What Makes a Good GEPT Speaking Answer? – Lesson
Use this lesson and worksheet to help students determine what makes a “good” GEPT answer, such as strong word choices, length of speaking, and attention to grammar.
Before Class: Prepare the following
Print several copies of the student worksheet below.
Print one copy of the teacher’s answers.
Step 1: Warm-up (5 minutes)
Write “What will you be when you grow up?” on the board. Ask students for other versions of this same question such as, “What will you be in ten years?”. Have students try to answer this question in 15 seconds.
Step 2: Listen to some good GEPT answers (10 minutes)
Tell students that you will be demonstrating some “good” GEPT answers today and that they should take notes. Pass out the student copy of Good GEPT Answers – Student Copy.PDF.
Tell students that you are going to read a good GEPT speaking answer for each of the questions on their worksheets. The teacher will only read each answer one time. Students should only write the key words. The students should not try to write the whole answer on their sheets. For example, answer 1 on a student’s worksheet might look like this after the first reading…
___country___peaceful____city_______noisy.
Step 3: Compare answers in partners. (10 minutes)
After reading all the answers one time, have students compare their answers with a partner. They can see if their partner heard anything they did not. The students can work together to try to write a more complete answer based on what their partner heard.
Step 4: Listen again and reconstruct the answers. (10 minutes)
Now read all of the answers one more time. Stress that the goal is not to write each answer perfectly, but try to reconstruct the general idea of the answer based on what the students can hear.
After reading all the answers a second time, have students compare what they’ve written again, but this time the students should try as best as they can to reconstruct the answers using complete sentences.
Step 5: Check answers and provide feedback (10 minutes)
After students have tried their best to write the answers, ask some partners to read out their reconstructed answers. Inform the teams whether they caught the general meaning of your answer or not. Correct any grammar errors in the students’ responses at this point.
Step 6: Repeat the answers. (5-10 minutes)
Finally, have students listen to your answers one more time, but this time they should repeat after you (no writing). This is to practice the “Repeat after a listening” section of the GEPT, but also to check once more that the students have a pretty good idea of what a good GEPT answer should sound like.
Step 7: Determine what makes a good GEPT answer (5-10 minutes)
Next ask students what makes these answers good. They should tell you that grammar is accurate, the speaker used strong adjectives and verbs, and that the speaker said a lot, including a “because” for many questions.
Step 8: Allow students to answer the questions themselves (If time allows)
With whatever time is left, allow students to answer the questions themselves. They can say their answers to their partners, or the teacher can call on a few students to say answer the questions in front of the class, depending on how much time is left.
If there’s no time left, then save the questions to answer at the beginning of the next class.
