PT3 Speaking Test
PT3 Speaking Test was finally over. Only a smattering of students demonstrated an acceptable level of competency in speaking the target language, while the rest muscled through the evaluation with fragmented, incoherent responses. The moment you posed a student a question, he or she would give you a pained, quizzical look, followed by fast breathing, inadvertent rubbing of the nose and uncontrolled twitches of facial muscles. The pregnant silence between you and the candidate was most unsettling. To ease the tension, multiples of prompts were given but what finally came out of the candidate's mouth was a faint 'tak tahu Cikgu'. The upshot of the test strikes home the fact that the students have not been well-prepared for speaking in the real world. Granted, speaking lessons at school have doubled over the years, but the fundamental problem - poor grasp of grammar, has never been properly addressed. Did you know that the current trends of education d...