Presentational Writing and Speaking
Presentational tasks are one-way production: a coherent article, letter, or essay of roughly 150 words, and recorded talks of one to two minutes on an assigned topic. Raters weigh organization, development of ideas, vocabulary range, grammatical accuracy, and cultural or content appropriateness - structure and depth count for more than sheer length.
Rules
- Use a blueprint: thesis, then two or three developed points, then a conclusion that restates the position in fresh wording.
- Signpost in German: Zunächst, Ein weiterer Aspekt ist, Im Gegensatz dazu, Aus eigener Erfahrung weiß ich, Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen.
- Develop, do not list. Every claim gets support: weil …, das zeigt sich daran, dass …, zum Beispiel ….
- Demonstrate range: relative clauses, passive (Es wird oft behauptet, dass …), Konjunktiv II for hypotheticals, je … desto, comparisons.
- Discipline the verb position: second position in main clauses, final after weil/dass/obwohl, participle at the end.
- For speaking: plan three beats plus one personal example, signpost aloud, and avoid reciting written German.
Worked example
Topic: should phones be banned in classrooms? Model thesis and one body paragraph: "Ein generelles Verbot halte ich für wenig sinnvoll, obwohl Ablenkung ein echtes Problem darstellt. Zwar stören Nachrichten den Unterricht, doch ließe sich das auch durch klare Regeln lösen: In vielen Schulen werden Handys zu Beginn der Stunde eingesammelt, was Lehrkräften und Schülern gleichermaßen hilft." Reasoning: the thesis is hedged with an obwohl-concession, the counter-argument is acknowledged with Zwar … doch, the proposal uses Konjunktiv II (ließe sich), and a passive plus was-clause adds range - four Advanced moves in three sentences.
Traps
weil ich habe keine Zeit - verb-second inside a subordinate clause, a classic accuracy hit; a body with no conclusion; a memorised essay that drifts off topic; literal English calques instead of German collocations; a spoken response that runs dry because no example was planned in advance.