IB MYP Language Acquisition – Criterion C – Speaking and interacting Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

These practice questions cover Criterion C: Speaking for IB MYP Language Acquisition. They are aligned to the International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Language acquisition, from 2020 (first eAssessment May 2023/November 2023), and apply to the course examined from the May 2023 and November 2023 eAssessment sessions onwards. MYP has no SL/HL split; the set suits MYP years 4 and 5. MYP has no prescribed content list – schools design their own units – so this page covers a skill the brief’s criteria name.

Every question trains Criterion C. Real MYP work is judged against criterion level descriptors (levels 1-8 in four bands), so the [1] points below are a revision aid, not IB marks. Your teacher will share the task-specific clarifications. Questions are in English; answer the speaking ones aloud in your target language too. All places and data are invented.

Revise first from the study guide or revision notes. Also see the IB MYP Language Acquisition hub · printable checklist.

Questions

1. (Criterion C) State three facts the MYP Language Acquisition subject brief gives about how the speaking examination is assessed. [3]

2. (Criterion C) Explain what makes a text “multimodal”, and give one example of a multimodal text you could be asked to speak about. [2]

3. (Criterion C) Name the interaction strategy each student is using.

• (i) “Sorry, could you say that again?”
• (ii) “It’s the machine that washes plates – I can’t remember the word.”
• (iii) “Last year we buy – sorry, we bought – a new car.”
• (iv) “Hmm, let me think about that for a second…”
• (v) “I think it’s a good idea. Do you agree?”

[5]

4. (Criterion C) Read Source A.

Source A – original text written for Marlbridge. An infographic on a fictional school’s website. Small figures walk, cycle, ride a bus or sit in a car on the way to a school gate. Headline: “Half of us already travel green – what about the rest?” Data from a survey of 240 students: walk 84, bus 66, car 54, cycle 36.

(a) Calculate the percentage of students who walk or cycle, and say whether the headline is accurate. [1] (b) Using the see-read-think-relate method, give one spoken sentence for each step. [4] (c) Explain how the headline and the data work together to persuade. [2]

5. (Criterion C) A teacher asks, “Do you like living in your town?” The student says, “No.” Rewrite the answer so it extends the exchange, and label each part of the chain you use. [4]

6. (Criterion C) Read this transcript extract. For each numbered problem, say whether it is mainly a fluency, accuracy or pronunciation issue, and suggest one fix.

“Yesterday I go (1) to the market with my… my… we… we were (2) looking for fish. The man said it came off the sheep (3) this morning, um… (4)” – then a home-language word.

(At point 3 the student meant “ship”; the long vowel changed the word.)

[4]

7. (Criterion C) After a poster about a beach clean-up, the teacher asks: “Should governments ban single-use plastic?” The student prepared only personal points. Give a model answer for each move of the three-move recovery. [3]

8. (Criterion C, self-review, calculation) A student records two 3-minute practice responses on the same stimulus. Their notes:

	Words spoken	Pauses over 3 seconds	Errors noted
Recording 1	210	9	14
Recording 2	264	4	11

(a) Calculate the speaking rate, in words per minute, for each recording. [2] (b) Calculate the errors per 100 words for each recording, to 1 decimal place. [2] (c) The student says, “Recording 2 is better because I spoke faster.” Evaluate this claim. [2]

9. (Criterion C) The brief calls the speaking examination “an interactive summative assessment task”. Explain how this should shape your preparation, and describe two suitable activities. [4]

10. (Criterion C, extended) Read Source B.

Source B – original text written for Marlbridge. A fictional town’s events web page. The photo shows families at dusk releasing paper lanterns onto a river. Headline: “One night, one river, a thousand wishes.” Details: “Riverside Lantern Night – Saturday, from 19:00. Make your lantern from recycled paper at the library workshop.”

(a) Give an opening spoken response that covers all four steps of see-read-think-relate. [4] (b) Predict two follow-up questions the teacher could ask, each linked to a different MYP global context, and outline an answer to each. [4] (c) Identify one risk to your accuracy and one risk to your fluency in this task, and say how you would manage each. [2]

11. (Criterion C, extended) A classmate’s plan for the last month:

“I’ll write a full answer on each of ten topics and learn them by heart. In the exam I’ll speak as fast as I can so I don’t forget anything.”

Evaluate the plan and propose an improved four-week plan. [8]

Answers

1. Any three: it is internally assessed, not part of the on-screen examination [1]; it is marked by your classroom teacher against the published speaking examination marking criteria for MYP year 5 [1]; the IB moderates a sample from each school each session and adjusts grades as necessary [1]. Also accept: interactive; worth 24 marks. [3] Examiner insight: “State” needs three separate facts; “the teacher marks it” and “it is marked in school” are one fact said twice.

2. A multimodal text combines more than one mode of meaning, such as words with images, layout or sound [1]. Example: a poster with a photo and a slogan (or an advert, infographic, web page) [1]. [2] Examiner insight: A words-only example, such as a letter, cannot earn the example point.

3. (i) Asking for repetition [1]. (ii) Paraphrase / circumlocution [1]. (iii) Self-correction [1]. (iv) Holding the turn / buying time [1]. (v) Giving a view and inviting one [1]. [5] Examiner insight: Name the strategy, not the language point – for (iii), “past tense” describes the grammar, not what the speaker is doing.

