How they start and finish
What did the person you watched say first, and what did they say last? Two sentences. Go.
Answer from what you actually watched.
1. Did they open with their name?
2. How did they close?
A model, and the rubric it was marked against
Ninety seconds — Lucia
Hi, I'm Lucia. I'm from Córdoba, in Argentina, but I live in Lisbon now — I moved here four years ago.
I work for a small company that makes furniture. I'm in the office three days a week and I work from home on the other two. I usually start at nine, and I always stop at six, which is unusual here.
At home there's me, my partner and a very loud cat. I don't have children.
In my free time I run. I run three or four times a week, and I sometimes do a race at the weekend. I hardly ever watch television — I read instead, mostly crime novels, mostly badly written ones.
So that's me. Tell me about you — I want to know if anyone else here runs.
The rubric — you are marked on four things
| Criterion | What it means | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | All five areas: name, origin, work, family, free time | 25% |
| Accuracy | Third-person -s, adverb position, question forms | 25% |
| Fluency | Ninety seconds without a long silence or a restart | 25% |
| Shape | An opening, a clear order, and a close that points somewhere | 25% |
Mark Lucia against the rubric.
1. Does Lucia cover all five areas?
2. How many frequency adverbs does she use?
3. Her close is So that's me. Tell me about you. Why does that work?
4. She says mostly crime novels, mostly badly written ones. What is that doing?
The joins
You have the sentences. What you do not have yet is the language that gets you from one area to the next.
Moving between areas
Four is enough. Tap each one and copy the rhythm — these are said fast and unstressed, which is exactly why they buy you thinking time.
Match each join to the area it opens.
The two-second rule. A silence under two seconds is thinking. Over two seconds, the listener starts to fill it. If you need time, take it with a join — As for work… — not with silence.
Draft the shape, not the words
Put the six moves of a ninety-second introduction in order. This is the skeleton you will record.
One word per gap. This is a skeleton introduction — fill the joins, not the content.
Hi, Bruno. I'm Recife, but I in Lisbon now. for work, I'm a electrician — I start at seven, which is early. At home me and my two brothers. In my time I fish, badly. So me.
Record, watch, record again
Task card · Recorded performance
Record ninety seconds of yourself introducing yourself. Then watch it. Then do it again.
Take two must be better than take one on at least two of the four rubric criteria. That is the whole target.
- Take one — phone, laptop, anything. No notes visible. Do not stop and restart, even if you fumble.
- Watch it once looking only for the one error you chose at the end of Lesson 6. Count it.
- Watch it again against the rubric — coverage, accuracy, fluency, shape.
- Take two — same ninety seconds, fixing only what you found. Do not rewrite it.
Answer this after watching take one and before recording take two.
1. Which rubric criterion was weakest in take one?
2. How many silences longer than two seconds were there?
3. What will you change in take two?
Peer review
Someone else watches take two and marks it. In a one-to-one lesson, your teacher takes this role — but you mark them first.
Reviewer's job. Give one score out of four on each rubric criterion, then say exactly two things:
- One moment that worked — name the second it happened.
- One thing to change next time — a single, specific, fixable thing.
"It was good" is not feedback. "Your close was strong — you asked them a question at the end" is.
Match each comment to what it actually is. Only two of these would help someone improve.
Before the assessment
One question, then you are done.
1. Next lesson you speak for two minutes, not ninety seconds. What should you add?
Before Lesson 8. Keep take two. Do not practise it again — you will do the two-minute version cold, and a rehearsed one tells us nothing about what you can actually do.
Listen to one more Easy Stories in English episode for the rhythm, not the grammar. That is all.