Knowledge is not driven by answers but by questions.
So, have you asked a good question today?
We continue discussing the tasks of the Speaking part of our English Exam. What's next? A student has to ask five direct questions about a piece of information.
This is what Kira thinks about the second task:
The
requirement of the second part of our English Exam is to ask five questions.
Some people consider this activity to be useless. Is it really so?
From my point
of view, asking five questions is an essential part exam speaking practice. To
begin with, this activity can help to evaluate students’ abilities to express
their ideas grammatically correctly. Students have to demonstrate how they can
manage not to be confused in a situation they have never faced before. Secondly,
asking questions is one of the basic skills in learning a language that shows a
learner’s level in it. That is why asking questions should be included in the
speaking part of the exam.
However,
there some people who consider this task to be a sheer waste of time. They
claim that asking five questions fails to show one’s real knowledge of English
as it is impossible not to cope with this assignment. They believe that this
useless activity has to be excluded from the list of the examination tasks.
I entirely
disagree with the opinion above. To my mind, a person who isn't familiar
with the structures of various types of
sentences, including interrogative ones, can’t possess the ability to ask questions.
Consequently, students who choose English a s a subject for their NSE should
know English grammar in order to cope with this task.
In
conclusion, I want to state that asking questions in any foreign language is an
inherent ability of a good learner, that
is why it should be checked at the National State Exam. I still believe that
asking questions demonstrates a pupil’s knowledge, shows his/her ability to
face unpredictable situations and is one of the basic skills in language
learning.
Well, the topic of the NSE and speaking as the new part of our English exam in particular seems really interesting, important and relevant to me. I absolutely agree with Kira that the second task of the oral part which is asking five direсt questions is essential and it helps to reveal one's knowledge of English grammar (there's a special structure in an interrogative sentence as we all know) and peculiar intonation. Also, the practice of asking questions is required and useful in real life as there's always something we want/need to find out. And, thus, as I see it, if a student decided to connect his life with English, his ability in obtaining some pieces of information in it should be definitely checked. Fortunately, it's not really a problem for us to ask questions so, I'm sure, if we practise more, we'll readily cope with this part of speaking at the exam.
ReplyDeleteDilyara, thank you for the comment. The fact that you realize the importance of the skills to ask questions characterizes you as a mature learner who is able to to acknowledge the practical value of studies.
DeleteHere is Vika's comment:
ReplyDeleteI personally agree that such type of work is truly useful as we develop a skill to ask questions correctly. It's not a secret that many students have a problem asking something as they aren't sure how to do that properly. On the other hand, I suppose that this task should be of a different format. It would be a good idea to practise all the five types of questions to make the assignment more challenging and interesting. Also, the creators of such a task should have informed us how they want it to be done. I mean that they should have explained whether we need to make any introduction. On the whole, I still assume that any type of work in English is really useful as it helps us develop our language skills.
Thank you, Vika for your ideas about improving this part of speaking. I'd like to support your suggestion that students should ask different types of questions. And what do you think about asking indirect questions? Wouldn't it be even more challenging?
Delete