4. (a) (84 + 36) ÷ 240 × 100 = 50%, so the headline’s “half” is accurate [1]. (b) See: “Students are walking, cycling or riding to school.” [1] Read: “The headline says half of us travel green; walking is the biggest group.” [1] Think: “The question targets the other half – car and bus users.” [1] Relate: “At my school many parents drive, but not everyone lives close enough to walk.” [1] (c) The data gives evidence that makes the headline believable [1]; the headline then turns the numbers into a challenge to the reader, using “us” to include them [1]. [7] Examiner insight: Reading out the numbers stays at “read”; (c) credits what the words do with the data.

5. Model: “Not really (answer) [1], because there’s little for teenagers to do in the evenings (reason) [1]. Last Friday we had nowhere to go but a café that closed at seven (example) [1]. If the town opened a youth centre, I’d like it more (consequence) [1].” [4] Examiner insight: The four parts must link; four unrelated sentences show range but not a coherent extended answer.

6. (1) Accuracy – wrong tense after “yesterday”; fix: link time words to past forms in practice [1]. (2) Fluency – repeated restarts; fix: plan the chunk “we were looking for” before speaking, or use a filler [1]. (3) Pronunciation – vowel changed the word’s meaning; fix: drill the minimal pair with shadowing [1]. (4) Fluency (strategy) – “um” and a switch to another language; fix: a target-language filler or paraphrase [1]. [4] Examiner insight: A fix must match its label – “learn more vocabulary” for a pronunciation error earns nothing.

7. Buy time: “That’s a big question – let me think.” [1] Narrow: “I can only really speak about my own town.” [1] Link back: “The poster showed bottles all over the beach, so banning some items would help, even if it’s hard for shops.” [1] [3] Examiner insight: A link back must reuse something from the stimulus.

8. (a) Recording 1: 210 ÷ 3 = 70 words per minute [1]. Recording 2: 264 ÷ 3 = 88 words per minute [1]. (b) Recording 1: 14 ÷ 210 × 100 = 6.7 errors per 100 words [1]. Recording 2: 11 ÷ 264 × 100 = 4.2 errors per 100 words [1]. (c) Speed alone is not fluency; faster speech can still be hard to follow [1]. Recording 2 is better because long pauses fell from 9 to 4 and the error rate fell [1]. [6] Examiner insight: Compare error rates, not raw error counts – 11 errors in more words is a bigger improvement than 14 → 11 suggests.

9. “Interactive” means a two-way conversation, so you must react to unseen questions [1]; prepare adaptable frames and strategies, not fixed answers [1]. Activity 1: partner practice – one describes a new stimulus, the other asks three unseen questions [1]. Activity 2: record and review, noting three fixes each time [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Two activities with no link to “interactive” earn only half.

10. (a) See: “Families by a river at dusk are letting paper lanterns float away.” [1] Read: “The headline makes it sound magical, and lanterns are made from recycled paper.” [1] Think: “It wants families to come together, and shows the organisers care about waste.” [1] Relate: “My town has a light festival too, but I wonder where the lanterns end up.” [1] (b) Personal and cultural expression: “Why do people keep traditions like this?” [1] Outline: shared memories, a place’s identity, a tradition from your culture [1]. Globalization and sustainability: “Is it right to put lanterns in a river?” [1] Outline: harm to wildlife versus paper that breaks down; collect lanterns downstream [1]. (c) Accuracy risk: mixing tenses when comparing past festivals with this coming one – keep one time frame per sentence [1]. Fluency risk: a missing word such as “lantern” – paraphrase (“the paper light that floats”) [1]. [10] Examiner insight: In (b), a question with a named context but no outlined answer earns one point of two.

11. Evaluation: memorised answers break down when a question is unexpected [1]; ten topics cannot cover every stimulus, so answers may not respond to the text [1]; racing raises errors and hurts pronunciation – speed is not fluency [1]; there is no partner practice and no review [1]. Improved plan: Week 1 – confirm your level and its descriptors; build frames for see-read-think-relate [1]; Week 2 – rebuild the phrase bank; practise the extending chain on new stimuli [1]; Week 3 – partner practice with unseen questions, recorded and reviewed [1]; Week 4 – timed rehearsals on fresh stimuli, targeting your three most frequent errors [1]. [8] Examiner insight: “Evaluate” needs a judgement of the old plan as well as a better one; a new plan alone earns half.

Where marks are usually lost

• Describing a stimulus’s image and never interpreting its purpose or audience.
• One-line answers that close the exchange instead of extending it.
• Switching to a memorised paragraph when a follow-up question is unexpected.
• Comparing raw error counts instead of error rates when reviewing recordings.
• Using home-language words or “um” to fill pauses.
• Not asking anything back, so the task is not interactive.

Next steps

• Revision notes for weak areas.
• Study guide for full explanations.
• More practice: criteria in practice questions, proficiency phases questions.
• IB MYP Language Acquisition hub and printable checklist.
• Try all free 10-minute diagnostics.
• Book a free trial class.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Language acquisition, from 2020 (first eAssessment May 2023/November 2023). Published by the International Baccalaureate Organization.