Props in LOTE Oral exams

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Who's using props for their oral exams?

I've never actually thought about it before. My friend just brought it up and said that it would be easier for both the assessor and yourself as you will have something to talk about...?

What are your thoughts?

[dejan91]

I'm bringing in three vending machine related pictures They each contain one of my talking points.

[kendraaaaa]

I did my language last year and the topic was food. I brought in about 30 or so pictures of (you guessed it) different native foods to my country. Oh and the ladies that were marking me had a field day with them, I had a whole plan of what I was going to say but they really focussed on the pictures so I spent a long time on them. They were really engaged and laughing and everything, haha and for reference I got an A for the exams.

Bring pictures!

[ninwa]

Weird, my teacher actually discouraged us from bringing props. Two of our German teachers were also oral examiners and they said that often when people brought them in, they tended to go off-track and get distracted by the props rather than adding value to their discussion.

Though the above posts clearly show that to be untrue

(there were 3 people in my German class, none of us had props, 2 of us got A+ and the other one got A)

[EvangelionZeta]

I've been told that having a poster of some sort is often helpful by various sources, both for Chinese and Japanese second language.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Hmm depends on the topic I guess. I'm doing Hikikomori (People who stay in their room all day and play games watch Anime etc). I guess I could bring in a pic of the state of their rooms...but nothing too useful >_>

I'm worried about the point Ninwa brang up, that the discussion will revolve too much around the props, rather than the slabs of text I have memorised

[moshi]

please don't tell me you just used the word 'brang'.. argh! my eyes!
lolol kidding.
anyway, if you're worried about your props becoming the main focus, just keep them simple and down to a minimum if you really want to bring any in - you could use them as a way of linking one slab of text to another, which could assist in making the jump from one to another more seamless?

stats would be useful in your case to demonstrate the severity of the issue. the image seems fitting as well, but yeah it could drive the convo off topic since images do throw a lot up for discussion. your choice!

[IntoTheNewWorld]

please don't tell me you just used the word 'brang'.. argh! my eyes!

D: I rite da English beri well. I feel bad for bagging the English of my exchange student now >_>

hmm I just started thinking about it after my friend said his Chinese teacher told him using props would be better. I don't think I'll end up bothering though >_> After studying for my Oral SAC on Detailed Study I kind of burnt out...

[mypurpleundercracka]

I did my language last year and the topic was food. I brought in about 30 or so pictures of (you guessed it) different native foods to my country. Oh and the ladies that were marking me had a field day with them, I had a whole plan of what I was going to say but they really focussed on the pictures so I spent a long time on them. They were really engaged and laughing and everything, haha and for reference I got an A for the exams.

Bring pictures!

LOL ours was similar, cant get any more woggish than that haha  

[jejak]

Ok, full disclosure: I never used a prop, so I don't really know if they're effective.
However, I would only bring a prop if you think it really adds to your discussion, or clarifies something that might make you easier to understand. For instance, a guy in my CSL class was talking about the erhu, a Chinese stringed instrument, for his DS. He brought in a diagram to help him indicate which parts of the instrument he was talking about, which was relevant to the instrument's structure and function etc.

With the hikikomori example, I think bringing in a photo of their rooms (for instance) would actually detract from your presentation - surely you could use a 四字熟語 or something to describe the situation more vividly than a photo could.

I will say though, props could probably serve as very handy memory aids, because they're so concrete. If you do find yourself forgetting stuff, might be a good idea.