Foreign language instruction should begin in kindergarten

An example

The task

Look at this sample cue card. You are being asked to talk about a house or apartment you would like to live in.

A house or apartment

Talk about a house or an apartment you would like to live in.

You should say

• 
  what it would look like
  
• 
  how big it would be
  
• 
  where it would be located
  

And explain why you would like to live there

The pictures

This is the sort of task where you can use a picture in your head to help you. Look at this picture of my mother’s house – this is what I see when I close my eyes and think. If I look at it, I get lots of ideas about things I can say and from there I get useful vocab I may not have thought of without seeing a picture. The idea is to talk about a real place you know as that way you will have more things to say.

Here is some the words I get to use by thinking of a picture/place I really know:

• 
  cottage (I remember from looking at it that it used to be two cottages)
  
• 
  chimneys (I see that it’s got 4 chimneys)
  
• 
  angles (the house is an odd shape)
  
• 
  lawns, flowerbeds, shrubs (the picture shows the garden – which is really part of the house)
  
• 
  bedroom window ( I can see my bedroom window and I think of what I can see out from it)
  

Listen

Listen to me speak. I make some mistakes, that’s fine. I repeat some words too, that’s also fine – this is not a writing exam. I do well because I am fluent and coherent and I use enough precise vocabulary.