TRINITY

COLLEGE LONDON

Interactive phase-Intermediate stage

The Interactive phase provides the opportunity for candidates to demonstrate their ability to initiate and take control over the interaction. In addition to general functions such as requesting information, the language functions listed for the particular grade should arise naturally from each task prompt. In this phase, the emphasis is placed upon the candidate's ability to use functional language rather upon the accurate use of the grammatical structures list for the grade.

It is important that, once the examiner has set up the situation, the candidate takes responsibility for the interaction. The interaction will take the form of multiple turns, with the examiner's turns being much shorter than those of the candidate.

In some cases this may involve a' role-play' but the examiner and candidate are free to be themselves so as to create as authentic an exchange as possible.

This phase should last no more than four minutes. In this phase, the responsibility for maintaining the interaction is the candidates'. If a candidate fails to initiate or to maintain the interaction of this phase, the examiner will not intervene and take control.

Candidates should be able to understand the language functions of the grade to take a full part in the exchange.

Those responsible for preparing candidates should help them practise:

· question formations using the grammatical structures of the preceding grades

 · expressing the functions of the grade in a variety of different ways

 · holding conversations which naturally in the use of language functions of the grade

 · strategies to maintain the flow of conversation

 · taking the initiative and controlling the direction of the conversation.