Oral Proficiency Interview Was a Success

Last Monday and Tuesday (Jan. 10 and 11), I conducted the Oral Proficiency Interviews in Chinese IV class. We all sat in a circle. By turn, I asked each student a question, and after he/she answered my question, she/he asked me a question. Then all other students and I gave the students scores on the questions answered and asked. We went around for five times so that each student answered 5 questions and asked 5 questions.

It took two days to complete this activity. It was the first time we tried this activity, and it turned out great. All the students felt like it and would like to do it in the future.

I think that this is an excellent part of the students new type of learning. Being able to speak the language is something that is very different than just knowing vocab and grammar. It is also a skill that comes only through practice. All students would really like to continue working on their speaking because some of them thought that it was definitely challenging and something that they would like to improve on. Some students realized that their methods of preparing were not very effective. They attempted to memorize answers for each question, but then when they were speaking if they forgot one of the words or the exact order then they were stuck. Through this activity, some students realized that speaking was something that needed to “flow” and therefore memorization was not a good study technique. Some students felt that was one of their weaknesses and was something that they really would like to improve. I am very proud of my students' learning process and reflections. I hope students would continue to work on their speaking.