Interview Feedback
12/05/12
1.) Maryam Rahimiyan (level 4)
Maryam’s pronunciation is good and she switched between the past and present simple, when necessary, with ease and also included a ‘going to’ future. She understood my questions well and did not repeat my questions in her answers which made her speech seem much more natural. Maryam made a couple of mistakes in confusing her comparative and superlative adjectives which she should spend some time revising. She could also look to try and introduce some more complex grammatical forms such as the continuous, which would compliment the language skills already possesses.
2.) Taherh Moghtaderi (level 4)
Taherh’s pronunciation was fine and she self-corrected to use generalisations when discussing habits. She also included a nice mixture of adverbs of frequency which added variety to her speech. Unfortunately Taherh seemed a little nervous and appeared to become a little frustrated when trying to understand my questions. She would do well to practise her listening skills in her free time which would give her more confidence next time. She should also look to work on her use of prepositions.
3.) Ehsan Mohajerani (level 4)
Ehsan spoke with confidence throughout the interview and understood my questions very well; even when I spoke in a more quickly and casually. He expanded his questions without being prompted and included some very good introduction phrases such as ‘as a matter of fact...’ and informalities including ‘I’m addicted to...’, which were all very natural-sounding. Although Ehsan clearly feels very relaxed with both speaking and listening in English, he still needs to ensure he is not losing the accuracy of his speech and must remember to include subjects and articles which lost him some marks in this interview.
4.) Reza Banihashemi (level 4)
Reza’s pronunciation is fine and he included the past simple accurately, when necessary. He also used a good phrase: ‘I’m an evening person’, which sounded really natural in context. Learning more of these common phrases along with an attempt to expand his general vocabulary would really help Reza feel a little more relaxed in his spoken English. He must be careful not to confuse his verbs, adjectives, nouns and adverbs and should look to try and memorise the easy rules which can be applied to most words to help us to identify which of these categories they fall in i.e., -ly are usually adverbs, -ous are usually adjectives, etc.
5.) Behzad Falah (level 4)
Behzad tried hard during his interview, although he seemed a little nervous. His pronunciation was fine and he included some useful adverbs of quantity including ‘approximately’ and a useful introductory phrase; ‘at present...’. Behzad is in possession of a good range of vocabulary but is restricted in his use of it by his grammatical issues, namely, his sentence structure. Focussing on this should be his main priority at this stage as perfecting it would enable him to really show off his vocabulary knowledge in his next interview. It would also allow his more confidence.
6.) Alireza Sahami (level 4)
Alireza has a good range of vocabulary and his pronunciation is fine. He included some correct examples of the past simple and the ‘going to’ future which is good to see at this level. Unfortunately, Alireza seemed a little nervous throughout the interview which may have been a result of his difficulty in constructing sentences. Sentence structure should definitely be his main focus at this point as understanding how to put his vocabulary into a sentence correctly will give him a much higher level of confidence.
7.) Rahman Zareii (level 4)
Rahman seemed to find the interview quite difficult and I had to speak quite slowly and often repeat questions in order for him to understand what I was asking. He provided some good examples of possible problems faced by people going on vacation but regularly forgot to include the main verb or included the verb ‘to be’ unnecessarily which is a common mistake at this level. In order for him to improve, Rahman should, first of all, work towards obtaining some more vocabulary which would instantly increase his confidence. He could also try to memorise some stock answers to set questions and try to practise his listening skills whenever possible.
8.) Nazarin Bostaniyan (level 4)
Nazarin’s pronunciation and listening skills are good and there was a nice level of fluency throughout. Self-corrections were made including the use of the present simple for actions of habit/hobbies and the confusion of an adjective with a noun. Unfortunately, however, although Nazarin’s interview was generally very good, marks were lost through the lack of subjects and articles used which is a basic mistake that can be easily rectified by an increase in concentration but that has a significant effect on the overall fluency.
9.) Saman Arefadib (level 4)
Saman understood my questions well and was able to speak with confidence throughout the interview. He included a really good range of expressions for discussing time and regularity of activity and some informal expressions such as ‘to be in shape’ that are commonly used by native speakers and made his speech sound quite natural. Two of the main errors made by Saman in the interview was a lack of some necessary articles before nouns and the use of the past simple (‘I went to...’) rather than the present perfect (‘I have been to...’) when listing the Iranian cities he has visited. He should focus on these two areas going forward in order to further increase his marks.
10.) Homa Behrozizadeh (level 4)
Homa’s pronunciation is fine but she needs to be careful not to add an ‘e’ sound before words beginning with ‘s’ such as study, pronounced as ‘estudy’. She included some useful topic-based vocabulary like ‘to control weight’ which are very helpful at this level. Unfortunately Homa regularly forgot to include articles and main verbs which had a significant effect on the overall fluency of what she was saying. She would also benefit from some listening practice, whenever possible.
11.) Navid Maghsodi (level 4)
Navid tried very hard throughout the interview by clarifying any questions to ensure he knew exactly what was being asked and thought very carefully about his answers. He included an accurate conditional form and comparative phrase and a very natural sounding expression of ‘I’m a little out of shape’. He did confuse the verbs ‘to graduate’ and ‘to emigrate’ but otherwise his vocabulary range was good. Going forward, Navid could look to introduce a wider and more advanced range of grammar into his speaking. He could also spend some time working on his pronunciation in order to bring it in-line with his other language skills.
