Are you worried that your child won’t perform well on their oral exams? Continue reading to find out why it’s crucial for your kid to talk with assurance and how oral exams at school give your kid plenty of chances to practice important communication skills.
The Purpose of Oral Examinations
The oral examination component of your child’s overall exam grade can account for up to 16 percent (for Primary 1 to Primary 4 students) and 15 percent (for Primary 5 to Primary 6 students) of their final exam grade. Doing well in the oral examination helps students achieve good overall grades in the subject. This means that getting an A or an A* on the oral portion of your child’s exam could depend on it.
Three Tips for Oral Exams Your Child Should Know
Taking On The Component of Reading Aloud
1. Wait Before Punctuation
During the oral exam, some students experience extreme anxiety and often read the oral portions quickly. Your child should be able to recognize the punctuation in the piece, so encourage him or her to pause when they see commas and full stops. One beat at commas, two beats at full stops, and three beats at the start of a new paragraph are good guidelines to follow. Encourage your youngster to applaud each time there is a pause while reading the chapter so they may acquire experience. Additionally, Your youngster can tap his or her thumb or finger each time he or she finds a punctuation mark to remind oneself or herself to pause. This approach is less invasive and is permitted even during tests.
2. Make Consonants Clearly Pronounced
Consonant sounds like “th” or “ed” are difficult for many kids to say; if your child struggles, you may have observed that he or she frequently substitutes “d” or “t” sounds for “th” sounds. One technique we teach students in the class to properly enunciate the ‘th’ sound is to:
i. Place their outstretched hand in front of their lips.
ii. Practice pronouncing the word “the” by inserting their tongue between their teeth.
Beatrice uses the following illustration to assist pupils to see and distinguish the tongue positions while reading words with the “th” sound and words with the “d” and “t” sounds. This will help your child more clearly understand how to pronounce the “th” sound. When making the sounds “d” and “t,” the tongue contacts the roof of the mouth, but when making the sound “th,” the tongue is positioned between the teeth. Bonus hint: If your child finds saliva on his or her palm after practicing the pronunciation of the ‘th’ sound, he or she has probably gotten it right since air leaves the mouth through the spaces between the top row of teeth!
3. Use a Range of Tone to Express Feelings
The “music voice,” which educates students about intonation, is introduced to them at the beginning of the lower primary levels. Tone change when speaking or reading is referred to as intonation. Teaching your child to be alert to the context of the sentence or passage is the first step in helping him or her learn how to change his or her tone to portray the appropriate emotion(s). Before reading the piece out loud, your kid might want to ask themselves some questions, such as the following:
- Is there a sense of suspense or urgency in the passage?
- Does this sentence represent an internal discussion or thought?
- Are there any dialogue tags that allude to the passage’s feelings?
- Is there a period, question mark, or exclamation point at the end of the sentence?
It’s crucial to emphasize certain words or syllables in a sentence in order to draw attention to the sentence’s key theme. Your youngster will be able to read more fluidly and perhaps even adopt a different persona when there is dialogue once they can understand the context of the piece. According to Vanessa Scully, “In recent years, the dialogue tags in oral passages have a tendency to change within a single piece. Thus, in order to communicate the proper emotions, pupils must immerse themselves in the characters’ situations.
Getting The Conversation Based On Stimulus Component Right
When it comes to interacting with the examiner during the stimulus-based discourse, students frequently struggle. We have observed pupils exhibiting mental barriers when presented with challenging exam problems. They could also struggle to recall instances from memory when asked to give a personal example or narrative to support a point during the exam. Download our exclusive oral test guide to get seven strategies for acing the stimulus-based conversation portion, which will assist your child in creating more interesting conversation starters. This manual will be helpful as your child practices oral communication and develops the reading and speaking abilities to become a more effective communicator.
Striking Dialogues Outside of the Classroom
Oral communication is an important life skill that can be developed and practiced outside of elementary school assessments. Speaking clearly and persuasively can:
1. Develop your kid’s presentation abilities
From elementary school to college, your child’s education will benefit greatly from their ability to speak and present. The mandatory inclusion of presentations in class assessments means that your child’s presentational abilities may also be examined during class discussions. As a result, it’s critical that your child continually improve his or her oral abilities through frequent practice in order to be able to communicate ideas properly and effectively.
2. Encourage Your Child to Interact Confidently with Others
It is possible to teach children how to clearly organize their thoughts and ideas so that their peers can understand them. Your child should be given the confidence to express himself or herself in a variety of social situations, such as making new friends or speaking in front of a group, at home, at school, at work, and during playtime. Additionally, a lot of student leadership jobs call for public speaking, so if your child is good at it, it may help him or she get more leadership possibilities.
3. Improve Your Child’s Interview Performance in the Future
Even for many people, it can be challenging to stay controlled and calm while being clear and coherent. Exams and oral practices are useful in assisting your youngster in acquiring natural confidence in communicating with others. Your youngster will benefit from speaking with assurance and grace in non-examination contexts like interviews for leadership roles and DSA interviews.
How to Develop a Confident Speaker
Exposing your child to material from the actual world is another aspect of oral practices; with a broader perspective on the world, your child will be better prepared to engage the examiners with engaging conversation topics. Learn more about our English programs and how we help our elementary school kids develop into persuasive and self-assured speakers.
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