Methods & strategies: What to do if you don’t know the answer Fake it till you make it There is only one guaranteed way to fail the exam, and that is by not saying anything. In other words, just keep talking, and there’s quite a good chance you will pass. What you say matters less than how you say it. The so-called “Wegweiser” (“Die kompetenzorientierte mündliche Reife- und Diplomprüfung Lebende Fremdsprachen B1 und B2”) clearly states: “Es geht […] nicht darum, Wissen zu einzelnen Themenbereichen abzuprüfen, sondern festzustellen, ob die Kandidaten/Kandidatinnen die entsprechenden sprachlichen Mittel zur Verfügung haben, um einen Handlungsauftrag zu erfüllen.” In other words, it’s not much of a problem if you don’t get all the facts 100 percent right as long as you keep talking. If you don’t know the answer, be creative! Remember, you are playing a role. Here’s an example: In one of the sample Matura tasks (1 3.14), you are asked to “comment on recent developments” in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (1 3.10). But perhaps you don’t know exactly what recent developments there have been in this area? Here’s what you could do in order to pass. ■■ Use your common sense3. You probably know that there are some environmental problems, and that some companies pollute the environment. Also, you probably know that a lot of clothes are made in places where people do not get paid very much money and working conditions are quite bad. ■■ Make up some plausible-sounding ideas. It’s clear that company managers want to come across as responsible and caring. They want to strengthen their companies’ public image. Therefore, they might want to join a club of responsible corporations (which might be called something like ‘Global Corporate Sustainability Club’), or invite a member of an environmental NGO to take part in their board meetings. Or perhaps some of them have pledged to halve their emissions by 2040. In this particular situation, you can use your imagination! ■■ Sound convincing and smile. Please note that this is a survival strategy for your English exam, not a piece of advice for your life in general. Normally, you should know exactly what you are talking about, and you should definitely not make up facts. That would not be ethically justifiable. In this very special situation, however, special rules apply. If you are asked a direct question in the dialogue part of the oral Matura and you don’t have a good answer for it, you may want to use some of the following phrases. They will give you time to think and perhaps move the conversation towards more familiar territory. Again, try to keep talking. Assess¹/Evaluate² ■■ Now, we need to decide what to make of these new trends towards gender equality in Fortune 500 companies. ■■ In order to decide whether this is a real effort towards sustainability or something that’s done mostly for PR reasons, we should look at what else Exxon is doing in this area to get a more complete picture of the situation. ■■ We need to ask ourselves whether things are going in the right direction. Has the government taken the necessary steps? Or is a solution only possible on an international level? Interpret ■■ Now that we’ve looked at the relevant facts, we should ask ourselves: What do they mean? ■■ And the next question has to be: What does all this imply for us? Where does this leave us? ■■ All right, so what are the consequences of these findings? One way to understand them is to … How-to [A] 6.6 1 to assess: einschätzen, beurteilen 2 to evaluate: bewerten, einschätzen, beurteilen 3 common sense: Hausverstand 60 Key aspects Strategies Sample task 6 Environment & sustainability Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eig ntum des Verlags öbv
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