Recording yourself; a great way to learn

Hello!

So, for those of you who are taking a language exam will know that doing the speaking part can be very daunting! I just wanted to share with you all how i cope with my oral exams and learning what i have to say.

For whatever language you are taking, these steps should help you to do really well!

Preparation:

• Make sure that you know what you have to include within your piece, whether this be the tenses or using a particular word.
• Start to write your piece as soon as you know that you will have to be doing the exam, whilst you have the time, take advantage of it!
• As soon as you have written you piece and got it checked (by your teacher etc) Start learning it! I can not emphasise how important this is. If you say, have two weeks until the real thing, think of the two weeks as a head start. By the two weeks are up, you will have practised a lot and therefore it will sound much more fluent.
• Record yourself! This is probably the best thing i have ever done to learn a language piece. Most smart phones or ipods etc have a voice recording function where you will be able to do this. Then simply listen to it over and over again. This will get it into your head and help you to remember how to pronounce words. 
•  If you have a visual memory, maybe draw some pictures to remember the order of your sentences.
• Practice it out loud. This is SO useful as it helps you to get into the flow of words.
• Get a friend or a parent to listen to you and make sure what you are saying is the right thing!