Interview Feedback
Level 7 G 2
28/02/12
1.) Leila Tavanae
Leila understood the interview questions well and responded with nicely developed answers. She used some good examples of both affirmative and negative modals when giving advice and gave lots of reasons why she prefers to buy ready-made clothing. Leila had a perfect opportunity to show her knowledge of the past simple when describing the difference between Iran now and in the past but she stuck with the present simple throughout. She also made a number of mistakes with her grammatical structures. I would advice Leila to spend some time focussing on her basic grammar and to try and get a hold on the past simple before she looks to move on.
2.) Fatemeh Zare
Fatemeh’s pronunciation is very good and she both listens and answers confidently having asked for only one repetition. She provided some nice examples of both affirmative and negative modals and self-corrected a past simple/present simple mistake quickly. Fatemeh made a few basic mistakes at the very beginning of her interview including ‘I’m study...’ and ‘He’s two year’ but these may have been down to nerves. An area she could look to focus on going forward is her use of prepositions which is a vast area of the language but, used correctly, would add a level of fluency to her speech.
3.) Elham Karampor
Elham’s pronunciation is fine and she began the interview by asking if it was ok to call me by my first name which is nice and shows how keen she was to show me her speaking ability. Although she was clearly trying very hard, Elham’s speech was very disjointed with little fluency. She forgot the inclusion of the main verb on occasion and sometimes added a preposition unnecessarily. Elham needs to spend some time improving her general grammar. As a short term solution, it would really her to learn some key phrases and stock answers to common questions in order to give her more confidence and fluency in future speaking assessments.
4.) Mohamad Reyasat
Mohamad understood all of the interview questions well and it was unnecessary to repeat or rephrase. He developed most of his answers without encouragement, which is great and provided thoughtful reasons for his answers. Mohamad made a couple of basic mistakes at the beginning of the interview including ‘one years ago’ but this may have been down to initial nerves. There was also some confusion between noun, adverbs and adjectives which he will need to attend to. There are some useful patterns in word structure which help to indentify whether a word in a noun, adjective or adverb which would help Mohamad with this issue.
5.) Maryam Sharafi
Maryam has a great range of vocabulary which she used well by providing carefully constructed and thoughtful answers to my questions. She included some modals for advice and some useful pre-learned phrases which were used well and delivered naturally. Unfortunately Maryam did mis-answer my question of how her culture had changed over the last 50 years and used the verb ‘get’ instead of ‘have’ when discussing giving birth. Overall, Maryam’s level is very good but she may wish to try and include some more advanced grammatical structures in her speech such as past simple or a basic conditional.
6.) Farhad Ostovar
Farhad provided well-developed and thoughtful answers to my questions which were supported by a wide range of vocabulary and a generally accurate use of both the past and present simple. He included both affirmative and negative modals for advice and inserted some pre-learned phrases into his speech which worked well because they were not overused and were delivered naturally. He made a couple of mistakes in his choice of verbs such as ‘I’m graduated’ rather than ‘I’ve graduated’ or ‘I’m a graduate’ which he will have to correct going forward and, although there is no problem with his pronunciation, he may consider further improving it to bring it up to the same level as his other skills.
7.) Fatemeh Kamalineya
Fatemeh provided a range of modal verbs both in the affirmative and the negative and of different degrees of strength. She seems to have a good understanding of the use of prepositions, using them well throughout and even included a zero conditional which is great to see. She made a couple of mistakes with articles and confused her nouns and adjectives on occasion, in particular, ‘health’ and ‘healty’. Fatemeh would find it helpful to learn the patterns which usually identify whether a word is a noun, adjective or adverb. She must also be careful not to forget her articles before a noun.
8.) Najmeh Mosavi
Najmeh’s pronunciation is fine and she understood most of my questions without difficulty. She included an affirmative and a negative modal in her advice and used some key phrases to help her answer. It would be very helpful for Najmeh to spend some time trying to obtain some more vocabulary as her lack of range is holding her back at the moment and resulting in her repeating too often, the words, particularly the adjectives, that she does know. It is also preventing her from expanding her answers properly which she obviously wants to do.
9.) Keyvan Azizi
Keyvan started off the interview quite confidently and understood my questions without hesitation. He self-corrected his past simple/present simple mistake, included some well-delivered pre-learned answers and supplied further information with statistics from the World Health Organisation which is great and shows he is thinking for himself when responding. Unfortunately, Keyvan seemed to become a lot more nervous when there was no fixed response to use and he was forced to try and construct his own response. This can be overcome by some time being spent on sentence structure and a little speaking practise, whenever possible.
10.) Aida Shole
Aida spoke in depth in response to my questions and provided some wonderful answers that included, amongst other things, accurate examples of modal verbs, comparatives and a differentiation between the use of ‘main verb + gerund/infinitive’ structure, which is a difficult area of the language to master. She also self-corrected a couple of mistakes showing a nice attention to detail. Unfortunately, Aida had a little confusion over adjectives and nouns, e.g., ‘modest’ and ‘modesty’ and did not use the past form of verbs when referring to the past. These are two things she should focus on going forward. There are some easy patterns which, if remembered, can help you identify whether a word is a noun, an adjective or an adverb which would be helpful for Aida.
