ü Consider a topic that really
interests you (yes, YOU!) and goes well with your personality/identity
This is a crucial point, we
are all different and we all have different interests, so something that
works for your best friend doesn't have to work for you.
ü Think of a theme that enables
you to learn about an aspect of the target language or culture (our case,
Spanish)
For example: not all topics
will enable you to learn a lot about every language or culture. It will
depend on the target language/culture.
ü Choose an open-ended topic
that encourages you to express lots of opinions
This will let you raise
additional questions and info.
ü Take into consideration a
topic that offers the potential for complex thoughts
Higher-order thinking is a
high value.
ü When making your choice
consider a topic you'll be able to research quite easily
So you can focus on
important transferable ideas & language skills.
ü Begin with a stimulus (a
song, a picture, a painting...) as this helps you stay on track
ü Place the stimulus within a
social/cultural/historical/political/artistic context
It will help you understand
(and others) the topic deeply.
ü Brainstorm your first ideas
and limit the range of your research
ü Set down some questions about
your presentation and try to answer them
This will help you to
anticipate some questions you might have during your Q/A session.
ü Practice with your friends,
family, neighbors… (better if you can practice with a native)
But PRACTICE don't bombard them 24 hours a day ;)
ü Choose a topic is easy for
you to break it down in different pieces.
Make an outline of each one
and practice separately. Finally, put all your pieces together.
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Ø Be too ambitious (if you
choose something you know nothing about, you may end up wasting a lot of
time).
You want to be challenged
but not over challenged
Ø Pick something too difficult,
we don't want anxiety and/or stress!
Again, give yourself a break, we are working on developing your
language skills.
Ø Select clichés or
stereotypical topics like bull fighting or flamenco, unless you have
something quite original to say.
It might be quite uninteresting for your audience
Ø Choose something so unknown
you can't find any information about it
You want something you don’t
have to make a huge effort to find information about.
Ø Relate/Narrate someone's biography
It sounds like rehearsed and
it's definitely boring. If you want to score highly you might want to
take your audience into consideration
Ø Do all your research in a
different language (English?) and then just translate it all (it won't sound
authentic)
It won't sound natural.
Remember the importance of thinking in sentences and ideas.
Ø Use Google Translator
It won't sound authentic and
you will get lucky if your presentation makes sense. Give yourself a chance,
you might know more than Google!
Ø Leave it to the last minute!!!
Unless your goal is to have
a zero to show yourself you can also handle really low scores ;)
Source: IB Spanish B SL/HL
OSC IB Revision Guide
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