Structuring oral examinations in a language-sensitive way – a balancing act between empathy and conformity with examination regulations?

The rising number of examination candidates who have acquired German as a foreign or second language means that examiners are increasingly facing situations in which language barriers make it difficult to assess the professional competence which is the object of the respective oral or practical examination. The Ulm Chamber of Commerce and Industry has joined forces with the Frankfurt Fachstelle für berufsintegriertes Sprachlernen (FaberiS) [Centre for Occupationally Integrated Language Learning] to offer a seminar for examiners which addresses this issue. The article presents the background to the seminar, its design concept and initial experiences of implementation.