IB MYP Language Acquisition – Criterion C – Speaking and interacting Study Guide

This study guide teaches Criterion C: Speaking for IB MYP Language Acquisition, from the first word you say about a stimulus to the last follow-up question. It is aligned to the International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Language acquisition, from 2020 (first eAssessment May 2023/November 2023), and applies to the course examined from the May 2023 and November 2023 eAssessment sessions onwards. MYP has no SL/HL split; the page suits MYP years 4 and 5, including the year 5 speaking examination.

MYP has no prescribed content list – schools design their own units – so this page covers a skill the brief’s criteria name. Where the brief is silent (preparation time, how long the task lasts, what the stimulus looks like), your teacher will share the task-specific clarifications.

Use it with the revision notes and the practice set. Course links: IB MYP Language Acquisition hub · printable checklist.

What this unit covers

Area	What you must be able to do	Where it comes from
The speaking task	Say who marks it, what it is worth and what it responds to	Brief, section IV (eAssessment)
Responding to a multimodal text	Describe, interpret and give a view on a stimulus that mixes words and images	Criterion C wording; “Speaking in response to multimodal texts”
Interaction	Keep a two-way conversation going, ask for help, extend answers	Criterion C: “interacting on a range of topics”
Fluency, accuracy, pronunciation	Speak with flow, control language and be understood	The “structures, strategies and techniques” the criterion names
Preparation	Build a routine that trains spontaneous speaking, not recitation	Your own practice

This page is in English. Rebuild every model and phrase in your target language.

What the brief says about Criterion C

The brief lists four equally weighted criteria: A Listening, B Reading, C Speaking and D Writing. Each has eight achievement levels (1-8), split into four bands with their own descriptors.

For speaking, the brief says you build communication skills by interacting on topics of personal, local and global interest and significance. You do this with support from spoken, written and visual texts in the target language. You also apply linguistic and literary concepts to use “a variety of structures, strategies and techniques” with increasing skill.

For eAssessment, the facts printed in the brief are:

• Speaking is an internally assessed, IB moderated speaking examination. It is separate from the on-screen examination, which covers Criteria A, B and D.
• The brief calls it an interactive summative assessment task. It is a conversation, not a speech.
• The objective is speaking in response to multimodal texts, Criterion C, 24 marks.
• Your classroom teacher marks it against the published speaking examination marking criteria for MYP year 5.
• In each session the IB moderates a sample from each school and adjusts grades where needed.
• Courses are formally assessed at one of three proficiency levels: emergent, capable or proficient.

The brief does not break Criterion C into named strands. The four skills below – responding to the text, interacting, fluency and accuracy, pronunciation – are what any spoken judgement rests on. Check the exact descriptors for your level with your teacher.

Responding to a multimodal text

A multimodal text combines more than one mode of meaning: words, images, layout, colour, sometimes sound. A poster, a web page, an advert or an infographic all count. In a speaking task the stimulus gives you something to talk about. What you say should show you have read both the words and the visuals.

A four-step method: see, read, think, relate

1. See – describe what the image shows: people, place, action, mood. One or two sentences.
2. Read – pick out the key words, slogan or data and say what they mean.
3. Think – interpret. Who is the text for? What does it want people to do or feel? How do image and words work together?
4. Relate – connect it to yourself, your community and the wider world, then give a view with a reason.

Steps 1-2 are safe ground. Steps 3-4 show range and thinking.

Worked example

Source A – original text written for Marlbridge. A poster for a fictional town. The photo shows a teenager and an older man at a table, fixing a bicycle wheel together. The headline reads “Don’t bin it – fix it!” Below: “Repair Café – first Saturday of every month, 10:00-13:00, Community Hall.” Three small icons show a bike, a lamp and a shirt. The strapline says “Bring the broken thing. Leave with a skill.”

A capable-level response (spoken in English here; you would say it in your target language):

See: In the photo there’s a teenager and an older man. They’re fixing a bike wheel together, and they’re both smiling, so it looks friendly. Read: The headline says “Don’t bin it – fix it”. The icons show you can bring bikes, lamps or clothes. Think: I think the poster wants people to repair things instead of throwing them away. The photo shows two generations, so the message is also about learning from each other. “Leave with a skill” means you don’t just get your bike back – you learn how to fix it. Relate: In my town we throw away a lot of old phones and clothes. I’d go to a place like this, because my bike brakes are always breaking and I can’t afford a new bike. But some people might say it’s quicker just to buy something new.

What this shows:

• Every step links to something in the stimulus, image and words.
• “So”, “because”, “but” and “instead of” join ideas. Short linked sentences beat one long memorised block.
• The counter-view at the end gives the teacher an easy follow-up question.

Applying it in your target language: before you practise, write one sentence frame for each step. For example: a frame for “In the photo there is/are…”, one for “The headline means…”, one for “I think the aim is to…”, one for “In my community…”. Learn the frames, not whole answers.

