Role Play 4: El medio ambiente

The Oral Examination and Assessment Principles

The Leaving Certificate Spanish Oral examination lasts 15 minutes and accounts for 25% of the total Higher Level mark allocation. The examination consists of two main parts: a general conversation covering syllabus themes (with the option to discuss an agreed literary work) and a role-play situation.

The syllabus itself specifies only the 15-minute allocation, the 25% weighting and the assessment criteria below; it does not set out how the marks inside the oral are divided. So do not play the role play as a set of separate mini-tests, and do not rely on reciting a memorised script — check the current card arrangements with your teacher. The State Examinations Commission assesses the oral on two core criteria:

• Ability to transfer meaning: Communicating clearly, engaging naturally with the interlocutor, fulfilling the tasks set on the card, and sustaining the interaction without long pauses or reverting to English.
• Accuracy and appropriateness of language: Grammatical precision, correct pronunciation, appropriate register (such as informal tú when addressing family or peers), and a rich range of vocabulary and sentence structures.

You receive the role-play card in English and a short period to read through the prompts before starting. Some cards specify that the examiner begins, while others direct you to launch the interaction. In practice, the best strategy is to address every instruction outlined on the card and expand each turn with an additional relevant clause—such as a specific example, a reason, or a comparison—which directly exhibits your range of structures and topic-specific vocabulary.

Core Conversational Moves for Environmental Scenarios

Regardless of the exact wording on an environmental card, authentic dialogue relies on four recurring conversational moves. Learning these patterns guarantees that you can respond flexibly to any prompt:

1. React with an Emotional Contrast

Cards frequently ask you to express how you feel about an environmental issue. Remember that emotional states require the verb estar, and feminine candidates must ensure adjective agreement: say preocupada or contenta if you are female, as gender errors on the very first word stand out immediately.

• Estoy muy preocupado/a por la contaminación marina, pero al mismo tiempo estoy contento/a porque acabo de escuchar una noticia estupenda. (I am very worried about marine pollution, but at the same time I am happy because I have just heard wonderful news.)

2. Relay Concrete Information and Legislative News

Use the present perfect tense to report what governing bodies or communities have achieved:

• El Gobierno ha aprobado una ley para reducir los residuos y prohibir los plásticos de usar y tirar. (The Government has passed a law to reduce waste and ban single-use plastics.)

3. Propose Sustainable Actions and Household Habits

Rather than relying on vague fillers like cosas or problemas, suggest specific changes using modal verbs or conditional forms:

• Hay muchas medidas que podemos tomar todos. En vez de comprar envases de plástico, deberíamos utilizar materiales biodegradables como el cartón y el papel reciclado. (There are many measures we can all take. Instead of buying plastic packaging, we ought to use biodegradable materials like cardboard and recycled paper.)

4. Affirm Urgency and Defend a Standpoint

Conclude by asserting the necessity of the measure with high-register vocabulary:

• Es una medida absolutamente imprescindible porque la crisis climática es un problema gravísimo. (It is an absolutely essential measure because the climate crisis is a very grave problem.)

If Your Card Gives Different Instructions

• Your parent complains that recycling is pointless: Pues no estoy de acuerdo. Si todos separamos los envases, se puede reciclar muchísimo más. (Well, I don't agree. If we all separate containers, far more can be recycled.)
• Suggest your family buy an electric car: ¿Por qué no compramos un coche eléctrico? Contamina mucho menos y a largo plazo gastaríamos menos en gasolina. (Why don't we buy an electric car? It pollutes much less and in the long term we would spend less on petrol.)
• Your friend wants to take short flights: Yo que tú, iría en tren. Los vuelos cortos producen muchísimas emisiones. (If I were you, I would go by train. Short flights produce huge amounts of emissions.)

Topic Lexicon: Beyond Plastics to Broader Ecology

Examiners reward precise, topic-specific vocabulary in oral interactions, reading comprehensions, and written production. While single-use plastics remain common in role plays, the syllabus category Environment and Ecology (III.5) spans climate change, conservation, and resource management.

Watch out for false friends in environmental dialogues: actual means 'current' or 'present-day', not 'real'. If you wish to mention current environmental problems, say los problemas actuales.

You can connect several terms in a single flowing turn: Me preocupan el cambio climático y la deforestación, porque cada verano hay más incendios forestales y más sequías en el sur de España.

