Speaking: research discussion and conversation (A2)

Set out what happens in each part of the examination and what you should be doing in it, so that nothing about the shape is a surprise.

1. 01Before it begins

   Your Summary Sheet, five headings, teacher-authenticated, has already gone to CCEA by the deadline set. The examiner has it. Any artefacts you are using are ready. Remember that they are not marked: only verbal communication and linguistic competence are.

2. 02Minute 1 — the introduction

   One minute, in Irish, and it must do three things: say what the project is, say why it is worth studying, and say what question you asked. Anything else is a luxury. Sixty seconds is about 120 to 150 words, which is four or five sentences — fewer than most candidates expect.

3. 03Minutes 1 to 6 — the discussion

   Five minutes in which the examiner asks about your research and you answer. They have the Summary Sheet, so headings two to five are the obvious places they will go. Expect explanation, exemplification, comparison and evaluation, and expect at least one question you have not anticipated.

4. 04The transition

   The examiner will move you into the general conversation. The transition may or may not be signalled; do not assume that a change of topic means the discussion has gone badly. The nine minutes that follow are a different question with different objectives.

5. 05Minutes 6 to 15 — the conversation

   Nine minutes on the A2 themes, possibly touching the AS ones, assessed on AO1 and AO3. This is the longest single stretch of unprepared Irish you will produce in the whole qualification. Three-part answers throughout — claim, reason, example — and repair phrases ready rather than silence.

6. 06What the examiner has been marking throughout

   Engagement, knowledge and understanding, grammatical accuracy when speaking, and fluency. Note that grammatical accuracy is marked in both halves and that AO3 appears in both, which makes it the thread running through all fifteen minutes and the thing most worth preparing.

Result: Fifteen minutes as: one minute of introduction doing three specific jobs, five minutes of discussion driven by the Summary Sheet's own headings, a transition that signals nothing about your performance, and nine minutes of general conversation — with AO3 running through the whole and the four §6.4 criteria applying throughout.

Build the one-minute introduction for the Gaeltacht region project, in Irish, with each sentence doing one named job.

1. 01Sentence one — what

   Rinne mé taighde ar cheantar Gaeltachta amháin agus go háirithe ar an dóigh a gcuirtear an Ghaeilge ar aghaidh ann ó ghlúin go glúin. I researched one Gaeltacht district and in particular the way Irish is passed on there from generation to generation. Note ar cheantar with lenition after ar, and a gcuirtear, the indirect relative with eclipsis.

2. 02Sentence two — why it is worth studying

   Roghnaigh mé é mar gur ceantar é ina bhfuil an teanga fós beo mar theanga phobail, rud atá annamh go leor anois. I chose it because it is a district where the language is still alive as a community language, which is rare enough now. The reason is a fact about the subject, not about the candidate.

3. 03Sentence three — the question

   Bhí mé ag iarraidh a fháil amach cé acu is tábhachtaí don teanga, an polasaí oifigiúil nó an teaghlach. I wanted to find out which matters more for the language, official policy or the family. One sentence, one question, and it invites four different follow-ups.

4. 04Sentence four — the concrete detail

   Chaith mé seachtain ann agus rinne mé agallamh le múinteoir a bhí ag obair sa choláiste samhraidh. I spent a week there and interviewed a teacher who was working in the summer college. Concrete, first-person, and it signals primary research without claiming more than you did.

5. 05Sentence five — the hinge

   Agus is é an rud is mó a chuir iontas orm ná nach raibh an freagra chomh simplí is a shíl mé. And the thing that surprised me most was that the answer was not as simple as I thought. The copula for emphasis, the equative chomh ... is, and an ending that practically requires the examiner to ask what you mean.

6. 06Time it and count

   Five sentences, roughly 130 words, about sixty seconds at a natural pace. Every one does a job: what, why, the question, the evidence, the hinge. Nothing in it is a summary of findings, because the findings are what the next five minutes are for.

Result: A sixty-second introduction of five sentences doing five named jobs, ending on a deliberate hinge that invites the examiner's first question — and carrying between them lenition after ar, an indirect relative with eclipsis, the copula for emphasis and the equative.

The examiner opens the discussion on your third Summary Sheet heading — the summer college and the women of the houses — which you had expected to reach later. Show a full exchange.

1. 01The examiner's opening

   Inis dom faoin gcoláiste samhraidh. Cad é go díreach a tharlaíonn ann? Tell me about the summer college. What exactly happens there? A description question, and the first one is nearly always a description question.

2. 02Answer with structure, not with everything

   Tagann daltaí ó gach cearn den tír ar feadh trí seachtaine, bíonn siad ag fanacht i dtithe áitiúla, agus ní labhraítear ach Gaeilge. Tá trí thaobh ann mar sin: an teagasc, an lóistín agus an chraic. Pupils come from every part of the country for three weeks, stay in local houses, and only Irish is spoken. There are three sides to it: the teaching, the lodging and the fun. Note ní labhraítear, the autonomous negative.

3. 03The follow-up — exemplification

   Agus bean an tí — cén ról atá aici? And the woman of the house — what role does she have? Now you use the primary research: Dúirt an múinteoir a raibh mé ag caint léi gurb í an bhean an tí an múinteoir is tábhachtaí, mar is sa teach a labhraítear an Ghaeilge gan iarracht. The teacher I spoke to said the woman of the house is the most important teacher, because it is in the house that Irish is spoken without effort.

