The eight-second silence: judging a Speaking test from a whole performance
You are preparing Yuki, aged 7, for a Pre A1 Starters Speaking test in six weeks. She moved from Japan eight months ago and has had 14 months of English. In a practice test with a colleague as examiner, she names all eight object cards correctly but very quietly. In Part 3 she puts the cards in the right places on the scene but says nothing while doing it. In Part 4, asked 'What's your favourite food?', she is silent for eight seconds; the examiner repeats the question and she whispers 'ice cream'. Two other personal questions get one-word answers. Your colleague says: 'She was silent - she must lose marks. Next time give her the answer and let her repeat it, and ask her more questions to fill the time.' The test has four parts and takes about four minutes. Yuki's parents have paid the entry fee and want her to 'pass'.
1. Respond to your colleague's two suggestions: supplying the answer, and adding questions to fill time.
Read the worked answer
Both suggestions change the test into something else.
Supplying the answer. If the examiner says 'ice cream' first, the child produces a repetition, not an answer. You learn nothing about whether she can answer, and the examiner cannot judge what she can do. It also teaches her, in the one practice that matters most, that silence is followed by rescue.
Adding questions to fill the time. The four parts are fixed in shape and length. Filling time with extra questions does not give the examiner more to judge; it gives a different test and an exhausted child.
What the examiner can legitimately do: wait a few seconds (silence is normal at this age and rushing it creates errors), repeat the question once, rephrase once more simply ('What food do you like?'), and use gesture or the scene picture. Then move on.
The judgement itself. Speaking is reported in shields (1-5) from the whole performance, not from single moments. She named eight objects, placed cards correctly, and produced 'ice cream'. That is real evidence of understanding and of production. One silence is not a lost mark; a test built on rescues would give a misleading picture of what she can do alone.
2. Should Yuki be entered this session? Give your decision and the conditions attached to it.
Read the worked answer
Decision: enter her, with conditions - and say so plainly to the parents.
Evidence for. Parts 1-3 are working: she names objects and places cards correctly, which shows vocabulary and comprehension. Part 4 is the weak part, and its questions are about familiar things - family, food, school, toys - which can be practised directly in six weeks.
Evidence against, honestly stated. She goes quiet with an unfamiliar adult. If that persists, the test will not show what she can do, and the fee will buy a discouraging morning.
Conditions for entry.
- She has done at least two practice tests with an unfamiliar adult.
- She can answer 4/5 familiar personal questions with at least two words.
- Parents understand that Speaking is reported in shields (1-5) and that a solid result at this level is a mid-range score, not a pass/fail line.
Review point. At week four, look again at the unfamiliar-adult evidence. If she is still silent, discuss delaying with the parents rather than drilling her harder - pressure is the one intervention that reliably makes this pattern worse.