Grammar Toolkit: Tenses, Moods, and Structures

Top performance at Higher Level requires command over varied tenses and syntactical patterns:

1. El pretérito perfecto and Irregular Participles

Formed with the present tense of haber (he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han) followed by an invariant past participle. Note that the participle never agrees in gender or number when combined with haber (Hemos usado bolsas de tela, never usadas).

While regular verbs take -ado or -ido, several high-frequency environmental verbs have irregular participles you must memorise:

• hacer → hecho (Los políticos no han hecho lo suficiente — Politicians have not done enough)
• decir → dicho (Los científicos han dicho que la situación es crítica)
• poner → puesto (El ayuntamiento ha puesto más contenedores)
• ver → visto (Hemos visto los efectos del calentamiento global)
• escribir → escrito, romper → roto, volver → vuelto, abrir → abierto.

2. The Periphrasis Acabar de + Infinitive

Translates as 'to have just done something'. Spanish keeps acabar in the present tense where English uses a perfect construction: Acabo de escuchar una noticia muy buena en la radio (I have just heard very good news on the radio).

3. Suggestions and Obligation

Express recommendations using the three structures highlighted in the syllabus:

• Conditional of courtesy: Podríamos ir en bicicleta (We could go by bike); Yo que tú, compraría productos locales (If I were you, I would buy local produce).
• Impersonal necessity: Hay que reducir el consumo (One must / we have to reduce consumption).
• Subjunctive advice: Te recomiendo que uses una botella reutilizable (I recommend that you use a reusable bottle).
• Prohibitive signs: In public notices, written prohibitions often use no + infinitive: No tirar basura (Do not litter); No pisar el césped (Keep off the grass).

4. Defending Opinions: Indicative vs Subjunctive

In syllabus unit 1.10 (Engaging in discussion), positive certainty triggers the indicative, whereas doubt or negation requires the present subjunctive:

• Creo que + indicative: Creo que la ley va a funcionar. (I think the law is going to work.)
• No creo que + subjunctive: No creo que la ley sea suficiente. (I don't think the law is enough.)
• Dudo que + subjunctive: Dudo que la gente cambie sus hábitos de repente. (I doubt people will change their habits suddenly.)
• Puede que + subjunctive: Puede que sea demasiado tarde si no actuamos. (It may be too late if we do not act.)
• Expressions of necessity: After es imprescindible que, the verb must be subjunctive: Es imprescindible que protejamos los océanos. (Notice the orthographic change proteger → protejamos where g changes to j to preserve the soft sound).

5. Future Consequences with Si Clauses

Combine si + presente + futuro to explain environmental consequences (never put a future or conditional directly after this conditional si):

• Si no actuamos ahora, será demasiado tarde. (If we do not act now, it will be too late.)
• Si seguimos contaminando los ríos, no habrá agua potable en el futuro. (If we keep polluting the rivers, there will be no drinking water in the future.) Note the irregular future stem haber → habrá.

6. Impersonal Se

Use the impersonal or passive se to describe social practices without naming an individual agent:

• En España se recicla cada vez más. (In Spain more and more is recycled.)
• Se tiran millones de toneladas de plástico al mar. (Millions of tonnes of plastic are thrown into the sea.)
• Se debería prohibir el plástico en los comercios. (Plastic ought to be banned in shops.)

Managing Disagreement, Negotiating Compromise, and Repair Strategies

In role plays set at home, an examiner playing a sceptical parent will often push back with objections about cost, convenience, or whether individual action makes any difference. Reciting a rigid pre-learnt statement will not demonstrate conversation management. Instead, negotiate a compromise by conceding a point before defending your stance:

• Tienes razón en parte, pero por otra parte no podemos seguir así. (You are partly right, but on the other hand we cannot go on like this.)
• De acuerdo, es más caro, sin embargo a largo plazo sale más barato. (Agreed, it is dearer, however in the long term it works out cheaper.)
• Entiendo lo que dices, pero ¿no te parece que hay que hacer algo ya? (I understand what you are saying, but don't you think something must be done now?)
• Podemos empezar poco a poco, ¿te parece bien? (We can start little by little, does that sound all right to you?)

Ending your response with a tag question like ¿no te parece? or ¿de acuerdo? actively passes the conversational turn back to the examiner.

