Question 1

How many images do I need for the Individual Oral?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the number of students taking your class:
Up to 10 students: 5 stimuli total (1 from each theme)
From 20 to 40 students: 10stimuli total (2 from each theme)

Question 2

How many times do students get to listen to the three audio passages during listening comprehension?

Accepted Answer

From "Instructions to candidates" from Ab Initio Specimen paper (first exam 2020)
- There will be three audio texts.
- There will be three minutes of reading time at the start of each audio text.
- Each audio text will be played three times.
- There will be a two-minute pause before each audio text is repeated.

Question 3

What is the length of the listening texts?

Accepted Answer

In the new listening comprehension component the students will be exposed to three different audio passages. 
Text A will last up to 1 minute.
Text B, up to 2 minutes.
Text C, up to three minutes.
Total duration of the paper will be 45 minutes.
They are based on the five themes and is a mark-based paper (25 marks) that weights 25% of the overall score.
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Question 4

What can be a "visual stimulus" for the IO?"

Accepted Answer

It may be one of the following:
Photo
Poster (Any language that naturally appears on the image should be minimal and must be in the target language. It must not provide vocabulary and structures that would give a student an unfair advantage)
Illustration
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Question 5

How do I choose my visual stimuli?

Accepted Answer

An effective visual stimulus is one that:
is clearly relevant to one of the five themes in the course
is culturally relevant to the target language
offers opportunities for students to demonstrate their international-mindedness
offers sufficient visual text for students to describe a scene or situation
allows the student to offer a personal interpretation
enables the teacher to lead the student in a wider conversation
is relevant and of interest to the student’s age group

Question 6

Can students take notes during their preparation-supervised time?

Accepted Answer

During this preparation time, the student may not have access to course materials, class notes, dictionaries (in any form), computers, mobile phones or other IT equipment. The student must be given a blank sheet of paper on which to take brief working notes (a maximum of 10 bullet points). These notes may be used for reference only and must not be read aloud as a prepared speech.

Question 7

Must the visual stimulus be given a caption?

Accepted Answer

No, the visual stimulus must simply be labelled in the target language only with the name of the theme to which it belongs.

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