12.) Mohamad Ali Samini (level 4)
Mohamad tried hard in the interview and thought very carefully about his answers. He used some good topic-based vocabulary and expressions of frequency and tried to expand his answers, wherever possible. Unfortunately, Mohamad lost marks due to inaccuracies in his grammar which should most certainly be his priority for the immediate future. He confused the adjective ‘married’ with the noun ‘marriage’ and regularly forgot articles and plurals. He must also remember the auxiliary verb ‘do’ is not required in sentences like ‘I (do) play soccer’.
13.) Fatemeh Abdolahi (level 4)
Unfortunately there were serious connection issues during Fatemeh’s interview so this should be taken into consideration somewhat when looking at her mark. She seemed quite nervous and continuously asked for help but she was able to provide some detailed answers, with prompts. Her overall pronunciation is fine but she must be careful not to pronounce the word ‘shape’ as ‘ship’ which she did on a number of occasions. She must also remember that the verb ‘to be’ is not always necessary as in: ‘My father was died’, which is a common mistake at this level but must be overcome in order to progress.
14.) Fariba Bahmen (level 4)
Fariba’s pronunciation is quite good and she self-corrected both a pronunciation and a grammatical mistake which is great to see. She included some good topic-based vocabulary and used the past simple when relaying a story from the past (although she didn’t continue in that tense for the remainder of the tale which is disappointing). Fraiba mis-answered a couple of my questions as a result of not fully understanding the question and was reluctant to expand her answers, even with my repeated prompt. Going forward, Fariba would benefit from some listening practice and needs to push herself to try harder during speaking assessments, even if what she is saying is not quite accurate.
15.) Zahra Etesaminia (level 4)
Zahra’s pronunciation is good and she was able to provide a wide range of topic-based vocabulary when discussing healthy living and some accurate phrasal verbs when describing her typical day. Unfortunately, Zahra seemed a little nervous during the interview and appeared to panic unnecessarily that she wasn’t going to understand my question rather than listening carefully and trying to work through it. She also provided very short answers and I had to try very hard to get her to explain things in more detail or to give reasons/examples which she should be trying very hard to do during a speaking assessment. Going forward, Zahra should look to spend some time working on developing confidence in her speaking skills and try to find ways to expand her answers, without requiring prompts.
16.) Mehrdad Malekjamshidi (level 4)
Mehrdad’s pronunciation is good and was made to sound quite natural by the inclusion of the contracted form i.e., ‘I’m..’ and ‘I’ve...’. He understood my questions well; requiring no repetitions, and included two accurate conditional forms which is great to see at this level. Unfortunately, Mehrdad lost a couple of marks through the common mistake of including the verb ‘to be’ unnecessarily in phrasal verbs, such as ‘I’m get up...’ and confused adjectives with nouns when discussing health. Going forward, Mehrdad should obviously look to ensure these mistakes are corrected but he could also try and introduce some even more complex forms into his speech such as a past, present or future perfect.
17.) Maryam Jedi (level 4)
Maryam’s listened carefully and spoke with confidence and fluency throughout the interview. She included some good modals, a conditional form and self-corrected her mistake of using the past tense to talk about general habits/hobbies. Although it is of a good level, Maryam does not seem to have much confidence in her listening ability, and should work towards having more faith in it. She must also remember how important it is to remain in the past tense once you have started referring to a story from the past and should be careful not to include the verb ‘to be’ unnecessarily.
18.) Nastaran Kabolahi (level 4)
Nastaran’s pronunciation is fine and she tried hard during the interview by working through my questions in her own time in order to understand what was being asked. She self-corrected her mix-up of the past tense of the verb ‘to try’ (tried) and the adjective ‘tired’ which adds to her obvious attention to accuracy, however she did later confuse the adjective ‘healthy’ and the noun ‘health’. This can be rectified by spending some time learning the basic rules of identifying what type of word something is by looking at the ending i.e., -ly are usually adverbs, -ous are usually adjectives, etc. She must also revise her use of articles in order to be aware of when, and when not to use them e.g.,’I do the exercise’ and ‘study the English’.
19.) Mohsen Keshavarz ABSENT (level 4)
20.) Rozbeh Ahmad Pour (level 3)
Rozbeh’s pronunciation is good and he switched from the present simple to the past simple, when necessary, with ease. He concentrated hard and is clearly very concerned with accuracy which was shown, amongst other things, in his regular self-correction. He gave a very detailed introduction of himself which was delivered quite naturally and covered the majority of the topics of his course however, although such willingness to speak should be rewarded, he must make sure not to talk too much at the beginning in order to allow the examiner to ask questions to see how well he responds. He would also benefit from a quick revision of his nouns, adjectives and verbs.
21.) Fatemeh Mesbah (level 3)
Fatemeh’s pronunciation is fine and she used contractions such as ‘she’s’ which made it sound more natural. She used a wide range of adjectives to describe what her parents look like but initially really struggled to understand what I was asking. As the interview went on she became more relaxed and found it a lot easier to understand my questions. Going forward, Fatemeh should spend some time practising her listening skills in English which would give her more confidence and allow her to start her interview much better next time.
22.) Jamileh Sabet Sarvestani (level 8)
Jamileh understood most of my questions well and provided detailed and thoughtful answers in response. She included a range of modal verbs and topic-based vocabulary in response to what we should do in preparation for a natural disaster and self-corrected a preposition mistake. Although such attention to detail is great to see, Jamileh needs to ensure she is not so concerned with accuracy that her fluency suffers, as it did during this interview. Mistakes are a natural part of language learning and, although accuracy is important, in a speaking situation it is more important to have a level of fluency that enables the listener to follow and understand what you are saying. Jamileh needs to have to confidence to speak in a more relaxed manner, even if it means some mistakes are made as a result.