Presentation
Give a clear spoken presentation that communicates a critical response to stimulus material
Updated March 2025. The sections on feedback and feed forward and Authenticity have been updated.
Feedback and feed forward on drafts
Further to the updated 2025 Ministry of Education Conditions of Assessment, teacher feedback and feed forward on students’ drafts is not permitted. Teacher involvement during the assessment is limited to providing students with support on the technical aspects of their work only, for example, audio or visual quality. Assessors must not provide feedback on student language content.
All language should be the student’s own work. Complex language, with few or no errors, may indicate an authenticity issue.
Content
These standards involve explaining and justifying a viewpoint and communicating a critical response. This includes analysis, interpretation, or evaluation of the stimulus material.
Students need to ensure that there is a clear link between their presentation and the stimulus material.
The best presentations are to the point and close to the allocated times. Development does not equal length. Suggested time for a level 3 presentation is two to three minutes.
The purpose of this presentation is delivery to an audience. This could be either a face to face or an online audience. Tasks should ensure that students will have a context which requires a presentation as opposed to a piece of writing, e.g. a video/podcast application for a place on an exchange.
Communication and language
As this is a spoken presentation, inconsistencies do not relate solely to errors in vocabulary or grammar. Inconsistencies in communication may relate to the following: language features, pronunciation, intonation, rhythm patterns, delivery speed, audibility, stress patterns, or tones. Incorrect language/inconsistencies will affect the grade to the extent that they hinder communication.
Language features should be taken into account when allocating a grade. A speaker who speaks very quickly without pausing appropriately for new sentences may have a presentation which would receive Excellence as a piece of writing, but which will receive a Merit for this standard. Inconsistencies in delivery speed and stress patterns may mean that the communication of the message is hindered. Delivery may ultimately affect the grade.
The nature of the language features used will also be determined by the fact that this is a spoken presentation, e.g. rhetorical questions, imperatives, use of pauses for emphasis etc.
Delivery of presentation
Cue cards/text should only be used for support, and students may not read their presentation in its entirety. If they do so, they cannot be awarded the standard.
Authenticity
As per the changes to the 2025 Conditions of Assessment, the use of chatbots, generative AI, paraphrasing tools, spell checkers, or other tools that can automatically generate the target language content is not permitted and material generated by these tools should not be submitted as part of the student’s work.
All sources should be acknowledged, and students should not receive guidance, scaffolding, instruction or assistance from anyone before submission.
On this page
Interact
Interact clearly to explore and justify varied ideas and perspectives in different situations
Updated March 2025. Further to the Ministry of Education changes to the 2025 Conditions of Assessment, this document has been updated to include a section related to Authenticity.
Language features
A repertoire of language features and strategies to maintain the interaction is required for this standard. For this reason, it does not produce evidence towards this standard if students write and learn scripted roleplays by heart, or otherwise prepare the total interaction beforehand. Indicators of the ability to maintain an interaction will not be evident in such exchanges.
The standard at Level 3 requires evidence of spontaneity (Explanatory Note 2), i.e. the ability to maintain and sustain an interaction without previous rehearsal. As per the 2025 Conditions of Assessment, teachers must closely supervise the process of evidence collection to ensure that students:
- do not practise the exact task with their partner(s) prior to the assessment
- do not rote-learn or script roleplays
- do not use target language notes, language learning resources or dictionaries during the interactions.
Features and strategies such as pausing, negotiating meaning, prompting, seeking clarification, etc. can only be in evidence when the student is unaware of all questions that are asked and has not prepared all answers. For this reason, the use of cue cards would also render evidence invalid.
Interactions where students can react in a genuine way, and where they are able to naturally control the direction of the interaction, give students the opportunity to meet the criteria.
Range
The standard calls for a minimum of two interactions, and these must be in different situations. This will mean that the context and/or purpose and/or type will be different for each interaction, e.g. discussing initiatives for improving recycling at school versus a conversation about a favourite target language film.
Assessing the collection of evidence
The grade will be awarded for the collection of interactions assessed as a whole, i.e. each interaction will not be assessed individually – the grade will be derived from the overall quality of the work. Students must show that they are working consciously and reasonably consistently at the level, rather than accidentally and occasionally.
Approximately four to five minutes of individual contribution to the interaction is a realistic expectation of the time that may be needed to provide sufficient evidence from which to make a judgement. At all times quality is more important than quantity.
Language
Incorrect language/inconsistencies will only affect a grade if they hinder communication. It is important to note that accuracy is not a criterion of this standard. In a realistic conversation by learners of a second language, errors are natural and should not be overly penalised.
Whilst inconsistencies that do not affect communication will not affect the grade, for Excellence there needs to be sufficient language, outside the language with errors, that contributes to the criteria of the successful use of a range of language.
At Level 3, students need to move beyond simply providing information and into exploring and justifying a variety of ideas and perspectives. This will involve evaluating, explaining and providing supporting evidence. Students could also support or challenge the ideas and perspectives of others.
Authenticity
The use of chatbots, generative AI, paraphrasing tools, spell checkers, or other tools that can automatically generate the target language content is not permitted and material generated by these tools should not be used throughout the assessment.
Writing
Write a variety of text types to explore and justify varied ideas and perspectives
Updated March 2025. Further to the 2025 Ministry of Education changes to the Conditions of Assessment, the sections on feedback and feed forward and use of resources have been updated.
Feedback and feed forward on drafts
Teacher involvement during the assessment event is limited to providing students with support on the technical aspects of their work only, i.e. formatting or design. Assessors must not provide feedback on student language.
Complex language with few or no errors may indicate an authenticity issue.
Use of resources
The use of chatbots, generative AI, paraphrasing tools, spell checkers, or other tools that can automatically generate the target language content is not permitted, and material generated by these tools should not be submitted as part of the student’s work.
Students need to acknowledge all resources, and any work directly from resources will not count as evidence of language contributing to the grade.
Text type
The context and/or purpose and/or text type (a minimum of two) will be different for each piece, e.g. a film review and an essay about an issue of importance to you (for example environmental).
Curriculum level
The standard requires students to explore and justify varied ideas and perspectives. This involves evaluating and giving explanations or evidence to support their own ideas and perspectives as well as supporting or challenging those of others. To achieve the standard, there needs to be evidence of each of the above within the texts.
Assessing the collection of evidence
The grade will be awarded for the pieces of writing assessed as a whole, i.e. each piece will not be assessed individually – rather, the grade will be derived from the overall quality of the work. Students must show that they are working consciously and reasonably consistently at the level, rather than accidentally and occasionally.
Incorrect language/inconsistencies will only affect a grade if they hinder communication. Whilst inconsistencies that do not affect communication will not affect the grade, for Excellence there needs to be sufficient language, outside the language with errors, that contributes to the criteria of capable selection and successful use of language.
Sufficiency of Evidence
The following approximate word/character/kana counts for Level 3: 500 characters for Chinese, 1000 kana for Japanese, or 500 words for all other languages. These are a realistic expectation of the amount that may be needed to provide sufficient evidence from which to make a judgement. At all times quality is more important than quantity.
Authenticity
As per the changes to the 2025 Conditions of Assessment, the use of chatbots, generative AI, paraphrasing tools, spell checkers, or other tools that can automatically generate the target language content is not permitted and material generated by these tools should not be submitted as part of the student’s work.
All sources should be acknowledged, and students should not receive guidance, scaffolding, instruction or assistance from anyone before submission.