4. 04The follow-up — source

   Cá bhfuair tú an t-eolas sin? Where did you get that information? Answer plainly: Rinne mé agallamh léi i mí Feabhra, agus léigh mé fosta an t-ábhar a fhoilsíonn an coláiste féin. I interviewed her in February, and I also read the material the college itself publishes. An honest, specific, checkable answer — which is only possible because the research was real.

5. 05The follow-up — evaluation

   An gceapann tú go n-oibríonn sé? Do you think it works? Ceapaim go n-oibríonn sé ar bhealach amháin agus nach n-oibríonn ar bhealach eile: foghlaimíonn daltaí a labhairt, ach ní fhilleann formhór acu. I think it works in one way and not in another: pupils learn to speak, but most of them do not return. A two-sided evaluation with a concrete claim.

6. 06A question outside the project

   Cé mhéad duine a fhreastalaíonn ar na coláistí ar fud na tíre? How many people attend the colleges across the country? Do not guess. Ní dhearna mé taighde ar na figiúirí náisiúnta, ach thig liom labhairt faoin gceann amháin a ndeachaigh mé ann. I did not research the national figures, but I can talk about the one I went to. Honest, redirecting, and it keeps you talking.

Result: Six exchanges from a single Summary Sheet heading — description, exemplification, source, evaluation, and one question redirected honestly — all answerable because the research was genuine, and carrying the autonomous negative, an indirect relative with eclipsis, and a two-sided evaluation.

Show how a nine-minute conversation can be steered so that the six A-level structures all appear, without any of them looking forced.

1. 01Bullet one — part-time jobs, with the conditional

   Dá mbeadh orm rogha a dhéanamh idir post agus staidéar, roghnóinn an staidéar sa bhliain dheireanach. If I had to choose between a job and study, I would choose study in the final year. The conditional after dá, twice, and it arises naturally from an evaluative question.

2. 02Bullet two — societal attitudes, with the abstract-noun degree

   Dá óige an duine, is ea is mó a bhíonn daoine ag tabhairt breithiúnais air. The younger the person, the more people pass judgement on him. The A-level abstract-noun degree structure, deployed where it actually says something rather than as decoration.

3. 03Bullet three — emigration, with the past habitual and the autonomous

   Ba ghnách le daoine imeacht go Sasana nó go Meiriceá, agus deirtear anois go bhfuil daoine ag filleadh. People used to leave for England or America, and it is now said that people are returning. Two structures in one sentence, and deirtear correctly avoids naming who says it.

4. 04Bullet four — the environment, with the copula for emphasis

   Is é an rud is tábhachtaí ná nach bhfuil an t-easaontas faoin treo ach faoin luas. The most important thing is that the disagreement is not about the direction but about the speed. The emphatic copula, and a genuinely analytical claim rather than a slogan.

5. 05Throughout — the adverbial furniture

   I dtús báire to open the first answer; áfach and ar an drochuair to turn within answers; mar fhocal scoir to close the last one. Four phrases from the A-level list, spread across nine minutes rather than crammed into one answer, which is what makes them sound like speech rather than like a list.

6. 06The audit afterwards

   Six structures — conditional, abstract-noun degree, past habitual, autonomous, emphatic copula, adverbial phrases — across four bullets and nine minutes. None was forced, each arose from a question that naturally invited it, and together they are exactly the evidence AO3's 'wide range of structures' asks for at A2.

Result: Four bullets across nine minutes carrying six named A-level structures, each deployed where the question naturally invited it, with the adverbial furniture spread across the whole rather than concentrated — and an audit afterwards that checks the range rather than the content.

A candidate has good content and a poor recording: long pauses, fast bursts, and answers that do not quite address the questions. Fix engagement and fluency in four weeks.

1. 01Diagnose the pauses

   Listen back and mark every silence over three seconds. Almost all of them will be at the START of an answer, not in the middle — the candidate is planning the whole answer before beginning it. The fix is a stock of opening phrases that buy time while producing Irish: I dtús báire, is ceist mhaith í sin, braitheann sé ar ...

2. 02Fix the bursts

   Fast speech is usually a memorised chunk being discharged. The fix is to practise the three-part answer at a deliberately moderate pace, one part at a time, with a breath between them. Claim. Breath. Reason. Breath. Example. It feels absurdly slow and it sounds markedly more fluent.

3. 03Fix the non-answers

   Answers that miss the question usually come from hearing a keyword and launching. The fix is one second of silence and a repetition of the question's own verb: the examiner asks Ar athraigh sé? and you begin D'athraigh, or Níor athraigh. Beginning with the question's verb makes it structurally impossible to answer a different question.

4. 04Build engagement deliberately

   Twice in fifteen minutes, hand something back — a question, a qualification, or an invitation. An gceapann tú féin ...? Or Ní raibh mé ag súil leis sin, an bhfuil sé mar sin i gcónaí? Twice is enough. More than that begins to look like avoidance.

5. 05Week by week

   Week one, opening phrases only, until they are automatic. Week two, the moderate three-part pace. Week three, beginning with the question's verb. Week four, all three together plus two hand-backs, recorded and scored against the four criteria.

6. 06What has NOT changed

   Not one new fact, not one new item of vocabulary, and no additional research. Two of the four marked criteria have been addressed entirely by changing how the fifteen minutes are conducted — which is why they are worth attending to in the last month, when learning new content no longer is.

Result: Four weeks that move two of the four marked criteria without adding any content: opening phrases to kill the start-of-answer silences, a deliberately moderate three-part pace to replace memorised bursts, beginning with the question's own verb to guarantee relevance, and two deliberate hand-backs to demonstrate engagement.