Hi to all.

I think that it would be good to recap on the main areas of this task and what you can do for
your own future practice before and eventually during the exam.
So, for 1.1.3a which is about to come to a close today, any outstanding tasks that your peers
have set for 1.1.3a part two which you haven't answered should be copied and pasted for you
to use as exam practice between now and the exam. Hence, the idea of the keys that you have
to provide for your peers to the task you posted on the forum 1.1.3a.
I'll be checking on the keys/feedback and making round up comments on each tomorrow.
MARKS AND TIMING
The number of marks should guide you on the amount of time that you spend on the task. A
general rule of thumb is that the higher marks are awarded later in the papers. Therefore 12
marks for Paper 1, task 3 (P1/T3) means that you should spend about 12 minutes, and
no more than that, answering this task. Use numbered bullets during your practice and during
your exam for P1/T3 and subtitle clearly as subskill/feature and example even using a table
format as it will help focus your attention immediately.
In general, it might be an idea to work backwards through the tasks during the exam if you
are struggling with time limits. This way you have a better chance of completing the tasks with
the higher marks. You should try to keep a record of your practice tasks in terms of timing and
answers although failure due to poor timing has become less of an issue since the 2015
update of the DM1 exam.
Remember that it is a pen and paper exam. Therefore, you should try to practice one or
two tasks per week with pen and paper and gradually build up to completing full exams in the
time between course ending and the exam date. Mock exams should therefore be
completely avoided until you are in the last quarter of the course as those candidates who
focus on the product of the exam inevitably fail due to the lack of learning process-this course
is your learning process.
Let's move into more detail about paper one, task three now...
TOTAL MARKS FOR TASK 3 ON PAPER 1 ARE 12 MARKS
Paper one, task 3 tests your:

• understanding of skills and ability to identify appropriate language features

• understanding of features of spoken and written discourse which contribute to successful
communication, e.g. register, cohesion, organisation, range of grammar and lexis.

Mark distribution

• Two marks are awarded for each language feature correctly identified.
• Two marks are awarded for each correct example/illustration.

Note: Marks are only awarded for the example if the language feature is correctly identified.
FROM THE HANDBOOK:
Paper One, Task Three tests candidates’ knowledge of three clear things:

• writing and speaking skills and subskills

• the discourse of written and spoken communications
• the language features learners may need when completing a specified ELT task.

For this task, candidates are provided with an authentic writing or speaking skills activity from
published ELT course material or published examination material. Candidates are provided
with two or three language features learners would need in order to complete the activity
successfully and are asked to identify three further key language features that learners
would need.
For each language feature candidates identify, they must provide an appropriate
example or illustration, e.g. a functional exponent, a language item used to realise a
particular feature of discourse. For example, a candidate identifies that learners will need to
know how to ‘agree or disagree politely’ in a spoken negotiation task and provides the
examples ‘Yes, good idea’, ‘I see what you mean but I wonder if we should . . .’ Alternatively,
the candidate identifies ‘logical organisation appropriate to discursive essay writing’ and
provides the illustration ‘introduction – opinions for – opinions against – conclusion and
personal opinion’.

• Candidates cannot gain full marks if they do not provide relevant examples or
illustrations.
• Points that may reasonably be seen as connected, e.g. ‘expressing agreement and
disagreement’ will count as one point, not two.

TOP TEN TIPS:

Some tips for dealing with this task during the exam and your future exam practice:

1. Check the rubric carefully, as it may ask you to exclude something from your
commentary
2. Keep in mind the level of the learners and give examples which learners at this level
could realistically produce
3. Do not write an introduction, summary or conclusion
4. Use a table with bullet points and subheadings such
as features/subskills and examples
5. Make sure you provide a range of different types of subskills/features of discourse and
grammatical/lexical items which are specific to the text expected from learners-please
remember that generic subskills/features and examples are to be completely avoided!
6. For speaking, include both functions and language features, and for writing, also
consider areas such as layout, organisation, etc. but see tip 5!
7. Don’t waste time listing lots of examples for each feature as there are no extra marks
given, and avoid repetition
8. Identify only the features necessary to complete the task, not just features
which might come up which is particularly true for lexis – imagine what lexis
learners will need to complete the task, not might need!
9. Only provide the number of features requested-nothing extra is marked!
 10. Before the exam you could record yourself and a colleague doing similar tasks from
coursebooks, to a strict time limit. Listen to the recordings and note down
the essential subskills/features of discourse that you used in order to complete the
task.

Please refer to/save this post for future practice with this task.
Marg