Speaking exams

I mentioned in my last article that I had smashed my exams in modern languages this year and the more astute readers are bound to be wondering how I managed to do the speaking element of the exam which was split into reading, writing, listening and speaking. While I believe that the other three parts were made very fair as I got alternative arrangements such as a separate venue, a scribe and extra time, I found my speaking assessments varied from language to language in terms of how it was set up

German

Just as if she was from the country itself, my German teacher was very efficient! She organised a meeting at a time when we were both free, I would then be invited to her quiet empty class and she would say the question, pause the recording while I typed my answer into my communication device and when I gave her the nod she would resume the recording while I clicked the “speak” button. On top of her efficiency, she also had a normality about her, one day for example I had just typed an answer about the size of war and peace and hit “clear” instead of “speak” and instead of question me about what I had just mistakenly done like my Spanish teacher did when I did the same in my Spanish exam, my German teacher just laughed’ and said that I was really clumsy and that was the end of the conversation- no yelling, no row. I used to get really anxious before any exam but her relaxed attitude always halved my anxiety.

French

just like my German teacher, my French teacher would organise a good time and place for us to meet but he sometimes told me to type in my answer before the meeting to save time. Again he would record himself asking the question and pause his voice recorder for me to type my answer and if he wasn’t away on errands, he would chat to me while I was typing because he had been teaching me since first year (oddly I had no problem simultaneously listening to him speaking English and typing in French)) which helped with my anxiety too. The good thing about him being my teacher for 6. years is the fact that when I was finished I didn’t even have to nod, I just had to look at him a certain way and he knew exactly what I wanted!

Spanish

to make up for my lack of anxiety in French and German. My Spanish teacher’s lack of communication and organisation was really stressful! For starters, she would literally ambush me as I was coming in the school door of a morning or even worse, going down the corridor on my way to my separate venue with a test for another language clearly in my hand (her chasing me wasn’t unheard of) and just spring a time of a meeting on me, usually later that day! When the time of the last minute appointment came I would arrive so full of anxiety that I was practically shaking (sometimes to a full classroom). Once again she would record herself asking the question and I would start typing while she asked me if I was done every five minutes! Once I had indeed finished, because I find eye contact difficult when I’m anxious, I would indicate to my PSA with something subtle such as a smile and she would tell the teacher that I was ready to go and I I would click speak and my answer would be recorded.

However there were some unfair rules that cost me a lot of tíme:

no presaving answers

limit use of predictive text

even though I type extremely quickly using my nose, I used to have to do my schoolwork and exams using a communication device which was operated by a headswitch which is a button attached to my headrest. Using a headswitch is slow enough when you are allowed to to use your predictive text and presave text so imagine how long it takes to type long answers from scratch while trying to ration your use of predictive text! It took so long that something that I would have nosetyped in 5 minutes with predictive text, took me 30 minutes headswitching with half my usual predictive text which meant that my speaking exams took about three weeks because I was only able to type one or two answers in one meeting. Because of this I am planning to nosetype my way through college!

In conclusion, although my speaking exams were never always fair, comfortable on presented to me with very much advance notice, I have managed to persevere. I know that I was lucky to have the number of good teachers outweigh the bad but I still managed to get a B on the watch of my worst teacher, an achievement which I had never thought or even dreamed was possible! I believe that if a non verbal communicator like myself can get through not one or two but three speaking exams, then anything is possible if it is only dreamed about hard enough 💜

e e m mcgrath