Interview Feedback
30/05/12 PM
1.) Sajad Ghadirian (level 3)
Sajad’s pronunciation is good and used contractions which made the flow of his speech seem a lot more natural. He spoke with generally quite a high level of grammatical accuracy for this level and included a conditional form and a variety of expressions of frequency. Sajad would benefit from working on his use of prepositions and trying harder to expand his answers without having to be prompted so often.
2.) Fatemeh Chogani (level 3)
Fatemeh was able to provide some short but accurate but appropriate answers to my questions and provided the days of the week and the months of the year without difficulty. Unfortunately, Fatemeh made the common mistakes of unnecessarily including the verb ‘to be’ and forgetting her articles which are two areas she will need to focus on in order to progress. She will also have to begin trying to offer reasons for her responses rather than waiting for the examiner to ask ‘why?’.
3.) Soheila Shiri (level 3)
Soheila really concentrated on listening to my questions and worked through them in her head when she didn’t immediately understand. She used negatives and adverbs and expressions of frequency well and used plurals accurately. Going forward, Soheila should consider a little more listening practice to increase her confidence and next time try to include a tense other than the present simple e.g, past simple.
4.) Hadis Taheri (level 3)
Hadis understood most of my questions without difficulty and provided the months of the year and the days of the week without hesitation along with a couple of expressions such as ‘to hang out with my friends’. Her use of articles was generally good and she used the past simple correctly and appropriately. A couple of suggestions for areas to work on include her construction of the negative (“I never don’t listen”) and differentiating the use of the present simple and the ‘going to’ future.
5.) Abdol Reza Jokar (level 3)
Abdol Reza understood my questions well and tried hard to expand his answers, without having to be prompted. He switched easily between singular and plural verbs and included some accurately structured comparatives. Abdol used the countable quantifier ‘every’ with the uncountable noun ‘freetime’ which is a difficult area to master but if he can manage it it will add to the fluency of his speech. He should also look to try and include some more complex grammatical forms in future speaking assessments, such as a past tense or conditional in order to further increase his marks.
6.) Afsaneh Borzo (level 3)
Afsaneh understood my questions well and provided detailed and interesting answers in response. Her use of grammar was generally very accurate including her subject verb agreements, her use of gerunds and her use of plurals and singulars. She also included some nice expression such as ‘I get on well with my father’ which sound very natural to a native speaker. Going forward, Afsaneh should really try to push herself by including some more advanced grammatical forms/tenses such as past or future forms.
7.) Hasan Borzo (level 3)
Hasan’s pronunciation is good and he used lots of conjunctions to make the flow of speech a lot smoother. He used prepositions well in his presentation of free time activities and included quite a wide range of vocabulary for his level. Unfortunately, Hasan did misanswer my question of what his siblings do by answering on behalf of himself but this may have been just a slight slip in concentration. Going forward, Hasan to try to include a past/future tense to show the examiner what he is really capable of.
8.) Esmail Karami (level 3)
Esmail used contractions to help give his speech more flow and provided a good description of his parents using a range of vocabulary. He was also able to name the days of the week and months of the year without difficulty. Grammatically, however, he made the mistake of using the present continuous rather than the present simple when discussing hobbies e.g., ‘I’m going swimming two times a week’ which is something he is likely to have to correct before moving to the next level. He must also watch his subject verb agreements.
9.) Elahe Rahim Zadeh (level 3)
Elahe’s inclusion of the past simple was good and she used articles and adverbs of frequency well. Her listening skills are also good and it was unnecessary for me to repeat or rephrase any of my questions. Although they were generally quite accurate, Elahe must watch mistakes with her subject verb agreements. She may also benefit from a little work on her pronunciation.
10.) Zahra Mohebpoor (level 3)
Zahra tried hard during the interview and listened carefully to my questions. Her subject verb agreements were generally good and she used some helpful expressions of frequency. Zahra is clearly very concerned with the accuracy of her speech which is good but can sometimes have an effect on the flow of her speech. Taking her time to work out what she wants to say before she says it would help her with this, as would some time spent on studying sentence structure. On a side note, she must be careful not to confuse ‘to look like someone/something’ and ‘to look alike’.
11.) Farnaz Jamali (level 3)
Farnaz described her parents using a nice mix of adjectives and included some accurate negative and comparative forms. Farnaz confused nouns, verbs and adjectives at times which could be helped by taking the time to learn the patterns with endings that usually indicate whether a word is a verb, adjective, noun or adverb. She must also be sure not to confuse ‘to look like someone/something’ and ‘to look alike’.
12.) Ali Reza Vahab (level 3)
Ali understood most of my questions without hesitation and only required me to paraphrase one of them. He was also able to provide his answers without repeating my question which is good to see. Unfortunately, Ali made the common mistake of unnecessarily including the verb ‘to be’ when using the present simple which is something he should prioritise correcting before he moves on.
