Refreshing Guide for Speaking ~ MUET SPEAKING 800/2

My dear students, let us begin with a smile as it is the most effective ice breaker and will open the door into positive aura. Our gestures, posture, level of confidence while speaking play a very important role in effective expression and lowering our level of anxiety. The lower our anxiety level, the higher our performance. Everything we think and do creates energy, so developing positive self talk consistently can create positive energy, eventually reducing the level of anxiety and increasing the level of self confidence.

 

Marks given for MUET (Malaysian University English Test) speaking are based on the 3 criteria:

       I.          Task Fulfillment ~understand and focus on the task (present relevant ideas), generate & organize your ideas, (providing relevant ideas),showing a mature treatment of topic ~use HOTS (higher order thinking skills: analysis, synthesis, evaluation, affective)

    II.           Language~ expressing the points clearly, using appropriate & varied vocabulary, linking ideas and grammatical accuracy.  Deliver your speech confidently (presentation of view points)   Using effective language functions (defining, classifying, describing, explaining, comparing and contrasting, expressing agreement and disagreement, seeking clarification, drawing conclusions, stating and justifying points of view, presenting an argument)  by abiding on the rules of  social etiquette in conversation .

 III.            Communicative ability~ fluency, ability to maintain discussion, pronunciation, stress & intonation, using good body language when delivering the reasons, using confident & convincing stylewhile maintaining social etiquette in communication.

Here are some tips for note management & presentation for MUET speaking task:

TASK A (individual presentation)

Write your points in a draft, organise your ideas systematically :

Introduction:

Introduce the topic

Give definition

Highlight the main points of the task

Body:

1st point:

Explanation:

Elaboration (example):

2nd  point:

Explanation:

Elaboration (example):

3rd  point:

Explanation:

Elaboration (example):

(use transitional markers to connect the ideas and mention the most important point first)

Conclusion(Closing statement):

Restate your view point.

Sum up the three main points.

Give suggestion, recommendations or advice.

TASK B ( group discussion)

Group  discussion presentation:

Opening the discussion: introduce the subject

Managing the disscusion:

a.       Do not dominate or be too passive,

b.      Initiating ~spark up conversation

c.       Possess a good listening skill~ so that the view of others could be comprehended and digested accordingly.

d.      Turn-taking~be cooperative

e.       Interrupting ~be polite

f.       Prompting~ alert in responding

g.      Negotiating ~respect others view points, search for a point that can absorb or correlate all the other points if possible.

Conclude the discussion:

Closing~get the group to come to an agreement

Finally, remember that negative self talk can stress us, so turn it into positive self talk and live in the positive light by trying to be strong without being hard, trying to heal without hurt, trying to create pleasure and not pressure and believe that success is for those who live in Love and Light!

With love and prayers,

Teacher Sakinah

 

I was invited to be the speaker of  SURE SCORE MUET program 11& 12th February 2012, University Science Islam Malaysia.

Writing dramatic narration for SPM English Paper 1, section B:

When we plan to write a narrative essay for SPM English Paper 1, section B: Continuous Writing, we have to bear in mind of making our essay exciting and impressive. The first thing  to do is study the question carefully, understand the scope of the question, then draw a rough plot from the beginning , rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. 

Then we should decide the theme, moral values, characters and scenes of events. The theme of the story is the central message and the moral values are the lessons that we have learned from the story. In order to make our story alive, name the settings/places of our story, then describe the scenes of the places. 

A part from that, name the characters and reveal their characteristics by writing about their actions, reactions, thoughts, speeches and what other characters say about them. We also have to elaborate the sequence of events and incidents, what happen, how did it happen, why did it happen, who was involved and when did it happen? 

Please don’t forget to describe the scenes, characters, events and incidents using our 5 senses, what we see, hear, touch, smell and taste and add appropriate adjectives and adverbs. We can also use phrases, idioms, sayings or expressions to make our narration lively and impressive too. 

The marking scheme for continuous writing will be based on impression, as its holistic marking, where scoring involves the assigning of a single score to a piece of writing based on a “whole” reading of the essay.  The examiner will fit the candidate’s response to the most appropriate band, by referring to upper and lower bands and the marks depend on the number of criteria that are found in the script that matches the band. 

Please make sure the language used is accurate, use  varied sentence structures (simple, compound, complex, compound/complex sentences), and the use of vocabulary is correct, precise and wide. Write well-planned  paragraphs, unified and appropriately linked, and make sure the tone and mood suites the story creating interest,arousing mood and sustaining creativeness  throughout the story.

Write from your heart, so that you can feel being the characters as by doing so you will be more expressive in your narrative writing...

 

Photos of my presentation on the topic: “How to be effective  writer.” for  “kelab penerbitan dan redaksi” SMK Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, Kajang, Selangor on the 30^th of  Jun, 2011.

Keep smiling and shining , 
as the sunshine and stars will light our lives
All the best! 
With love and light,
Teacher Sakinah

P/S: We can find idioms and meaningful phrases from many websites such as:

http://www.englishclub.com/ref/Sayings/index.htm