk topics in Iran, she replied with ‘you don’t want to get off on the wrong foot’. Such vocabulary and useful expressions are very helpful and add fluency to Leila’s speech, however, I had to speak very slowly and constantly repeat and rephrase questions in order for her to understand what was being asked. Her main focus at present should be to gain as much listening practice as possible in order to bring this skill up to the same level as her others.
6.) Shahla Hoshmandi
Shahla tried very hard to expand her answers and only required a couple of repetitions of questions. She provided some good adjectives when describing her views on violence with films and did well distinguishing between past and present simple. One way Shahla could look to improve would be by spending some time on her prepositions which she made a few mistakes with during the interview. She must also pay attention to her pronunciation.
7.) Farnosh Sadeghi
Farnosh gave a nice introduction and spoke clearly throughout the interview using an excellent variety of modals when giving advice. She also self-corrected her mistake of describing her mother as handsome and father as pretty which shows a nice attention to detail. Unfortunately, Farnosh’s listening skills lost her a number of marks. It took many attempts for her to understand the word ‘hotel’ which is a key piece of topic-based vocabulary at this point and she provided some incorrect answers as a result of not having fully understood the question. For this reason I think Farnosh would find it very helpful to arrange for some listening practice in her free time.
8.) Parvin Basatandaz
Parvin understood my questions well and only made one mistake in her responses by telling me inappropriate small-talk topics rather than the appropriate ones I had asked for. Going forward, Parvin needs to focus on two areas: the first and most simple is the need for plurals when talking in generalities for example, gardens, restaurants, shops etc. The second is to spend some time practising her subject verb agreements which, at present, are affecting the accuracy of her speech considerably.
9.) Maryam Farhadi
Maryam spoke with good pronunciation throughout the interview and has a wide range of vocabulary which helped her to express her ideas. She self-corrected on more than one occasion and used some accurate examples of the past simple. Maryam initially appeared to understand my questions well but as the interview went on, she began to mis-answer which may be helped if she allowed herself more time to ensure she understood exactly what was being asked and requested a repetition or rephrase just to clarify. She also made a couple of mistakes with her numbers when talking about her year of birth and how long she has lived in Shiraz.
10.) Yahya Khoshkalam
Yahya started the interview fine but seemed to find it stressful the more it continued. He gave a nice introduction to himself and his family and gave some good examples of why he likes Shiraz so much. On the topic of violence in movies he used the phrase ‘I can’t stand violence’ which worked very well. Unfortunately, Yahya struggled to understand a number of my questions which made it difficult for him to answer correctly and got him quite confused and frustrated. Going forward, Yahya should look to try and practise his listening skills, whenever possible with native speakers. He must also work towards trying to improve his overall grammar.
11.) Hamed Tavakoliyan
Hamed was very relaxed throughout the entirety of the interview. He listened well, understood more complex and less-formally constructed questions and spoke with a high level of fluency. His answers had no repetition of the question which is a difficult skill to master but makes speech far more like that of a native speaker. He also used some good phrases including ‘I suggest you...’ and suitable modals when advising me on things to do and not to do when visiting Iran. Hamed did make some mistakes with his choice of verbs confusing ‘go’ and ‘take’ and ‘watch’ and ‘see’. Correcting this, along with working on his pronunciation, would further improve his fluency.
12.) Sahar Haghight
Sahar umderstood all of my questions well and there was no need for me to repeat or rephrase. She spoke with confidence and provided detailed answers including modals for advice and accurate subject verb agreements. Her statement of ‘I love to experience new things’ was both accurate and worked well in the context and she used some good hotel-based vocabulary. Sahar’s weakness is her grammar in which she often incorrectly includes the verb ‘to be’ as in: ‘I like to watching movies’ and continuously confused verbs, nouns and adjectives. These are fairly basic mistakes which she will need to focus on remedying on before she can consider moving on to the next level.
13.) Mahmod Madadi
Mahmod’s pronunciation is very good and he is obviously very relaxed with his knowledge and use of the English language. He speaks with a very high level of fluency and was able to understand all of my questions, even the more complex and quickly spoken ones, without hesitation. He used some good pieces of vocabulary including some slang which added to the naturalness of his speech. Mahmod did make some mistakes with his grammar so going forward I would suggest he focus on trying to bring this area of his language ability up to the same standard as his other skills.
14.) Faezeh Honarvar ABSENT