13.) Navid Hayati (level 3)
Navid’s pronunciation is fine and included some adverbs of frequency and self-corrected a numerical mistake which shows an attention to detail. He confused ‘to look like someone/something’ and ‘to look alike’ with his sentence of ‘my father and I look like’ which is an easy mistake to make but also easily corrected. I had to repeat a couple of my questions so Navid could also consider trying a little more listening practice in his free time.
14.) Zohreh Galedaran (level 3)
Zohreh did well to expand her answers without me having to prompt her and switched between singular and plural nouns easily, despite requiring a number of repetitions of the questions. She made the common mistake of unnecessarily including the verb ‘to be’ when using the present simple, e.g. ‘I am live in Shiraz’ which she should really try to correct before looking to move on to the next level. She could also practise her listening skills in her free time.
15.) Shahram Karimi (level 3)
Shahram did well with his use of singular and plural nouns and used a past simple and a range of expressions of frequency in an accurate manner. Unfortunately, Shahram fell into the trap of including the verb ‘to be’ unnecessarily when using the present simple which he will need to correct before moving on to the next level.
16.) Dariyosh Niko (level 3)
Dariyosh’s pronunciation is fine and he self-corrected some of his mistakes. He was able provide some pre-learned responses to my questions which worked well and were delivered naturally. Unfortunately, however, he had trouble understanding a number of my questions but did not appear to push himself to try and work through them or ask for me rephrase. He would benefit from spending some time over the next few months building up his vocabulary, working on his sentence structure and doing some listening practice whenever possible.
17.) Ariana Darabi (level 3)
Ariana’s pronunciation is good and his listening skills, excellent. I spoke at a normal, native speed and he continued to understand my questions without hesitation. He also spoke with a high level of fluency, although there are some grammatical areas on which Ariana should consider focusing. The main issue is his use of articles with which he made a number of errors throughout the interview.
18.) Sara Borhani (level 3)
Sara’s pronunciation is fine and she provided some interesting answers to my questions and, generally, had accurate subject verb agreements. Unfortunately, however, Sara did not listen carefully to my questions and, rather than concentrate on what I was saying and trying to work through it in her head, she repeatedly asked me to repeat it. She also failed to expand her answers without prompt which is disappointing as she clearly has the language ability to do so. She will have to work on both these areas if she is to get a higher grade in the future.
19.) Sanaz Hoseini (level 3)
Sanaz’s pronunciation and listening skills are fine and she tried hard to expand her answers. Unfortunately, she was held back by a lack of vocabulary, a knowledge of sentence structure and a lack of basic grammatical skill. She was unable to provide the days of the week or the months of the year and regularly missed out the main verb from her sentences. Before she is able to progress, she will have to spend some time developing these areas.
20.) Sara Salahi (level 3)
Sara listened carefully to my questions and worked through any ones she didn’t immediately understand. She also tried hard to expand her answers, which is great to see. She included some good expressions of frequency and useful, pre-learned responses to why she prefers a smaller family to a large family. Grammatically, Sara made a couple of common errors, including using the verb ‘to be’ unnecessarily in the past tense e.g., ‘I’m look like my dad’. She must also the importance of including suitable articles with nouns.
21.) Iman Sheybani (level 3)
Iman’s listening skills are good and allowed him to listen to my questions in a relaxed manner without any misunderstandings. He has a good range of vocabulary and accurately used a useful structure when talking about his siblings, e.g., ‘One of them...the other...’, which worked well. Unfortunately, he did confuse his he/she subjects on a couple of occasions and did not use the past simple when referring to something he liked doing when he was 18. He also included the verb ‘to be’ on occasion when using the present simple. Improving these three areas should be his main focus going forward.
22.) Mohsen Dadar (level 3)
Mohsen’s pronunciation is fine and he included some good expressions of frequency in his interview, including ‘three times a week’. Although he was able to list the days of the week, he could not name the months of the year which he should really have learned by now and should be a priority for the near future. He could also consider practising his listening skills in his free time.
23.) Hamed Kazemi (level 3)
Hamed was able to list both the days of the week and the months of the year without difficulty and used contractions regularly which made his speech feel more natural. He included some useful adverbs of frequency tried to expand his answers as much as possible. Hamed made some mistakes with his subject verb agreements which should be his main priority at this point. He must also remember it is not necessary to include the verb ‘to be’ in front of your main verb in the present simple.
24.) Hamid Shiri (level 3)
Hamid concentrated very hard on trying to understand my questions and included a good range of adverbs of frequency including ‘always’, ‘sometimes’ and ‘often’ adding a nice variety. He also self-corrected some of his he/she subject mistakes which is great to see. Hamid needs to pay some attention to his pronunciation, in particular to the words ‘skin’ (pronounced ‘skine’) and straight (pronounced ‘stright’). He should also focus a little more on the accuracy of his subject verb agreements.
25.) Arman Ghaedi (level 3)
Arman tried hard to expand his answers and included a couple of good grammatical devices including accurate comparative adjectives and expressions of frequency. He also self-corrected some of his errors which shows a positive attention to detail. Unfortunately, Arman did not use the past simple on more than one occasion when it was required and either included or left out the verb ‘to be’ incorrectly. These two areas should be addressed by Arman going forward.