Background information: I have a junior high school student who will be taking the Grade 1 interview again in June. During our practice sections before the exam, I noticed that she didn’t really understand quite a few of the questions nor has she thought about some of the more complex questions which is understandable due to her age. She’s spent a lot of time improving her writing and was able to pass the written exam this time, but the interview was a bit of a challenge this time around because of the speech portion and one week of preparation. It seems like maybe the follow up questions were aggressive and possibly offensive. I tried practicing many questions with and without a time in the time before her interview, but I don’t think it was enough.
My idea:
I wanted to give her a list of debate or pro/con websites to learn about opinions on both side of these types of questions and some news sites. I thought they would help with gaining or familiarizing her with specific vocabulary, finding evidence for different reasons in her answers. I think preliminary research may help her with understanding the questions and speech making.
Then maybe she can work on taking notes and creating an introduction and conclusion before finally attempting the speech portion with time limits.
I want to pass along some tips before I move to my next contract. Are there any other tips or recommendations I can pass along?
6 comments
I took Step 1 myself since I’ve been teaching it for almost 2 years.
First, obviously utilize the online previous tests on the eiken site.
2nd. The writing is supposed to be formatted similar to native HS English. 3 body paragraphs and an intro and conclusion with thesis.
3rd the speaking for 2 minutes on a given topic is the hardest to prepare for. The pro and con is a good idea. That is assuming they will pass the first test and move onto the interview. I even got a few wrong on the first part.
My kids past pre 1. And moved to my step 1 class. They were overwhelmed at first and some quit. I’ve had one for 6 months now and he has done much better. It will take someone awhile to prep for it after passing pre1.
Btw what level does your student have now?
This is an inherent flaw in the Eiken 1 interview test, and some other parts of other levels, the questions rely far too much on non-language knowledge that is gained by age rather than study.
The most important skills for this interview are meta-linguistic and structure based strategies that enable the interviewee to talk convincingly, fluently, and at length about a topic they have no objective knowledge on and don’t care about.
When I work with students in J/S Hs going for this level, we focus on learning question archetypes and standardized ways to respond to them, ways to say a lot about a topic without really saying anything, time buying strategies, and general answer structure that will consistently land them inside the time requirement.
To be honest, there’s no amount of vocabulary or content work you’re likely reasonably able to do to compensate for the student just… not being an adult member of society that’s constantly exposed to the topics that come up on Eiken pre-1. You could try to get them to watch the news, do research on SDGs topics, and talk about social issues facing Japan, but the chance you’re going to exactly land on a topic that will pop up on the interview is slim. Rather, I would just use such content as the excuse to practice the strategies I mentioned above.
I usually go over this website with the student. It has a lot of past questions on it.
[https://interstate.co.jp/news/session/eiken-1kyu-interview](https://interstate.co.jp/news/session/eiken-1kyu-interview)
This website also has model answers in it.
I also tell them to start reading/watching the news for things to say in English.
I also tell them to work on their self-introduction as that is a part of it as well. Talk about their future, what college they want to go to etc.
I have had many students get eiken 1, but I work at a school that has an IB course and many high level domestic courses.
As mentioned above, it’s a test for adults and assumes a level of worldly knowledge and maturity that she may not have in her L1.
Grade one practice books and vocabulary books are for sale at most bookstores, which can give you practice questions and vocabulary parameters.
It’s going to be disappointing for a junior high school student to find out that eiken results are only good for two years for most university admissions, and she has to take it again.
The 1st level interview test isn’t really made for JHS students, or not made well.
You can’t expect kids of that age to be aware of such complex topics, and the test should focus more on language use than “Do you agree that the world would be better if we banned nuclear weapons?”
I am an adult, a Japanese, and had invested a great time and energy 🙁
I think every speech she makes should be connected to her self introduction because it is easier for JHS. If she say “I wanna be a politician/a scientist”, then she can say “like I said, I wanna be a politician/scientist to solve this problem and make Japan better place” every time at the end of her answer.