11.) Farhad Mahmodi
Farhad seemed to find the interview quite difficult and was affected by his lack of vocabulary and confidence with sentence structure. He gave some good examples of what cultural literacy is and general etiquette in Iran but struggled to remember some of the fixed phrases and answers he has been taught which would have helped him out considerably. I would recommend Farhad spend some time revising sentence structure in English to help him with the construction of his own responses and suggest he becomes more familiar with some pre-learned sentences and stock phrases to aid him in the immediate future.
12.) Negar Saeidi
Negar’s listening skills were generally okay although she did misunderstand and subsequently, mis-answer a question about cultural change in Iran in the last 50 years. She used the past simple when referring back to a time she used herbal medicine and included some good modals when providing advice. Negar needs to work on her pronunciation of certain words including ‘daughter’, ‘dangerous’ and ‘slurp’ and spend some time focussing on sentence structure.
13.) Fatmeh Hoseni
Fatemeh’s pronunciation is fine and she tried hard throughout the interview. Her introduction was good and she included a modal verb when giving advice. Fatemeh needs to work on her general grammar as she made some mistakes when trying to construct her own responses, in particular, forgetting possessive pronouns and misusing prepositions. It may help her to learn some more key phrases in order to provide more accurate responses to the target questions of her level.
14.) Sosan Roshani
Sosan understood my questions without any difficulty and provided well-developed answers confidently, despite saying how stressed she was about the interview. She used some good examples of both affirmative and negative modals when giving advice and a good explanation of her opinion of conventional and non-conventional medicine. Sosan lost marks because of some basic grammatical mistakes including the incorrect inclusion of the verb ‘to be’ in ‘I’m study architecture’ and a misuse of prepositions which is more difficult to correct. Sosan must also be careful not to mix up ‘architect’ and ‘architect’ when discussing her major.
15.) Mohamad Pashapor
Mohamad is obviously very relaxed about speaking in English and has a wide range of vocabulary and a good understanding of sentence structure which allows him to express his responses in an interesting manner with detailed examples. He gave some good advice using both negative and affirmative modal verbs and a going to future form which is great to see at this level. An area for Mohamad to focus on is his use of prepositions which are a difficult area of English but have a significant on fluency. To begin with he should focus on the most commonly used phrases using prepositions such as ‘It depends on’.
16.) Mohamad Hatamineya
Mohamad gave some good examples of his opinions on conventional and non-conventional medicine and the role he has in his own recovery. He also included a variety of modal verbs, both affirmative and negative when giving advice on etiquette in Iran. Unfortunately, Mohamad seemed to misunderstand a couple of questions and subsequently, mis-answered but he did realise half way through his answer and asked me to clarify, which was a good thing to do in the situation. As a result, I would recommend Mohamad take some time out to practise his listening and not be afraid to clarify what is being asked before he provides an answer.
17.) Mehrnosh Arjpor
Mehrnosh understood my questions well and provided some good answers. She spoke with confidence and used some more sophisticated adjectives when describing things that are ‘forbidden’, ‘impolite’ and ‘offensive’. She self-corrected one of her mistakes by saying ‘excuse me’ before correcting it which sounded very natural. Mehrnosh needs to be careful not to give answers that are too long and disjointed with lots of repetition. It is far better to provide a shorter but perfectly constructed answer than one that loses its meaning. Her confidence is great but she needs to spend some time on improving her basic grammar.
18.) Esmaeil Akbari
Esmaeil understood the questions well and was able to provide detailed and interesting answers with a wide range of vocabulary. He included a variety of affirmative and negative modal verbs, self-corrected a couple of mistakes and sounded generally, very relaxed and natural throughout. Esmaeil started with a very detailed introduction of himself which was good but does not need to be so detailed as is takes time away from the interview questions where he more likely to obtain good marks. He also missed out articles before nouns on a few occasions which are basic level mistakes but can be easily amended by increased concentration.
19.) Rasol Rezaie
Rasol obviously feels very relaxed with both his listening and speaking in English and did both with confidence throughout the interview. His pronunciation is excellent, as is his sentence structure and he is at ease with switching between present simple and present continuous, when necessary. He did however make a couple of basic mistakes including forgetting the inclusion of necessary articles with some nouns and confusing his verbs, nouns and adjectives. Any easy way to overcome this confusion is to remember the pattern that most nouns, adjectives and adverbs follow which can help to identify what kind of word it is.
20.) Zahra Rozitalab
Zahra gave some good examples of etiquette in Iran by using a mixture of affirmative and negative modal verbs of varying strength. She understood my questions well and both her pronunciation and range of vocabulary are fine however she didn’t always push herself to expand her answers which is a shame. Zahra began her story about previously used non-conventional medicine in the past simple but unfortunately did not continue in it which is important for her to remember as it affects the fluency of her speaking. She also forgot to include some main verbs and articles which had the same effect as before. Going forward, I think a higher level of concentration and attention to detail would benefit Zahra’s speech dramatically.
21.) Sepehr Farzan
Sepehr understood all my questions without any issues and his vocabulary and pronunciation are both fine. He correctly differentiated between the need for present simple and present continuous and gave some good reasons for favouring one type of medicine over another. Unfortunately, Sepehr incorrectly missed the opportunity to show off his past simple ability when comparing pre- and post-revolution states/countries which he really should have been doing at this level. He also confused verbs, nouns and adjectives on a couple of occasions and made the common ‘see’ and ‘look’ mix up.