Oral Exams: To the Student

This interview is designed to help you and your instructor evaluate your ability to communicate orally in French.  The interviews will be scheduled in groups of two on specific dates announced by your instructor.  The dates on the syllabus are only tentative.

The interview will consist of two parts:

1. The first includes five questions that will be chosen at random from your quizzes and homework.  Your answers will be judged for accuracy of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation on a scale from 0 to 5.  This part counts for a total of 25 points on your oral exam.
2. The second part of the exam consists of a spontaneous role-play chosen at random and corresponding to the themes and language functions presented in the course.  This part also counts for 25 points of your oral exam.  Your performance on the role-play is judged on how well you succeed in communicating.

To prepare for the interview you will find it useful to review the vocabulary and grammar structures from the textbook.  However, since the conversation will be spontaneous and individualized, there is nothing specific to write out or memorize in advance.  What you need to do is to work with a partner to practice talking out loud spontaneously.

The role-play will be graded in general categories.  As a result any single mistake you make is unimportant in and of itself.  What matters is what you usually do in the course of the role-play -- in other words, the general level of competence.  Your instructor will give you your grade when all the interviews have been completed.

We hope you will find this experience useful in allowing you to demonstrate what you can do with what you have learned so far.