Interaction strategies

The brief calls the task interactive, so how you handle the other speaker matters as much as what you know. These strategies keep a conversation alive.

Strategy	What it sounds like (English model)	Why it helps
Ask for repetition	“Sorry, could you repeat that, please?”	Better than guessing the question
Check meaning	“Do you mean… ?”	Shows you are listening, buys time
Paraphrase a missing word	“It’s the thing you use to…”	Keeps going when a word is missing
Extend	Answer → reason → example → consequence	Turns one line into four
Give a view and invite one	“I think… What do you think?”	Makes it two-way
Self-correct	“She go – sorry, she goes…”	Shows control of language
Hold the turn	“Let me think…”, “That’s a good question…”	Fills a pause naturally

Worked example: extending a flat answer

Teacher: “Would you volunteer at a Repair Café?”

Flat answer: “Yes, I would.”

Extended answer, built with the answer → reason → example → consequence chain:

“Yes, I would (answer), because I’m quite good with my hands and I like helping people (reason). For example, last month I fixed my grandmother’s radio with my dad (example). If I volunteered, I’d practise more and maybe I could teach younger children too (consequence).”

That answer uses present, past and conditional forms naturally, and leaves two new threads to follow.

Handling the unexpected question

You will be asked things you did not plan for. Use a three-move recovery:

1. Buy time with a turn-holding phrase.
2. Narrow the question to something you can answer: “For me personally…” or “In my school…”.
3. Link back to vocabulary you know well from the stimulus.

Never switch to a memorised paragraph that does not answer the question. The criteria in practice guide explains why recitation cannot show interactive skill.

Fluency

Fluency is how smoothly speech flows: steady pace, pauses in natural places, little restarting. It is not speed.

How to build it:

• Learn chunks, not single words. “It depends on…”, “On the one hand…”. Chunks come out as one unit.
• Pause at phrase boundaries. A pause after “In my opinion,” sounds natural. A pause in the middle of a verb does not.
• Use fillers from the target language, not “um” or your home language. Two or three are enough.
• The 4-3-2 drill. Talk about one stimulus for 4 minutes, then the same content for 3, then for 2 – 9 minutes in all. Each round forces you to say the same ideas more smoothly.

Accuracy

Accuracy is control of grammar, vocabulary and word order. Range is how varied your language is. You need both, and they pull against each other: the more you try, the more errors you risk.

Use safe, then stretch: open with a structure you control, then try one more complex form – a conditional, a relative clause – once you are moving.

Errors worth targeting because they break meaning:

• Verb forms and agreement – the wrong person or tense changes who did what, and when.
• Tense consistency – starting a story in the past and drifting into the present.
• Gender and agreement in languages that mark them – small endings, but frequent.
• False friends – words that look like English but mean something else.
• Word order in questions and negatives.

Self-correction is a strength. Correcting a slip quickly shows you know the rule.

Pronunciation and intonation

The aim is to be understood without effort, not to sound like a native speaker. What matters most:

• Individual sounds that change meaning in your target language (for example, vowel length or nasal sounds).
• Word stress on longer words – a misplaced stress can make a known word unrecognisable.
• Intonation – a rising or falling tune marks questions, lists and emphasis.
• Linking words in a phrase instead of saying each one separately.

Shadowing helps: play a short clip of a native speaker, then speak along a fraction behind, copying rhythm and tune. Do it with the audio from your listening practice.

Pitching it to your proficiency level

You are entered at emergent, capable or proficient. Ask your teacher which, and ask to see the descriptors for that level. Pitch your practice there. The see-read-think-relate method works at every level; what changes is how far you take steps 3 and 4 and how much language you bring to them. The proficiency phases guide explains the levels in more detail.

How to prepare

A weekly routine for the last term:

1. Collect stimuli. Posters, adverts, infographics and web pages linked to the six global contexts, especially topics from your units.
2. Two-minute read. For each one, list five target-language words for the image and five for the text.
3. Speak with a partner. One describes and interprets; the other asks three follow-up questions. Swap.
4. Record and review. Play it back once for content, once for errors, once for pauses. Note three fixes.
5. 4-3-2 on one stimulus a week.
6. Refresh your phrase bank – the interaction strategies table, rebuilt in your target language.

For the on-screen examination, see the eAssessment preparation page.

Common errors

• Describing the image in detail and never interpreting it.
• Ignoring the words on the stimulus, or reading them aloud with no comment.
• One-sentence answers that give the teacher nothing to follow up.
• Switching to a memorised block when a question is unexpected.
• Using only the present tense when the conversation invites past or future.
• Filling pauses with your home language.
• Speaking so fast that pronunciation errors block meaning.

Where to go next

• Revision notes – condensed recall and a self-test.
• Practice set – original questions with worked answers.
• Assessment revision notes and the syllabus guide for the whole course.

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.