The Q&A That Stalled
In the external oral examination, a student delivers a prepared talk on school clubs. The talk goes well. In the Q&A, the examiner asks a question the student does not fully understand. The student recognises the words 'club' and 'why' but not the connecting grammar. The student freezes for several seconds, then says 'すみません、わかりません' and stops. The examiner repeats the question more slowly. The student still does not understand and says nothing further. The Q&A ends early. Afterwards the student says they did not want to guess in case they answered the wrong question. The examiner's notes record that the student showed no repair strategies.
1. Explain why silence and 'I don't understand' are weak responses in this situation, and describe two repair strategies the student could have used.
Read the worked answer
The Q&A assesses interactional competence, which includes managing breakdowns, not only answering correctly. Saying only 'I don't understand' and stopping shifts the entire burden to the examiner and provides no evidence of the strategies the criteria reward. Silence is worse, because it gives the examiner nothing to assess. Two effective repair strategies are: first, ask for clarification of a specific part, for example 'すみません、「why」のあとの言葉がわかりません。もう一度お願いします' - naming the part not understood is far more useful than a general statement. Second, paraphrase back a partial understanding to check it: 'クラブに入る理由についてですか' - this lets the examiner confirm or redirect, and it demonstrates comprehension of the gist. Guessing randomly is not required; checking understanding is a controlled alternative that keeps the interaction moving and generates positive evidence.
2. The student's fear was 'answering the wrong question'. Assess whether this fear is well founded given how oral examinations are marked.
Read the worked answer
The fear is largely misplaced. Markers reward evidence of communicative strategies and comprehension, and a partial answer with a check for confirmation typically scores better than no response at all. Answering a slightly different question but showing understanding of the topic and the ability to negotiate meaning demonstrates more of the assessed skills than silence. The risk of a wrong answer is real but small compared with the certainty of scoring nothing for interaction during the stall. The student should also prepare a small repertoire of repair phrases in advance so they are automatic under stress: requests for repetition, requests for slower speech, requests to rephrase, and confirmation checks. Rehearsing these in mock Q&A builds the confidence to use them. The examiner's note about no repair strategies confirms this was the decisive gap.