Graded Examinations in Spoken English
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What is GESE?
The GESE (Graded Examinations in Spoken English) exams test candidates' ability in listening and speaking. They are one-to-one oral examinations with a native English-speaking Trinity examiner who travels from the UK.
There are 12 grades altogether which are linked to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The exams encourage students to develop and progress by acknowledging each step forward; at every stage of the student's development there is a chance to mark success.
There are four stages with three grades at each stage:
Initial (Grades 1-3)
Elementary (Grades 4-6)
Intermediate (Grades 7-9)
Advanced (Grades 10-12)
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Grades 1-3
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Grades 4-6
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Grades 7-9
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Grades 10-12
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Initial
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Elementary
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Intermediate
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Advanced
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5-7 minutes
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10 minutes
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15 minutes
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25 minutes
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Topic Presentation
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Topic Discussion
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Topic Discussion
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Topic Discussion
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Interactive Task
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Interactive Task
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Listening Task
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Listening Task
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Conversation
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Conversation
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Conversation
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Conversation
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The Topic Phase
At Elementary Stage, the Topic Form has been introduced to encourage spontaneous discussion which does not rely on memorised recitation. NB The Topic form for the appropriate grade should be completed BEFORE the exam and brought into the exam room. For grade 4 candidates complete 4 points on the form, for grade 5, 5 points on the form and for grade 6, 6 points on the form should be completed.
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The Interactive Phase
The Interactive phase provides the opportunity for candidates to demonstrate their ability to initiate and take control over the interaction. In addition to general functions such as requesting information, the language functions listed for the particular grade should arise naturally from each task prompt. In this phase, the emphasis is placed upon the candidate's ability to use functional language rather than upon the accurate use of the grammatical structures listed for the grade.
At the Advanced stage, the actual tasks have been designed to provide the candidates with the opportunity of demonstrating not only their ability to express the functions of the grade but also their control of the grammatical items listed for all grades up to and including Grade 9.
For examples of Internative Phase prompts, follow the link: http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/site/?id=1816 to the Trinity College London website and download examples.
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The Listening Phase
In this phase, the candidate is required to demonstrate his or her ability with regard to high level listening skills such as prediction, deduction and inference. The candidate needs to show recognition of the context, participants and register. Three short passages read by the examiner prompt the use of high level listening skills, such as deduction, prediction and inference.
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