How to prepare the ab initio individual oral

The ab initio oral at a glance

This is the internal assessment in the Language ab initio guide, first assessment 2020, the current published course. There is no higher level. The oral is worth 25% and is marked out of 30. Your teacher conducts it in the final year and the IB moderates recordings. It lasts 7–10 minutes. A long memorised talk does not earn extra credit and can crowd out the conversation.

You are shown two visual stimuli, each labelled in the target language with a different course theme. A stimulus may be a photo, a poster, an illustration or an advertisement. Any words on it should be minimal and in the target language. You choose one. You then have the rest of a 15-minute supervised preparation to plan. You may write up to ten bullet points. You may not read them as a speech, and you may not use a dictionary, your notes from class, a phone or a computer.

The oral itself has three parts. The presentation lasts 1–2 minutes: describe the image, relate it to the theme on the label, and make a clear link to the target culture. The follow-up lasts 3–4 minutes and stays on that theme. The general discussion lasts 3–4 minutes and moves to at least one other theme. The five themes are identities, experiences, human ingenuity, social organization and sharing the planet. You will not know which pair of themes you will be offered, and you must not have seen the images before.

How the 30 marks work

The criteria are the same four headings used in Language B, with descriptors written for a beginner course. Best fit applies: you do not have to be perfect to score in a high band, and a high mark in language does not automatically raise the message mark.

A — Language (12)

Language is judged across the whole oral. At this level the top band is effective, mostly accurate language: vocabulary that fits and varies a little, basic structures plus some more complex ones that work, and pronunciation that is generally clear. Small errors are expected if they do not block meaning. A correct sentence with “because” and a simple opinion communicates better than a tense you cannot control. Variety means you are not stuck on “there is” for the whole minute. It does not mean literary style.

B1 — Message, the presentation (6)

Only the one-to-two-minute presentation is marked here. The top band wants a presentation that stays on the image, uses both what is obvious and what the scene suggests, includes description and a personal interpretation, and makes a clear link to the target culture. A presentation that only describes, or that never reaches the culture, cannot score the full six. The guide is explicit that students who do not make clear links to the target culture will not score full marks for this criterion. A slogan such as “this is typical of the culture” is not yet a link. Name something specific you have actually learned: a meal, a festival, a way of getting to school, a family custom, a city you have studied.

B2 — Message, the conversation (6)

This mark covers the follow-up and the general discussion. It asks whether your answers match the questions, whether you develop them, and whether they have any range — a personal comment, or an attempt to give the teacher something to continue with. Short correct answers that stop at “yes” or “I like it” stay low, even if the grammar is clean. Development can be one extra sentence. That is enough if it is relevant.

C — Interactive skills (6)

This is also only the conversations. It asks whether you understand and whether you stay in the exchange. The top of the band is sustained participation, with some contributions that you initiate rather than only replies. If most questions have to be repeated, the mark is limited even when your presentation was tidy. Asking “Can you repeat that, please?” in the target language shows comprehension of the situation. Silence, or a switch into English, does not.

How to choose the photo and what to say

You have two images and fifteen minutes. Spend less than a minute choosing. Pick the photo whose action you can describe with verbs you know, and whose theme you can connect to one real thing from your course. The busier picture is often the worse choice if you can only say “there is a man” five times.

Suppose one photo shows people waiting at a city bus stop, with school bags and a timetable, and the label is experiences. A weak presentation lists the bus, the bags and the people, then stops. The teacher has nothing to ask except “what colour is the bus?”

A stronger minute sounds plain and still does the three jobs. You say who is there and what they are doing. You say the scene is about everyday travel, which matches the theme. You give one opinion: travelling by bus is slow, but it is how many students reach school. Then you make the cultural link with something you can be questioned on: in the city you studied, students often use the metro or the bus because distances are long, and you can say whether you would like that or not, and why. You do not need statistics. You do need the link to be true to what you have learned. If you are not sure, say a smaller true thing — a journey you read about, a map you used in class — rather than a broad claim about a whole country.

Write the ten bullets as cues, not lines: people waiting; theme experiences; my opinion; the city from class. If a bullet is a full sentence, you will read it. The teacher collects the notes and the image afterwards.

How the time is divided

1. Preparation, 15 minutes. Choose the photo, decide the interpretation and the cultural example, and note ten cues plus any words you always forget, such as “timetable” or “queue”.
2. Presentation, 1–2 minutes. Brief description, the theme, a personal comment, a clear cultural link. The teacher should let you speak, and should move you on at two minutes if you have not stopped. Practise stopping.
3. Follow-up, 3–4 minutes. Questions on the same theme. They may ask you to explain a comment, to compare, or to say what you would do. Answer, then add because or for example.
4. General discussion, 3–4 minutes. A new theme. You will hear a signal that the topic is changing. Have a simple, true opinion ready for each theme so the change does not leave you with nothing to say. Still answer the question you were asked.

All three parts need to happen. A presentation that runs to four minutes steals the conversation, and the conversation is where 12 of the 30 marks sit, plus the language mark continues. Schools are told to protect the timings. Help them by keeping the opening short.

How to keep a beginner conversation going

Interactive skills at this level are not a debate. They are proof that you understood and that you can stay in the target language for several minutes. A reliable pattern is answer, reason, example. “Yes, I like the bus, because it is cheap. For example, in my city a ticket costs less than a taxi.” If you do not know the price, do not invent one. Say “I do not know the price, but I think it is useful for students.” Honesty in simple language scores more than a fluent untruth you cannot explain.

Independent contribution can be very small. After you answer, add a comparison: “In my country it is different because…” or a preference: “I prefer the train because…” The teacher can then ask why. That is the exchange continuing because of something you offered. You do not need to ask the teacher a question, though a simple “And in your opinion?” is fine if you then listen to the reply and respond to it.

If you do not understand, ask for a repeat in the target language. Prepare one simple opinion, with a because and an example, for each of the five themes: a family routine, a journey, a tool you use for school, a school rule, and recycling. You will only need the one that matches the second theme. Stay inside sentences you can say when you are nervous.

Common mistakes

• Using the whole presentation to name objects, with no opinion and no cultural link.
• Learning one speech about “my family” and delivering it no matter which photo you were given.
• Writing the presentation out in full. Ten bullets is the limit, and reading them is not allowed.
• Speaking for much longer than two minutes, so the follow-up and the second theme are rushed.
• Answering “yes” or “no” only. Message in the conversation needs some development.
• Inventing a cultural fact you cannot explain when the teacher asks a simple follow-up.
• Treating this as the Language B higher-level oral or the Language A oral. Ab initio has no literary extract. The Language B guide is the next course up, and it is a longer oral with a different stimulus at HL.

Checklist before the recording

• I can describe a photo in a few full sentences: who, where, what they are doing.
• I can add one opinion and one specific cultural link without reading.
• I have a simple because-and-example ready for each of the five themes.
• My practice presentation lasts about one to two minutes, not five.
• My notes are at most ten bullets. I have spoken from them without reading.
• I can ask for a repeated question in the target language and then answer it.
• I know the oral is 7–10 minutes, recorded, marked out of 30, and worth 25%.

ab initio oral — frequently asked questions

Where to go next

Plan a practice oral in the ab initio individual oral tool. If you are on Language B instead, use the Language B individual oral guide and the Language B tool. Every subject guide is on the guides section of the homepage.

Guidance aligned to the Language ab initio guide, first assessment 2020. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organization.