Interview Feedback
Level3 G6
90/12/2
1.) Maryam Oranous
Maryam spoke confidently with good pronunciation throughout the interview. She used comparatives well when describing her brothers and sisters and showed an excellent awareness of the use of the singular and the plural, other than a mistake between child and children. She understood most questions well and provided some very useful and interesting phrases such as ‘I usually come back to Romance movies’. Maryam used the Iranian calendar to tell me when she was born but must try to use the Gregorian calendar when speaking in English to ensure people of other nationalities understand. She could also spend some time practising expressing free-time activities e.g., go + gerund.
2.) Javad Alizadeh
Javad understood my questions well and provided short but detailed answers in a relaxed manner. Some good adverbs of frequency were included when talking about free-time activities but Javad made a number of grammatical mistakes including missing the ‘than’ out when using comparatives and using the verb ‘to have’ rather than the verb ‘to be’ when talking about age. Javad’s listening and confidence in speaking is good but there will need to be some time spent on grammar in order to achieve higher grades or progress to the next level.
3.) Mohsen Karimi
Mohsen’s understanding of my questions was, overall, very good although he did talk about similarities in appearance when I asked about personality. He used some good house-based vocabulary and showed an awareness of prepositions of location when describing his home. His subject verb agreements were also accurate, on the whole. Mohsen’s answers were fairly short which is a shame as he didn’t give himself the chance to show me his full ability and he should work towards developing his answers further going forward. He also confused ‘he/she’ subjects on a number of occasions which he will have to pay more attention to in the future.
4.) Shadi Rousta
Shadi spoke in a natural manner during the interview and did not repeat my question in her answer which makes her speaking much more genuine and effective. She self-corrected her a number of her mistakes which shows a nice attention to detail and used some good vocabulary including ‘the baby of the family’. Shadi needs to be careful not to forget her articles when using nouns and would benefit from spending some time revising how to express free-time activities namely, whether to use ‘like + infinitive/gerund’.
5.) Maryam Monchehri
Maryam gave a very detailed introduction of herself and her family during which she spoke with great accuracy and no hesitation. Her subject verb agreements were mainly accurate although she did forget some articles. Once I began asking her questions however, she seemed to find it a little more difficult and I had to repeat a number of my questions in order for her to understand. Her use of conjunctions was excellent and they were all well-pronounced. She also self-corrected a number of times which shows her grammatical awareness and her attention to detail. Going forward I would recommend Maryam try to practise her listening skills whenever possible so as to bring this skill up to same level as her others.
6.) Sara Jamali
Sara seemed quite nervous throughout the interview but she understood my questions well and was able to answer appropriately as a result. She self-corrected her preposition mistakes and used articles and subject verb agreements well. She included some nice vocabulary and even a going to future which is great to see at this level. Going forward, Sara needs to work on her use of plurals and must remember to use the Gregorian calendar for dates of birth when speaking in English.
7.) Somaye Mahrami
Somaye understood my questions well and although she seemed like quite a nervous speaker, she took her time and was careful with her responses, developing them whenever possible. She possesses some good vocabulary and both uses and pronounces contractions well which is a great skill to have and improves students’ fluency dramatically. Going forward, Somaye should look to focus on her articles which she made a couple of mistakes with during the interview. She should also try to practise her speaking whenever possible to improve her confidence.
8.) Saeideh Enjavinezhad
Saeideh used some good comparisons in her interview when talking about her siblings and generally her subject verb agreements were accurate. She understood most of my questions but mis-answered my question of where she likes to shop. An the area of weakness for Saeideh seems to be knowing when to use ‘like + infinitive/gerund’ when talking about free-time activities which is something she will need to practise before she can look to move to the next level. She should also try to focus on her pronunciation whenever possible.
9.) Hajar Radmand
Hajar is a very confident speaker of English and used some really good phrases such as ‘as a matter of fact’ and ‘I’m into music’. These are phrases commonly used by native speakers and make her speech sound very natural. She has a good range of vocabulary and self-corrected on a number of occasions although she did make some repeated mistakes with her singulars and plurals. Unfortunately Hajar lost marks on this interview as a result of regularly asking for questions to be repeated before allowing herself the time to try and work through what I was asking. Although there is no problem in asking for something to be repeated, students need to be seen to at least try and work out what was asked. This is something she must consider in future speaking assessments.
10.) Parviz Rezaei
Parviz clearly has a very high level of listening ability and understood all of my questions without any problems, even when I asked them in a more casually constructed manner. He has a wide range of vocabulary and gave some good examples of superlatives, comparatives and ordinal numbers as well as correctly formed past and present simple structures. One way for Parviz to increase his marks in the future would be by trying harder to expand his answers without the examiner’s encouragement. He could also look to work on his pronunciation in order to bring a higher level of fluency to his speech.