Conversational Repair Strategies

If the examiner speaks too quickly, do not pause indefinitely or switch to English. Use an authentic repair strategy:

• Perdona, ¿puedes repetir, por favor? (Sorry, could you repeat that, please?)
• No te he entendido bien. ¿Qué quieres decir? (I didn't understand you well. What do you mean?)
• Si te entiendo bien, quieres decir que es una pérdida de tiempo... (If I understand you correctly, you mean that it is a waste of time...)

Pronunciation Priorities

Clear pronunciation ensures the examiner catches every word of your answer:

• Stress on -ción nouns: Every noun ending in -ción carries a written accent and is stressed on the final syllable: la contaminaCIÓN, la prohibiCIÓN*.
• The j and soft g sound: The letter j (as in pajitas, lejos) and the letter g before e or i (as in proteger, ecológico) represent a rasping sound from the back of the throat. In European Spanish, letters z and c before e or i* are pronounced with a soft 'th' sound, whereas in Latin America they are pronounced as 's'; examiners accept either standard pronunciation consistently used.
• Silent 'h': The letter h is never pronounced in Spanish. Pronounce hacer as 'a-cer' and huella as 'we-lla'.

Cross-Paper Transfer: General Conversation and Written Production

The environmental lexicon you build for the role play directly supports other sections of the Leaving Certificate examination:

1. The General Conversation

The role play drawn on the day may cover another topic, but environmental questions routinely arise during the general conversation, which takes up the larger part of the fifteen minutes. Prepare concise, three-sentence responses to standard questions:

• ¿Qué haces tú para proteger el medio ambiente?

En casa separamos la basura en distintos contenedores y siempre apago las luces al salir de una habitación. Además, voy al instituto a pie porque está bastante cerca. No es mucho, pero creo que todos los pequeños cambios cuentan.

• ¿Qué problema medioambiental te preocupa más?

Lo que más me preocupa es el cambio climático. Los inviernos en Irlanda son cada vez más húmedos y hay más inundaciones que antes. Si los gobiernos no toman medidas serias, la situación empeorará.

2. Relevant Cultural Comparisons (Ireland and Spain)

Integrating concrete comparative knowledge (Syllabus III.3 and III.5) enriches both the oral and written responses:

• Ireland's plastic bag levy: En Irlanda tenemos que pagar por las bolsas de plástico desde 2002. (In Ireland we have had to pay for plastic bags since 2002.)
• Deposit return scheme: Desde 2024 tenemos un sistema de depósito para botellas de plástico y latas. (Since 2024 we have had a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and cans.)
• Spanish recycling infrastructure: En España la gente separa la basura en tres contenedores principales: el amarillo para envases, el azul para papel y el verde para vidrio. (In Spain people separate rubbish into three main bins: yellow for containers, blue for paper, and green for glass.)

3. Transfer to Written Production (Section C / Opinion Piece)

Environmental topics appear regularly in Section C (letters/emails) and the Opinion Piece (approx. 75 to 150 words). When transferring this content to a formal letter to an editor, observe two key differences:

• Register shift: Switch from the informal tú of the role play to formal usted: Estimado/a Director/a: Le escribo en respuesta a su reciente artículo sobre el medio ambiente... Le saluda atentamente...
• Argumentative structure: Develop each point with a distinct reason or example using sequence markers: En primer lugar... Además... Por un lado... Por otro lado... En resumen...

Key terms

los plásticos de usar y tirar

Single-use or disposable plastics designed to be discarded immediately after use, such as plastic straws, cups, and cutlery.

imprescindible

Indispensable or essential; a high-register adjective commonly used with impersonal expressions of necessity.

los residuos

Waste, refuse, or residual materials produced by households, industries, or commerce.

los envases

Packaging, containers, bottles, tins, or cartons used for goods and food products.

las energías renovables

Renewable energy sources that replenish naturally, such as solar power (energía solar) and wind power (energía eólica).

la huella de carbono

Carbon footprint; the total amount of greenhouse gases generated by human actions and lifestyle choices.

acabar de + infinitivo

A verbal construction in the present tense meaning 'to have just done something' (e.g. acabo de escuchar = I have just heard).

es imprescindible que + subjuntivo

An impersonal trigger of necessity requiring the subordinate verb to appear in the present subjunctive mood.

no creo que + subjuntivo

A formula of disbelief or doubt requiring the subordinate clause verb to appear in the subjunctive mood.

si + presente + futuro

A conditional sentence structure expressing real future consequences (e.g. Si no actuamos ahora, será demasiado tarde).