Interview Feedback
02/06/12
1.) Samireh Saberi (level 5)
Samireh provided a large introduction and tried hard to expand her answers throughout the interview. Her grammar was generally quite accurate, including the correct use of the present perfect and the zero conditional and she had good subject verb agreements. A couple of areas of attention include her us of prepositions and plurals. She must also be sure not use the word ‘exam’ when she means ‘example’, e.g., ‘for exam’.
2.) Mohamad Kazemi (level 5)
Mohamad expanded his answers well by including personal examples and showed a good range of topic-specific vocabulary. He provided an accurate example of the zero conditional and range of expressions of frequency. Unfortunately, Mohamad failed to use the past simple when required which he should be comfortable with using at this level and should prioritise improving this going forward. He must also watch his subject verb agreements.
3.) Davood Jafari (level 5)
Davood listened very carefully to my questions and worked through any that he did not immediately understand. He tried hard to provide detailed answers but was held back by a lack of vocabulary and understanding of sentence and grammatical structure rather than a lack of effort. These should be his main focus over the next couple of months. In addition, although Davood’s pronunciation is generally fine, he repeatedly pronounced the word ‘age’ as ‘egg’ which is simple to correct.
4.) Ghasem Rozitalab (level 5)
Ghasem has a good rage of topic-specific vocabulary and was able to provide a number of reasons why he disagrees with violence in films and the importance of gestures. During the delivery of these reasons he used both a conditional and some modals, correctly. Ghasem needs to spend some time on improving his listening skills as he struggled to understand my questions unless I spoke very slowly.
5.) Farhad Hoshmandi (level 5) ABSENT/100
6.) Shima Abedini (level 5)
Shima’s pronunciation is fine and she included a good range of topic-based vocabulary and modals for advice. She also used an expression of frequency correctly when describing how often she does certain activities. Shima needs to work on her sentence structure and her general grammar including her subject verb agreements and her plurals.
7.) Mohamad Ramezan Zadeh (level 5)
Grammatically, Mohamad was able to show a range of skills including the accurate use of the past simple, the past continuous and expressions of frequency. Although his listening skills are good and he understood my questions without hesitation, he was unwilling to expand his answers much beyond the basic necessities, even when prompted. He must show more willing in his next verbal assessment. He must also be aware that the nouns ‘men’ and ‘women’ are already plural.
8.) Reza Sharifi (level 5)
Reza tried hard to expand his answers and used the past simple, when required. He also self-corrected a past/present simple mistake. He used some informal conversational pieces such as ‘as a matter of fact’ and ‘I’m crazy about...’, which worked well. As a priority, Reza should try to practise his listening skills as it was necessary for me to repeat a number of my questions, some of which he subsequently mis-answered.
9.) Elham Ghasemi (level 5)
Elham’s pronunciation is fine and she self-corrected one of her subject verb agreement mistakes. Unfortunately, Elham did not use the past simple, when required, and needed a lot of repetition before being able to understand. Even then, she did not always fully answer my questions. She needs to revise the structure of expressing activities e.g., go + to + definite/indefinite article + place and go + gerund.
10.) Hamideh Ghasemi (level 5)
Hamideh provided a detailed introduction and tried hard to expand her answers. She included a range of modals/auxiliary verbs for advice and her pronunciation was fine. Hamideh regularly confused her nouns, verbs and adjectives but could help herself by learning the patterns that normally identify which one of these types a word is. She could also consider a little more listening practice in her free time as there were two of my questions that she was unable to answer.
11.) Mohamad Reza Gord Norozi (level 5)
Mohamad listenend carefully throughout my questions and repeated them quietly to himself while trying to obtain meaning which shows a good level of determination. He self-corrected a couple of his mistakes and was able to provide a wide range of topic-specific vocabulary when asked. Mohamad’s priority at this point should be to practise his listening skills whenever possible and to run back through the rules for presenting free time activities, e.g., go + to + definite/indefinite article + place and go + gerund.
12.) Payam Takmili Fard (level 5)
Payam understood my question well and gave thoughtful, detailed examples to support his answers. His level of fluency was good, he included modals for advice and a range of expressions of frequency. Although Payam’s overall level of English language ability is good, he did make a couple of very simple, low-level mistakes during the interview including ‘I have 20 years old’ and a confusion of present and past simple forms. He must ensure he continues to pay as much attention to the language he is already comfortable as he does to the high level bits to ensure he maintains a better level of accuracy.