11.) Mohamad Mehrshad
Mohamad tried hard in his interview and gave a very detailed introduction that lasted for the first two or three minutes. He provided long answers to my questions which showed how keen he was but often resulted in him repeating himself and not being able to finish off his sentences because he was short of vocabulary. This had a significant effect on his fluency and did not allow many questions to be asked during his seven minutes. The first step Mohamad should take is work towards increasing his vocabulary bank. He must also learn that sometimes a short but carefully constructed answer is better than one that goes on for a long time and loses sense. Maybe some of the key phrases used at this level would help him with this.
12.) Mehrdad Karimi
Mehrdad seemed quite nervous during the interview but was able to understand most of my questions, only mis-answering one from his own perspective rather than his parents. His pronunciation was fine and he gave some good examples of what he does in his free-time although he does need to spend some time studying the commonly used structure ‘like +gerund/infinitive’ and increasing his range of vocabulary would give him a lot more confidence in expressing his answers and opinions.
13.) Hosein Samedani
Hosein seemed quite nervous at the beginning of the interview but tried very hard throughout and listened carefully to my questions. His listening skills are good and it was only necessary for me to repeat one question for him. His subject verb agreements were generally very accurate and he self-corrected his mistake with a negative auxiliary verb. Hosein’s priority at this stage should be to try and obtain as much vocabulary as possible as this would give him a lot more confidence and enable him to express his ideas and opinions in more depth.
14.) Mehrshad Shamsi
Mehrshad struggled with his listening skills during the interview which meant he slightly misunderstood and mis-answered a number of my questions. He responded with ‘both of them’ when I asked which parent he was more similar too which worked well but his answers were generally very short. This is probably down to a lack of vocabulary which should be his main area of focus going forward. He should also consider some listening practise and try to clarify questions with examiners so as to ensure he has understood correctly.
15.) Zohre Rahemi
Zohre’s pronunciation is excellent, particularly of contractions and she displayed both good listening and speaking skills throughout the interview. Her grammar was generally very accurate and included a good usage of modals and personal pronouns and she self-corrected her occasional mistakes. In the future, Zohre must remember the importance of singular and plural nouns and should try to spend some time trying to master prepositions.
16.) Faezeh Golkarfard
Faezaeh tried hard during the interview and understood all of my questions well without the need for any repetitions on my part. She has a good range of vocabulary and some nice set phrases for explaining her opinions of why smaller families are better than bigger families, in her opinion. Two areas where Faezeh had a couple of problems were with her use of plural nouns and a/an articles. These are very simple problems to fix but will make a big difference to the fluency of her speech.
17.) Hamed Aghaei
Hamed understood most of my questions well but became confused when I tried to differentiate between being similar to his parents in personality and appearance. His subject verb agreements were fairly good as was his use of singular and plural nouns and his expressions of frequency. Hamed’s mistakes were mainly made when expressing what he likes to do in his free time. He should spend some time learning which activities use ‘like + gerund’ and which use ‘like + infinitive’ as this is a common topic of discussion at this level and it is important he gets them right, even if it means learning the set phrase rather than understanding it’s structure.
18.) Mohammad Emeni
Mohammad’s pronunciation is good and he spoke with confidence in response to my questions. He provided answers in a relaxed manner and did not repeat my question in his answer which is a difficult but effective skill to have and really makes speech seem more natural. Mohammad needs to be careful not to mix up his he/she subjects as this is a fairly basic mistake and it will lose him marks in the future. He should also spend some time learning the format of expressing free-time activities e.g., ‘like + gerund’ or ‘like + infinitive’.
19.) Morteza Emamzadeh
Morteza’s pronunciation is fine and he seemed to understand most of my questions without any problems. Unfortunately, Morteza struggles with his general grammar so he often missed articles and simple verbs such as ‘to be’. Before he can progress Morteza will need to spend some time working on his basic grammar and should learn some key answers for expressing his free time activities so as not to get confused between the need for ‘like + infinitive’ and ‘like + gerund’ which is too complex for him to become involved in at this stage.
20.) Hosein Zarei
Hosein was very nervous at the beginning of his interview but he seemed to relax a little as time went on. His pronunciation is fine and although I was careful to speak quite slowly for him, he understood my questions very well indeed. There were some mistakes with his subject verb agreements which he should focus on correcting in the future and I would strongly advise him to try to pick up some more vocabulary as this would allow him to express his ideas and opinions the way he wants to and, more importantly at this point, improve his confidence.