Interview Feedback
30/05/12
1.) Masomeh Poortalebi (level 9)
Masomeh’s pronunciation is fine and she used the past simple well when comparing her life in the past to the present. She self-corrected a couple of her errors which shows a nice attention to detail but she must spend some time working on the difference between the noun, verb and adjective form of words so as not to confuse them so much going forward. During her explanation of her reasons for learning English, Masomeh expressed a desire to be able to speak fluently and to move to another country but did not use conditional which she should really be fairly comfortable at this level.
2.) Hamid Reza Asaei (level 9)
Hamid’s pronunciation is good, as are his listening skills. He provided detailed and natural responses to my questions and included a range of adverbs of frequency, a future continuous form and a number of modals for advice. Unfortunately, Hamid repeatedly made to common mistake of omitting the ‘to’ from the activity ‘listening (to) music’ which he will need to remedy going forward. He should also try to include a conditional form next time in order to further increase his grade.
3.) Erfan Shiravani (level 9)
Erfan used a good range of topic-based vocabulary in his interview and included a number of affective grammatical devices including a conditional and some gerunds. Although his answers were quite short and should be more willingly developed at this stage, he did provide some useful expressions such as ‘I’m a big fan of...’. However, Erfan must work on his grammar. In particular, a number of mistakes were made with subjecy verb agreements which shouldn’t be done so often at this level and which resulted in a loss of marks. He must also make sure he does not the confuse the use of ‘to hear’ and ‘to listen to’.
4.) Maryam Norali (level 9)
Maryam developed her answers well during the interview and provided examples to support her points. She switched between the nouns and adjectives of the pessimist/optimist and pessimistic/optimistic without difficulty and included some accurate comparative devices such as ‘as good as...’. Unfortunately, Maryam did make a couple of mistakes with prepositions including ‘go at the gym’ which is an area she should focus on going forward. She must also spend time revising her use of definitive and non-definitive articles.
5.) Shiva Roshanghiyas (level 9)
Shiva’s pronunciation is fine and she self-corrected some of her subject verb agreement mistakes, which shows an attention to detail. She used some good, topic-based vocabulary and when relating a story from the past, used the past simple, though not consistently. Shiva made the very common mistake of using ‘too much’ rather than ‘so much’ which she needs to rectify as it completely the changes the meaning of what she is trying to say. She also did not take up the chance to use the conditional when I asked her where she would like to emigrate to.
6.) Negar Mohamadi (level 9)
Negar spoke with confidence during the interview and included a good mix of vocabulary, a conditional form and some useful expressions including ‘to put money away for a rainy day’. When discussing a life-changing event, she began in the past tense and managed to maintain it throughout which is excellent. Although Negar did self-correct one of her noun/adjective mistakes, she did make more throughout the interview so I would suggest she spend some time revising how to differentiate adjectives/verbs/nouns. She would also benefit from some focus on her subject verb agreements.
7.) Maryam Norozi (level 9)
Maryam’s pronunciation is fine and she self-corrected some of her subject verb agreements during the interview. She tried hard to expand her answers but was held back from producing accurate dialogue through a lack of confidence with sentence structure. This is an area on which Maryam should focus, as a priority. She would benefit from paying more attention to her subject verb agreements and must try to make eye contact when speaking.
8.) Elham Masomi (level 9)
Elham understood my questions well and presented her answers using a wide range of vocabulary, a future conditional and modals for advice. Unfortunately, Elham lost marks for not using the past simple consistently when relaying an event from the past and confused nouns and verbs on more than once occasion. Going forward, these two areas should be her main points of focus; both are easy to remedy with a little increased attention to detail.
9.) Zahra Tavakoli (level 9)
Zahra clearly feels very at ease with the English language and spoke and listened with confidence and a high level of fluency. Her grammar was generally very accurate; as was her sentence structure and she presented a wide range of vocabulary. Zahra made a couple of common errors including adding the verb ‘to be’ unnecessarily e.g., ‘I’m graduated two years ago’ and confusing the usage of the verbs ‘to say’ and ‘to tell’, both of which can be remedied easily. She must also pay attention to her subject verb agreements.
10.) Mohamad Tavakoli (level 9)
Mohamad has a high level of confidence in his English and clearly feels very relaxed with communicating in it. He expanded his answers willingly and included some very good expressions that were used naturally. His range of vocabulary is vast but he needs to take more time in distinguishing nouns from adjectives and verbs. Although Mohamad’s fluency is excellent, his general grammatical accuracy needs a lot of work. He needs to find the patience to revise his grammatical rules and take the time to implement them into his conversation.
11.) Mohamad Mehdi Samimi (level 9)
Mohamad listened carefully to my questions and spoke with confidence in his replies. As the interview continued, I sped up my speech to the point where I was speaking in a natural, native manner and he still had no difficulties in understanding what was being asked. He included some useful, and quite advanced expressions and vocabulary was generally very grammatically accurate. Two areas in which mistakes were made were the use of ‘music’ as a countable noun (and being made into a plural with an ‘s’ on the end) and the common error of using ‘of’ with ‘some of people’.