13.) Zahra Gharabati (level 5)
Zahra understood my answers well and as able to provide very accurate answers with a wide range of vocabulary and a high level of fluency. She maintained the past simple throughout a story from the past and self-corrected a singular/plural mistake. Unfortunately, Zahra did make a couple of mistakes with her use of prepositions which she should spend some time looking at going forward. She must also re-familiarise herself with the structure for expressing free time activities e.g., go + to + definite/indefinite article + place and go + gerund.
14.) Shahriyar Khoshravi (level 5)
Shahriyar spoke with a high level of fluency and included a good mix of vocabulary. He understood all of my questions without difficulty and was able to provide suitably well-developed answers. Shahriyar made the common mistake of confusing the verbs ‘to say’ and ‘to tell’ which he should look to address immediately and needs to remember the noun ‘children’ is already plural and does not require an ‘s’ on the end.
15.) Mohsen Kargar (level 5)
Although Mohsen did not provide an introduction or allow me the chance to introduce myself, he spoke well throughout the interview and was able to provide good answers to my questions. He clarified any questions he was not fully confident with, which shows a nice desire for accuracy, and provided more than one accurate example of conditional forms. Going forward, Mohsen must revise his use of quantifiers with countable/uncountable nouns and try to provide more topic-specific vocabulary, when suitable.
16.) Ali Reza Banazadeh (level 5)
Ali Reza provided a nice introduction to the interview and was able to provide a large amount of topic-based vocabulary, particularly hotel related, to develop his answers. His pronunciation and his listening skills were both fine. Ali Reza confused the adverb ‘well’ with the quantifier ‘a lot’ which is a common mistake but one that will need to be corrected before moving on. He must also watch out for the accuracy of his subject verb agreements.
17.) Sorosh Sahabian (level 5)
Sorosh’s pronunciation is fine and he has a good range of topic-specific and general vocabulary. He included some good modals for advice and presented his free-time activities in an accurate manner. Unfortunately, Sorosh answered a number of my questions incorrectly e.g., providing inappropriate topics for small talk when I had requested some appropriate ones, so should look try to practise his listening skills whenever possible. He should also try not to repeat my questions in his answers in order to add a more natural tone to his responses.
18.) Ali Jafargholizadeh (level 5)
Ali listened very carefully to my questions and worked through any of them which he did not immediately understand. He included an accurate example of the present perfect and lots of topic-specific vocabulary along with some very naturally delivered informal expressions such as ‘make my day’ and ‘full of fun’. Grammatically Ali needs a little more practice, in particular on the use of plurals for generalisations and his differentiation between adjectives and nouns.
19.) Behram Amiri (level 5)
Behram’s pronunciation is good and he included accurate examples of the zero conditional, past simple and the present continuous. Both his vocabulary and his use of sentence structure are very advanced for this level. Unfortunately, Behram confused the meanings of ‘gestures’ and ‘small talk and subsequently provided incorrect answers. A combination of practising his listening skills are revising his target language would prevent this in the future.
20.) Mohamad Ali Moheb (level 5)
Mohamad understood my questions well and answered with confidence and generally quite accurate grammar. His subject verb agreements were good as was his range of topic-related vocabulary and he included modals and auxiliary verbs for advice. Unfortunately, Mohamad lost marks as a result of not using the past simple when required and must re-familiarise himself with the structure of expressing free time activities e.g., go + to + definite/indefinite article + place and go + gerund.
21.) Pouria Sabazade (level 5)
Pouria understood my questions well and clarified any he wasn’t quite sure about which shows a desire for accuracy. He was able to provide lots of topic-specific vocabulary and included an informal expression of ‘as busy as a bee’ which sounded quite natural. Pouria struggled with sentence structure and, as a result his speech lacked a decent level of fluency. Improving this should be his main priority. He should also take some time to run through the rules which help you identify whether a word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb in order to avoid as much confusion in this area.
22.) Soha Sabet Sarvestani (level 5)
Soha’s pronunciation is fine and she understood my questions without difficulty. She used some useful, pre-learned responses and was able to make some good suggestions for tourists visiting Iran. Unfortunately, Soha needs to do a lot of work on her general grammar, starting with her most basic mistakes e.g., ‘He has 22 years old’ and ‘I from Siraz’. She must also push herself to expand her answers without having to be prompted with ‘why?’. If Soha had not produced the pre-learned and well-delivered responses that she did, she would have failed this interview based on the aforementioned errors.