Exam-oriented Tasks: Transcripts, Turn-taking and Backchannelling

Summary

I was working with students who were preparing to take the Cambridge First Certificate of English oral examination, and looking for ways to help them do this. I decided to try a task-based learning cycle which involved recording students doing a task, listening to native speakers doing the same task, and analysing the transcripts, before repeating a similar task. The students appeared to notice some differences between their speech and that of the native speakers, and were able to develop their speaking skills accordingly.